Jason Schwartz, ioby Secretary & Board Governance Committee Chair
Executive Director, McEnroe Organic Farm
New York, NY

Jason helps people join together to program and care for public spaces, building relationships that make communities stronger – from reopening Brooklyn’s McCarren Pool as a performance venue, to developing a community-led visioning process on the Western Queens that resulted in the formation of a waterfront parks advocacy group. With over 17 years leadership experience in the nonprofit and government sectors, his policy expertise extends to community development, environmental justice, health, the arts, and social services. In 2005, Jason became Director of Partnerships for Parks, a public/private program of City Parks Foundation and the NYC Parks Department. Under his leadership, Partnerships for Parks developed a number of internationally recognized models for encouraging volunteer involvement in parks and public space, including the Catalyst for Parks program, an initiative that secured $65 million to reopen the High Bridge between upper Manhattan and the Bronx, and People Make Parks, a program to involve communities in the NYC Parks capital process. Partnerships for Parks supports a network of over 4,500 community groups in New York City. Jason lives in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with his wife, Deborah Flanagan, a wellness practitioner. He holds a BA from Columbia University, and an MPA from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Whenever he gets the chance, he goes on motorcycle adventures, which have included trips in Corsica and Turkey.