Annual Benefit 2025: Meet Honoree Maria Torres-Springer

Community Impact Award

Maria Torres-Springer is a nationally recognized public servant and urban policy leader with over 25 years of experience across the government, philanthropic, private, and nonprofit sectors. As the former First Deputy Mayor, she oversaw the day-to-day operations of the City of New York and had strategic and budgetary oversight of a 300,000+ public sector workforce and an annual $110 billion budget. She led landmark achievements in housing, including the pathbreaking City of Yes for Housing Opportunity reforms and historic investments in public housing. She also oversaw an aggressive jobs agenda to regain the one million jobs lost in the city during the pandemic. Maria’s distinguished record of public service across three Mayoral administrations includes leading three agencies, where she was widely recognized for her ability to turn progressive values into practical results.
 

Maria is currently a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, where she previously served as Vice President for U.S. Programs and led the foundation’s domestic grant-making. She is also currently a Senior Advisor for the Boston Consulting Group. In these roles, she continues to identify ways to support cities and states, grounded in her core belief in the dignity of home, the power of the work, and the capacity of government to transform lives. Next year, Maria will step into a new role as President of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, which invests in a more vibrant civic society through grants and fellowships in Biomedical Research, Education, Jewish Life, and Urban Affairs.