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Jeremy Nowak is the president of the William Penn Foundation, a $2 billion philanthropy that supports cutting edge work in Greater Philadelphia through grantmaking programs Arts & Culture; Children, Youth, & Families; and Environment & Communities. Before joining the Foundation, Jeremy served as president of The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a development financial institution that manages $400 million in assets. The mission of the Fund is to create economic opportunity and build wealth for low wealth communities and families. TRF provides financing for housing, small businesses, commercial real estate projects, community facilities, and energy conservation. The Fund has financed more than 15,000 housing units, $6 million square feet of commercial real estate, 320 businesses, 20,000 charter school seats, and 10,000 child care slots. TRF is also a thought leader in the creative use of data to facilitate investment into distressed urban markets. Mr. Nowak is the chairman of the Board of Directors of Mastery Charter Schools, a network of four inner city high charter high schools in Philadelphia. He is the board chair for Alex's Lemonade Stand, a charity that raises money for pediatric cancer research. He serves on the Mayor's (Philadelphia) Commission for Children and the Governor's (Pennsylvania) Commission on Working Families. He has served as the Board Chair of Opportunity Finance Network (1990-1994), the trade group for CDFIs and as the Treasurer of First Nations Oweesta Corporation, a national organization that provides development finance resources to Native American reservations (2003-2007). He also served a three year term as a member of the Consumer Advisory Board of The Federal Reserve Bank in Washington DC. The author of numerous reports and articles on community development and related issues, Mr. Nowak holds has an undergraduate degree in philosophy (Penn State University, Phi Beta Kappa, 1973) and a doctorate in cultural anthropology (New School for Social Research, 1986). He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Villanova University. His most recent publications examine policy options for America's most distressed cities (co-authored with Edward Hill and published in The Brookings Review - summer 2000), provide historical background on the role of religious institutions in community revitalization (collection edited by E.J. Dionne and published by Brookings Press- 2001), and conceptualize urban renewal in the light of environmental sustainability (forthcoming - 2007; University of Pa Press). He has been an editorial board member of The Economic Development Quarterly. Jeremy Nowak is married and is the father of two children. He is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute-NewSchools Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
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