NYU Wagner Alum Jennifer Jones Austin Named Co-Chair of de Blasio Transition Team

Fresh on the heels of Bill de Blasio’s landslide victory in the New York City mayoral election, distinguished NYU Wagner alumna Jennifer Jones Austin has been named co-chair of the Mayor-elect’s transition team, which will have a key advisory role in assembling the new City administration.

Austin, who received her MS in Management from NYU Wagner in 1997, serves as the Executive Director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA). She has also held positions in health and human services for both City and State governments and major nonprofit organizations.

Her co-chair is Carl Weisbrod, a leader of city agencies and public-private partnerships in three mayoral administrations, including city-state efforts to revive the Times Square area, and as founding president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation. The work of the transition group begins immediately.

Jennifer Jones Austin assumed the helm at FPWA in 2012 after serving as Senior Vice President of Community Investment for United Way of New York City. Before joining United Way, she was the Family Services Coordinator of the City of New York, a new position to which Mayor Bloomberg appointed her in 2006 after she had served four years as Deputy Commissioner of the City's Administration for Children's Services. She served as Civil Rights Deputy Bureau Chief in the Office of the New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and as a Vice President for LearnNow/Edison Schools Inc. From 2000 to 2010, she was a member of the board of FPWA.

She is a graduate of Rutgers University, Fordham University School of Law, and New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.