NYU Wagner Welcomes Richard Buery as Distinguished Visiting Urbanist

NYU Wagner is excited to welcome Richard Buery as a Distinguished Visiting Urbanist for the Spring 2019 semester.

Buery is the Chief of Policy & Public Affairs at KIPP, leading its public policy, advocacy, marketing, and communications efforts to enlarge the network and advocate for policies that make it easier for students to afford college and overcome barriers to success. KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program, is a nonprofit network of more than 224 college-preparatory, public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia, educating nearly 100,000 early-childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students, and supporting its graduates on the path to and through college. KIPP students graduate college at three-times the rate of their peers. 

Previously, Buery served as Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives in the administration of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. In the mayor's office, he managed some of the City’s most successful initiatives, including Pre-K for All, which for the first time offers free, full-day Pre-K for every 4-year old in NYC, increasing enrollment from 19,000 to 70,000 children in 18 months and launching its expansion to 3-year olds; School's Out NYC, offering free afterschool programs to every middle school pupil in NYC; ThriveNYC, a comprehensive effort to improve New Yorkers’ mental health, and the Community Schools Initiative, creating 215 new community school service partnerships during the first term, more than the double the number the Mayor initially pledged to create.

He managed a range of city agencies, including the Departments of Probation, Aging, Youth and Community Development, People with Disabilities, and Immigrant Affairs. As leader of the NYC Young Men’s Initiative, he created NYC Men Teach, a historic effort to recruit 1,000 men of color to become public school teachers. He also led the creation of the New York City Children’s Cabinet, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises.  Under his leadership, the City exceeded $1 billion of spending with M/WBEs for the first time in its history, double the annual spend before Mayor de Blasio took office. He also managed the City's relationship with the 250,000 student City University of New York system, managing significant investments that improved college persistence for NYC students.

A 2016 Pahara-Aspen Institute Education Fellow, and a 2012 Fellow of the British American Project, he was named one of Ebony Magazine’s “30 under 30,” and Crain’s “40 under 40,” and received the Extraordinary Black Man Award for Humanitarianism from the United Negro College Fund. He has taught social entrepreneurship and nonprofit financial management at the Baruch College School of Public Affairs and New York Law School.

A graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard College, Buery will teach a class in city leadership, bringing in several high-profile speakers for lectures, and opening three of those lectures up to the public, including: First Lady Chirlane McCray (2/13); Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (2/20), and Council Member Brad Lander (4/10). The events will take place at NYU Wagner. Stay tuned!