NYC Center for Economic Opportunity

Kristin Morse | Executive Director
Kristin Morse is the Executive Director for the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO). Ms. Morse has held essential positions at CEO since its early days, serving as Deputy Executive Director and Director of Program Development and Evaluation.  Ms. Morse has spent her career working on poverty issues for government and non-profits.  Ms. Morse previously worked for the Urban Institute leading a public policy and evaluation training program for government officials.  She has served in various administrative and policy positions, including as a Senior Program Manager for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Deputy Director for the New York City Partnership’s Breakthrough for Learning program, Research Director for Citizens Housing and Planning Council, Associate Director for Sanctuary for Families, and Assistant Director for the Coalition for the Homeless.  Ms. Morse is the co-author of Policy Analysis for Effective Development: Strengthening Transition Economies, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006.  Ms. Morse received a Master of Sciences in Urban Policy Analysis from the New School.

Corey Chambliss | Director of Communications
Corey Chambliss serves as Director of Communications for the Center for Economic Opportunity, overseeing press and media strategy to promote public awareness of innovative anti-poverty initiatives and achievements in New York City. Mr. Chambliss has been a member of the Bloomberg Administration since 2009 when he began in the Mayor’s Office of Research and Media Analysis before serving as a policy advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Operations, participating in innovative projects spanning the Department of Buildings, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Taxi and Limousine Commission.  Prior to joining CEO, Mr. Chambliss served as a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, where he helped to raise the profile of the summer NYC Water-On-the-Go program. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from New York University.

Carson C. Hicks, Ph.D. | Director of Programs & Evaluation
Carson C. Hicks is the Director of Programs & Evaluation for the Center for Economic Opportunity. In this role, Dr. Hicks oversees program development, implementation, and evaluation of the CEO programs, including education, employment, and at-risk youth initiatives.  She also oversees programs for court-involved individuals, such as the NYC Justice Corps, a promising six-month program which is currently undergoing a random assignment evaluation.  Dr. Hicks has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University.

David S. Berman | Director of Program Management and Policy
David S. Berman is the Deputy Director of Programs & Evaluation for the Center for Economic Opportunity.  In this role, Mr. Berman helps to launch new CEO initiatives, and works with an array of City agencies on program implementation, monitoring and evaluation.  His work with CEO focuses primarily on innovative workforce development initiatives, as well as programs serving and disconnected youth and CEO’s public health programs.  Mr. Berman holds master’s degrees from Columbia University in both Public Administration and Public Health, and graduated from Oberlin College. 

Kate Dempsey | Director of Budget & Operations
Kate Dempsey oversees CEO’s $100 million Innovation Fund, a public-private partnership that supports the implementation and evaluation of CEO’s pilot anti-poverty programs.  She also manages a portfolio of workforce development programs that includes Jobs-Plus and Nursing Career Ladder.  Prior to CEO, Ms. Dempsey conducted policy and budget analysis with municipal and state governments.  She also has extensive community development experience that includes one year as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Philadelphia and two years a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic.  She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Boston University and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.  In 2011 City and State named her a “Rising Star” in NYC government. 

Dorick Scarpelli | Senior Advisor
Dorick Scarpelli is a Senior Advisor for the Center for Economic Opportunity.  Mr. Scarpelli is responsible for CEO’s criminal justice and mentoring portfolios with a focus on the Mayoral Young Men’s Initiative (YMI) that launched in August 2011.  He has worked with incarcerated youth and adults for over ten years, most recently as the Program Director of the NYC Justice Corps, a CEO initiative that launched in the South Bronx in 2008 and later expanded into Harlem. Justice Corps is now being expanded into additional neighborhoods through the YMI.  Mr. Scarpelli earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown University, master’s degree in Fine Arts from Goddard College, and a secondary education teaching credential in English language arts from San Francisco State University.

Moe Magali | Advisor
Moe Magali is an Advisor for the Center for Economic Opportunity.  In this capacity, Mr. Magali coordinates CEO’s fundraising, communications, and external affairs activities.  He is also responsible for the data management and reporting for all CEO programs, and for a portfolio of youth development programs that include the Young Adult Internship Program and Teen ACTION.  Mr. Magali joined the Center in 2008 after receiving his undergraduate degree in Government & Politics from St. John’s University.

Emma Oppenheim | Senior Advisor 
Emma Oppenheim oversees a portfolio of CEO’s employment and workforce development programs, working with agencies and providers to ensure effective implementation and evaluation of programs. Prior to CEO, Ms. Oppenheim conducted workforce development policy research and advocacy with a focus on the role of community-based organizations in service delivery, most recently at the National Council of La Raza where she led NCLR’s federal workforce development advocacy and worked with a national network of Latino-serving community-based organizations to monitor public workforce investments. She holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University, and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Baruch College, City University of New York. 

Arturo Reyes | Urban Fellow
Arturo Reyes is the current fellow for the Center for Economic Opportunity and part of the New York City Urban Fellows Program. Mr. Reyes supports the Program and Evaluations Team with research, the design of new initiatives, and grant writing. In addition, he helps oversee the Work Progress Program. Mr. Reyes is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a dual degree in Political Economics and Italian Studies.

Josh Wheatley  | VISTA Fellow
Josh Wheatley is a VISTA member placed at the Center for Economic Opportunity.  His position is made possible through a unique partnership between the federal Americorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) program, Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) and CEO.  As a VISTA member, Mr. Wheatley's role is to work on projects that expand CEO's organizational capacity and sustainability.  His responsibilities include: upgrading CEO's performance data management system for the Social Innovation Fund grant, coordinating a new professional development course for providers of CEO programs, and conducting budget analysis to ensure sustainability.  He received an undergraduate degree in History from Brigham Young University and is a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree candidate at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Sinead Keegan | Social Innovation Fund Program Coordinator
Sinead Keegan oversees the overall implementation of the Mayor’s Fund/ Center for Economic Opportunity Social Innovation Fund initiatives.  In partnership with the Mayor’s Fund and MDRC, CEO received a Social Innovation Fund Award to pilot the Center’s successful anti-poverty initiatives in seven cities nationwide. Ms. Keegan works in collaboration with a network of public policy experts, foundation and city leaders, and with the Corporation for the National and Community Service to soundly implement the pilots. Ms. Keegan holds a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University and an undergraduate from the University of Notre Dame.

Susanne James | Social Innovation Fund Fiscal Coordinator
Susanne James is responsible for fiscal and compliance oversight and management of the Mayor’s Fund/ Center for Economic Opportunity Social Innovation Fund (SIF) Award.  Ms. James works in collaboration with MDRC and the Mayor’s Fund to monitor and report the financial aspects of the Award to the Corporation for the National and Community Service, foundations, and investors.  She also works with MDRC to provide technical assistance to strengthen provider organizations.  Prior to CEO, Ms. James served as the Chief Operating Officer for iMentor and CFY.  She is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

Patrick Hart | Social Innovation Fund Sustainability Coordinator
Patrick Hart is the Social Innovation Fund sustainability coordinator for New York City Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO). In this capacity, he works with CEO staff and program coordinators to help CEO’s five Social Innovation Fund programs remain strong.  He works to ensure that the Social Innovation Fund programs continue to spark program and policy change at the federal, state, and local level.  Previously, he served as a policy analyst for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, where his work focused on policy issues such as foreclosure, homelessness, transit-oriented development, and others. Hart holds a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and a master in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Annel Hernandez | Social Innovation Fund Advisor
Annel Hernandez supports the overall implementation of the Mayor’s Fund/ Center for Economic Opportunity Social Innovation Fund initiative and helps to coordinate a learning network to engage a range of national stakeholders and partners.  She manages Project Rise a multi-city education and internship program for young adults.  Ms. Hernandez is a graduate of Fordham University with a dual degree in Political Science and Latin American & Latino Studies.

Mark Levitan, Ph.D. | Director of Poverty Research
Mark Levitan oversees the Center for Economic Opportunity’s efforts to develop a new methodology for measuring poverty in the City, along with CEO's work in tracking other indicators of well-being among its target populations.  Dr. Levitan has conducted policy-orientated research in non-profit, academic, government, and trade union organizations, and authored highly influential studies on poverty, joblessness, and the low-wage labor market while at the Community Service Society.

Christine D’Onofrio, Ph.D. | Senior Research Associate
Christine D'Onofrio is a Senior Research Analyst with the Poverty Research Unit of the Center for Economic Opportunity.  She is modeling the effect of taxes and tax credits on the poverty rate.  Dr. D'Onofrio received her Doctorate in Economics from the New School for Social Research.

John Krampner | Research Associate
John Krampner is a Research Associate with the Center for Economic Opportunity specializing in poverty measurement, with a particular focus on the role of housing subsidies in affecting family poverty rates. Mr. Krampner holds a master’s degree in Policy Analysis from the New School's Milano School for Management and Urban Policy.

Daniel Scheer | Research Associate
Daniel Scheer is Research Associate for the Center for Economic Opportunity.  Mr. Scheer’s work focuses on imputation and estimation techniques for CEO's alternative poverty measure.  He holds a master’s degree in International Economics from Fordham University and is currently completing his Ph.D. in Economics at the New School for Social Research. 

Todd Seidel | Research Associate
Todd Seidel is a Research Associate for the Center for Economic Opportunity.  He assists in the Center’s poverty measurement work including estimating school meals values, medical out of pockets expenditures, commuting costs and the tax model.  Mr. Seidel holds a Master of Urban Planning from Hunter College, a B.A. in Economics from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.