Ester R. Fuchs is a Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University. After receiving her BA from Queens College, C.U.N.Y., she went on to receive her MA from Brown University, followed by a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. She served as Special Advisor to the Mayor for Governance and Strategic Planning under New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from 2001-2005. While at City Hall, Dr. Fuchs coordinated three significant mayoral initiatives: the restructuring the City's delivery of Out-of-School Time (OST) programs to children, youth, and families; the Integrated Human Services System Project (Access New York) to streamline the screening and eligibility determination processes, case management, and policy development and planning functions within and across the 13 human services agencies through the use of technology; and the merger of the Department of Employment with the Department of Small Business Services to align the City's workforce development programs with the needs of the business community. Dr. Fuchs was also appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to serve as Chair of the 2005 NYC Charter Revision Commission. She was the first woman to serve in this capacity. Before going on a public service leave to join the Bloomberg Administration, Dr. Fuchs was Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Chair of the Urban Studies Program at Barnard and Columbia Colleges, and founding Director of the Columbia University Center for Urban Research and Policy.

She serves on the Mayor's Sustainability Advisory Board, NYC Economic Opportunity Commission, the NYC Workforce Investment Board, the NYC Commission on Women's Issues, and the Advisory Board for NYC's Out of School Time (OST) Initiative. She was recently appointed to the Committee on Economic Inclusion of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and is a member of the Boards of the Fund for the City of New York and the Citizen Union.

Prof. Fuchs has been the recipient of a grant from the Wallace Foundation Learning in Communities Initiative; the Guggenheim Foundation for summer public service internships; the Ford Foundation on Political Participation and the Civic Culture of Moslem Communities in NYC; the Greater London Enterprise to compare governance in London and New York; US Department of Justice on Implementation of the National Voter Registration Act; the National Health and Human Service Employees Union AFL-CIO project on Political Participation in NYC and NYS; a Ford Foundation grant on New Voices in State Fiscal Policy; the US Department of Housing and Urban Development evaluation of the federal homeless policy, the Continuum of Care; and Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Technical Assistance Project. She is the author of Mayor's and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago and a frequent political commentator on tv and radio. Dr. Fuchs lives in Manhattan with her husband, Daniel Victor, and their three children.

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