 |
|
Betsy Gotbaum 
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum
Over the past three
decades, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum has led a distinguished
career in the public and private sectors. Betsy has worked as
advisor to three mayors; financial executive developing capital
for start-up entrepreneurial firms; commissioner of the Department
of Parks & Recreation; and president of the prestigious New-York
Historical Society. In all her jobs, Betsy has been known for
using nontraditional methods to turn troubled institutions into
success stories.
To the role of Public Advocate for
the City of New York, Betsy's first elective office, she brings
her success in all major sectors of the working world. Through
her extensive experience in management and through collaboration
with non-profits, business, and government agencies, she is reshaping
the image of the office into the primary place New Yorkers can
turn with problems related to government. Since Betsy's inauguration
as Public Advocate in January 2002, her leadership has paved the
way for municipal reform in education, school construction, prevention
of crime against women, and the fight against hunger. Additionally,
each week she helps solve hundreds of city-service complaints
made by residents and business owners.
A native New Yorker, Betsy attended
Barnard College and received her B.A. from George Washington University
in 1961. After graduation, she moved to Recife, Brazil, where
she taught high school English and mastered Spanish and Portuguese.
She returned to New York several years later and earned a Master's
Degree in Education at Columbia University's Teacher's College.
Betsy began her career in government
serving Mayor John Lindsay as District Manager for the Chelsea
Clinton Neighborhood, Assistant for Women's Issues, and Assistant
for Education. Betsy continued her work in education with Mayor
Abraham Beame, managing a training program for school security
officers.
In the late 1970s, Betsy was recruited
to run the New York Police Foundation. At the Police Foundation,
she developed an innovative city-wide health screening and work-site
hypertension program with the NYPD and facilitated an intensive
training program for 911 operators. She also created a program
engaging New York City in a campaign to purchase bullet proof
vests for every police officer. Betsy went on to run the National
Alliance against Violence, where she created a program with the
NYPD and other police departments across the country to protect
neighborhoods and schools from handgun violence. For four years
following this nationwide effort, Betsy worked for venture capital
firm, raising capital for start-up companies.
In 1990, newly-elected Mayor David
Dinkins appointed Betsy the first female New York City Commissioner
of Parks & Recreation. At the beginning of her tenure, her
budget was cut radically. She responded by adopting business sector
management techniques to improve efficiency and raise the morale
of park workers. She expanded her work force through an innovative
welfare-to-work training program and established the City Parks
Foundation, which brought in millions of dollars to pay for park
restoration, maintenance, and recreation programs throughout the
City. Betsy also created a toll-free Parks hotline and successfully
argued for a change in City policy allowing the Gay Men's Health
Crisis (GMHC) and other organizations to use Central Park for
fundraising events. That action meant more people than ever before
could participate in GMHC's AIDS Walk, resulting in a significant
increase in proceeds for people with HIV/AIDS.
In June 1994, Betsy Gotbaum became
president of The New-York Historical Society, New York's oldest
museum, and one of the country's most extensive research libraries.
When she took over, the Society was closed to the public and on
the verge of bankruptcy after years of mismanagement, but Betsy
rescued the institution from financial collapse, renovated its
landmark building, and recalled its collections from warehouses.
In November 2000, she opened the innovative Henry Luce III Center
for the Study of American Culture. She also instituted exhibitions,
education and public programs for a diverse and ever-increasing
audience and left the society with a $33 million endowment. Betsy
resigned from the Historical Society to run for Public Advocate
in 2001.
In her first term as Public Advocate,
Betsy helped tens of thousands of families, seniors, and children
solve their problems with City government. On taking office, she
pledged to focus on five main policy areas—hunger, housing,
child welfare, education, and women’s issues—and,
over the course of her first four years in office, made important
strides in each. Betsy exposed major problems in the special education
system, prompting the Department of Education to set aside more
money for special needs students. She successfully lobbied to
stop the administration from cutting preventive services that
help families keep their children out of foster care. Her recommendations
led to reforms in the food stamp application process that have
helped thousands of New York City families put food on their tables.
She has launched major studies that shed new light on the City’s
affordable housing crisis and the provision of government services
to survivors of domestic violence. Betsy plans to build on these
successes in her second term.
Throughout her career, Betsy has shown
commitment to community service. She has served on the boards
of innumerable not-for-profit organizations, including the Community
Service Society; The Valley Recreation and Youth Development Program
in Harlem; Goodwill Industries; and the Municipal Arts Society.
Her best-known talent is her ability to raise funds to support
the projects and organizations that are meaningful to her. After
September 11th, Betsy raised $1 million for volunteer ambulance
companies whose equipment was destroyed when the World Trade Center
collapsed. She also secured funding to purchase bullet-proof vests
for Israeli EMT workers and raised $1 million for a corporation
dedicated to increase access to food stamps for all New Yorkers.
She is married to labor leader Victor
Gotbaum and has one daughter, three grandchildren, four stepchildren,
and eight stepgrandchildren.
|
|
|
