Jerry Maldonado is the director of Cities and States, leading the foundation’s Just Cities and Regions, Detroit, and US states programs.

Jerry joined Ford as a program manager in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, overseeing the implementation of the foundation’s cross-program Gulf Coast Transformation Initiative. As a program officer, and then as a senior program officer, his grant making focused on integrated regional strategies for building stronger communities, by improving access for low-income families to permanently affordable housing, reducing blight, improving transit choices, and strengthening decent work opportunities. Over the past decade, he has developed and managed innovative, place-based grant making strategies in San Diego, New Orleans, Atlanta, New York, and Puerto Rico, and facilitated the creation of multi-issue, cross-sector grantee collaboratives that strengthened civic engagement and advanced inclusive local development. And he has played a lead role in mobilizing local, regional, and national philanthropy around strategies aimed at democratizing urban development and promoting more inclusive policies that protect and advance the rights of low-income communities and communities of color.

Prior to joining the foundation, Jerry’s work spanned domestic and global affairs. He worked with a broad range of philanthropic and inter-governmental entities including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service on issues ranging from globalization and inequality to human rights and economic development.

Jerry has a master’s degree in public policy and international affairs from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, where he concentrated in international relations with a minor in urban studies.