Dr. Lee Stuart received her Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California at Davis and San Diego State University focusing on soil-plant relationships in arctic Alaska and in ecosystem modeling. Following post-doctoral work at Virginia Tech, she moved to the South Bronx for what she thought was a short stay before continuing an academic career. The short stay turned to 25 years.
Her first project, the SHARE food program provided low cost high quality food to about 10,000 families a month through a network of 250 churches, unions and community organizations. With SHARE on its feet, Dr. Stuart served as Director of Development for Augustine Fine Arts to provide arts and music education to children in the South Bronx.
In 1992 she became the lead organizer of South Bronx Churches and was responsible for organizing SBC’s two signature projects, Nehemiah Homes and the Bronx Leadership Academy High School. In 1998, Dr. Stuart became the project manager of Nehemiah Homes and directed the construction and sales of Nehemiah until 2005 when SBC had built out all the land allocated to it by New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. After one year as a project manager for adult education and English as a Second Language programs in Bronx Community College’s Institutional Development Department, she served as the head of international and institutional fundraising for The Hunger Project.
She became the Executive Director of New Yorkers for Parks in March 2010.
