Full Name
Molly Wasow Park
Job Title
Commissioner
Company
NYC Department of Social Services
Speaker Bio
Molly Wasow Park was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as the Acting Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS), which oversees both the Human Resources Administration (HRA) and Department of Homeless Services (DHS), in March of 2023. Before this appointment, she served as the DHS First Deputy Commissioner since September 2019. In that position, Molly oversaw rehousing, capacity development, and agency planning and operations. In addition, Molly has played a key role in shaping agency response to emergencies, including COVID-19 and the 2022 influx of asylum seekers. Prior to joining DHS Molly spent three years as the Deputy Commissioner for Development at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), where she had primary responsibility for the housing production goals of the Housing New York Plan and related pre-development work. In this capacity Molly oversaw significant increases in total housing production and units affordable to the lowest income New Yorkers. Molly briefly left City government in 2014 to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of Settlement Housing Fund, where she expanded her affordable housing expertise by overseeing Settlement's development activity, as well as coordinating all operational needs of a growing not-for-profit organization. From 2010 to 2014, Molly served as HPD's Deputy Commissioner of Budget, Fiscal, and Performance Management, including oversight of one of the nation’s largest Section 8 programs. A graduate of Amherst College, Molly holds a Master's in Public Policy from the university of California - Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy
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