David Maurrasse

EXPERIENCE:   MARGA INCORPORATED, New York, NY

           2001-present  President & CEO, Founder

Leading and managing a strategyconsulting firm, and providing consulting services to universities, foundations,corporations, government, and other industries on philanthropy andeconomic/community development globally. The firm helps institutions find common ground through unprecedentedpartnerships to improve society.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York, NY

Strategic Adviser to theEarth Institute (2007-   )    

Providing guidance to the EarthInstitute in developing its Urban Design Lab, which creates partnershipsbetween faculty and community based organizations addressing environmentalconcerns.      

Associate Research Scholar(2004-2007), School of International and P      ublic Affairs

Teaching courses in the School of International and Public Affairs

Assistant Professor (2000-2004)

Teaching courses in the School of International and Public Affairs and theUrban Planning Program on management, strategy, partnerships, community andeconomic development, and conducting research toward the development ofscholarly publications.  

Founding Director (2000-2003)

Center for Innovation in SocialResponsibility

ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, New York, NY        1998-2000

           Senior Program Adviser

           Community Building Program Area

·        Managed the Building Community program portfolio.  Served as the program officer on thisportfolio through close monitoring of existing grantees, and administering newgrants.

·        Conducted a field assessment of higher educational/communitypartnerships in order to enhance the potential of institutions of highereducation in building the capacity of community-based initiatives to addressvarious challenges facing poor neighborhoods.  

·        Convened meetings of foundations and practitioners regardingthe strengths, shortcomings, and future direction of higher educationalcommunity outreach initiatives.  

·        Managed a pilot grant program designed to improve the effectivenessof these types of partnerships.  

·        Funded, organized and MC’d a regional conference on highereducational/community partnerships in California, which convened foundations,institutions of higher education, communities and nonprofits, and public officialsin assessing the strengths and weaknesses of current highereducational/community partnerships and began to design a policy strategy toimprove those efforts.

·        Brokered relationships between universities, community basednot for profit organizations, and public officials in order to stimulateemployment opportunities for poor urban residents, particularly in the state ofCalifornia.

·        Managed the contracts of various consultants who addresscritical issues such as the evaluative capacity of not for profitorganizations, the effectiveness of public systems in managing welfare reform,and various intricate processes involved in comprehensive communityinitiatives.

YALE UNIVERSITY,New Haven, CT              1995-2000

                               (Public Service Leave 5/98-6/00)

           Assistant Professor 1997-2000

           Lecturer/Research Fellow   1995-1997

·        Taught courses in the Departments of African American Studiesand Sociology on community initiatives and movements, Caribbeanpolitics, the African diaspora.  

·        Conducted research toward the development of scholarlypublications.  

EDUCATION  NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

      Ph.D. Sociology; 1996; M.A. Sociology,1991

      UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

      Bachelor’s, English, 1989