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Andrew J. Mooney
Executive Director
LISC/Chicago
Andrew J. Mooney is the Executive Director of the Chicago
office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
Founded nearly thirty years ago, LISC is a not-for-profit
development intermediary that provides grants, loans
and equity -- as well as technical assistance -- to community
organizations engaged in the revitalization of their
neighborhoods. LISC’s funds are used to develop
affordable housing, commercial and retail facilities,
community facilities, and employment centers and their
related programs. LISC raises its capital principally
from foundations and corporations. The capital comes
in various forms, including syndicated investments, loan
pools, secondary market instruments and grants.
Under
Mr. Mooney’s leadership, LISC/Chicago
has become one of the nation’s leading community
development agencies. Since coming to LISC in 1996,
he has raised approximately $120 million in grants
and loans to invest in the city’s neighborhoods,
leading in turn to the development of approximately
23,000 units of housing, 2.5 million square feet
of commercial space, and numerous community facilities
that include health and day care centers, parks and
recreational facilities – leveraging over $2.5
billion in total investment.
Mr. Mooney and his colleagues
are best known, however, for a variety of cutting-edge
community development strategies that have become
national models, including the New Communities Program
(NCP), a comprehensive effort at neighborhood development
supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, and the Centers for Working Families
that provide employment, financial and benefits counseling
in 14 neighborhoods around the city. Another initiative,
Elev8, supported by Atlantic Philanthropies, is developing
a sophisticated model for community schools in several
neighborhoods. Mr. Mooney also conceived a community-based,
professionally-operated news and communications program,
called the Chicago Neighborhood News Bureau (CNNB),
that has invigorated information networks throughout
the area. Currently LISC is leading the creation
of the Digital Excellence Demonstration Communities
program in five Chicago neighborhoods. Other initiatives
range from retail market research (MetroEdge), to
community safety (ClearPath), sports and arts programs,
and planning for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid.
Mr.
Mooney has devoted his career to community development
and has held leadership positions in a number of
agencies. Early in his career, he was Executive Director
and Chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority, then
the second-largest Authority in the nation with 50,000
public housing units. In more recent years, Mayor
Richard M. Daley asked Mr. Mooney to serve a second
term on the CHA Board and to co-author the Authority’s “Plan
for Transformation”. Mr. Mooney has also served
as President of an economic development organization
and run his own consulting firm, before coming to
LISC. He has been on the governing Boards of a number
of public and private agencies, including the City’s
Community Development Commission and the Mayor’s
Commission on Property Tax Assessment, which he chaired,
as well as ACCION/Chicago, the Corporation for Supportive
Housing, the Teachers Housing Resource Center and
so on. He is currently a member of the Knight Foundation’s
Commission on the Information Needs of Communities
in a Democracy.
A native of Chicago, Mr. Mooney is a graduate of
the University of Notre Dame and the University of
Chicago, where he was a Danforth Fellow. Mr. Mooney
lives in downtown Chicago with his wife Mary Laraia. |
