J. Phillip Thompson

Lecture by J. Phillip Thompson, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives for New York City
Response by Weiping Wu, Professor and Director of the Master of Science in Urban Planning Program at GSAPP

As Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives, Deputy Mayor Thompson is responsible for spearheading a diverse collection of priority initiatives. This expansive portfolio includes Democracy NYC, the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises Program, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, the Office of the Census, and the Young Men’s Initiative. Additionally, his agency portfolio includes the Department of Youth and Community Development; the Department of Small Business Services; the Commission on Human Rights; the Department of Veterans’ Services; the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs; the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; and the NYC Public Engagement Unit.

Prior to joining the de Blasio administration, Thompson was an Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Double Trouble: Black Mayors, Black Communities and the Struggle for Deep Democracy published in 2006 by Oxford University Press. He has also written and worked extensively on community health planning, race and community development, and the politics of black economic advancement. His most recent publications include Broken Policing: The Origins of the “Broken Windows” Policy, published in New Labor Forum, May, 2015 and Place Matters, and So Does Race, published in Urban Affairs Review in March, 2016.

Thompson also has an extensive background in New York City Government. He previously served in the Dinkins Administration as the Deputy General Manager for Operations and Development, and before that served in the Manhattan Borough President’s Office.

Thompson received a BA in Sociology from Harvard University in 1977, a Masters in Urban Planning from Hunter College in 1986, and a PhD from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 1990.