WHEREAS, Maxine Griffith, AICP was appointed to head the Philadelphia City Planning Commission in 2000, and has held the dual position of Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and Secretary for Strategic Planning. In these roles, Ms. Griffith has overseen land use planning, zoning, environmental review, urban design, and capital budget coordination for the City of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, Maxine Griffith earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College in New York and a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. Ms. Griffith has completed coursework in Urban Planning and Real Property Development at Harvard University; and
WHEREAS, Maxine Griffith is both a well respected academic and practitioner in the field of Planning and Architecture. She has taught city planning and urban design at Columbia University and New York University, and is presently a lecturer in urban planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Griffith has served on the national board of the American Planning Association and is presently a member of the Planning Accreditation Board, the organization that accredits schools of Planning in the United States. Ms. Griffith’s professional excellence has been recognized with a National American Planning Association Award and the Phillip A. Payton Award for her work in distressed minority communities; and
WHEREAS, Before coming to Philadelphia, Ms. Griffith was the Senior Fellow for Community Planning and Development at the Regional Plan Association in New York, where she developed an interrelated group of community-oriented programs. She also served in the Clinton administration at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, first as the Secretary’s Regional Representative for New York and New Jersey and then in Washington as HUD’s Assistant Deputy Secretary. As Assistant Deputy Secretary, she successfully restructured both organization and policy for HUD’s 81-office national field operation, and upon leaving HUD she received an Outstanding Service Award from Secretary Andrew Cuomo; and
WHEREAS, In addition to her commitment to excellence in her professional career, Ms. Griffith has been an active civic leader. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Lincoln Foundation, the Architectural League of New York, the Design Trust for Public Space, the Philadelphia Avenue of the Arts and SEEDS, a project supporting schools and libraries in West Africa. She has worked and traveled extensively in West Africa and the Caribbean and has lead workshops in politics and policy in the African nations of Nambia and Benin. Ms. Griffith served as a member of the fact-finding mission to Haiti following the reinstatement of President Aristide and represented the City of New York at the Encontro International de Cidades in Sao Paulo, Bazil. In 1999, she was a participant in the Bellagio Conference on Jerusalem in Bellagio, Italy; and
WHEREAS, After five years of exceptional service to the City of Philadelphia, Maxine Griffith is leaving to pursue other opportunities. Ms. Griffith leaves behind a distinguished tenure, and she has earned the admiration and respect of her superiors, her peers and her staff; now therefore
RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we honor Maxine Griffith for her outstanding achievements and accomplishments as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. We offer our very best wishes for her continued success.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Ms. Griffith as evidence of the sincere respect and admiration of this legislative body.
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