City & State Pennsylvania 122021

Trash talk

Why Philly can't come clean

As the murder rate soars, DA Larry Krasner plays

Good Cop/ Good Cop The Philly Power 100

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@CIT YANDSTATEPA

DECEMBER 2021

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December 2021

Contents | DECEMBER 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

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SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS

PRIVATE ELECTION GRANTS Should state lawmakers ban election grants from outside groups?

EDITOR’S NOTE … 4 A look at Philly’s fascinating political arena

BIG CITY LIGHTS … 7

We talk to the young entrepreneur who makes City Hall sparkle every holiday season

TALKIN’ TRASH … 8 A Q&A with Terrill Haigler, better known as ‘Ya Fav Trashman’

BY THE NUMBERS … 10

The reports of illegal dumping, arrests and code violations in Philly

LARRY KRASNER … 14 The criminal justice reformer answers questions about his contentious time in office

PHILLY POWER 100 … 19

The most influential people in the City of Brotherly Love

WINNERS & LOSERS … 54

Who was up and who was down last month

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4

CityAndStatePA .com

December 2021

EDITOR’S NOTE

Editor-in-chief

JARED GRUENWALD

JENNY DEHUFF

I’VE BEEN EXCITED FOR the Philly Power 100 for a long time. At least since I’ve been a part of this operation at City & State. While I’m still familiarizing myself with the rest of the political landscape in Pennsylvania, I feel like I know Philly relatively well.

I remember when I came on the scene in 2005 and started covering city government, I thought it was pretty cool we had a female City Council president and a female district attorney. Our mayor, at the time, was under investigation by the FBI. That same year, TIME magazine named him one of the three “worst big-city mayors in the U.S.” I understood it all too well after watching Tigre Hill’s documentary, “The Shame of a City,” and became even more fascinated with Philadelphia politics.

The city’s laws can come across confusing, convoluted, or even corrupt, such as some of the statutes found in the city’s Home Rule Charter. Many of you reading this probably know that for the longest time, Philadelphia didn’t control its own school district, and that through something called the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), some types of city employees can retire for one day, immediately begin collecting their pensions and return to work the following day. Highly controversial.

And did you know that it was once illegal to put pretzels in bags in Philadelphia? Weirdest thing.

But despite the complexities that go on inside City Hall, the people all around it are hopeful, reminiscent and gritty (yes, pun intended).

In this issue, we feature DA Larry Krasner – a man who has a great deal of power. What he chooses to do with that power, though, is a matter of great debate. As DA, Krasner decides who gets charged with crimes and what those charges should be. He has spoken a lot about prevention as a method to curb gun violence, but when he gives a person who just possessed a gun illegally the door to freedom the fourth or fifth time, is it any surprise homicides are at an all-time high?

This list isn’t perfect, but we think it best represents the people in Philadelphia right now who are moving the chess pieces and making power moves in politics, business, academia, labor, public safety, health care, government relations, media and the nonprofit sector. Next month, we’ll be looking at influential political consultants all across the state.

We congratulate our Chairman, Stephen A. Cozen, on being named to the City & State Philly Power 100 list.

Michael J. Heller

Executive Chairman & CEO (215) 665-4141 | mheller@cozen.com

Vincent R. McGuinness

President & Managing Partner (215) 665-2097 | vmcguinness@cozen.com 775 attorneys | 31 offices

cozen.com | copublicstrategies.com

© 2021 Cozen O’Connor

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Compiled by CITY & STATE Compiled by CITY & STATE TUESDAY, JUNE 2021 TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1, 2021

WEATHER: Philadelphia: partly sunny, high of 79; Harrisburg: m

WEATHER: Philadelphia: partly sunny, highhigh of of79; cloudy, high of 78; Pittsburgh: mostly cloudy, 76. Harr cloudy, high of 78; Pittsburgh: mostly cloudy, high of 76 FROM CITY & STATE

* Republican state Rep. Jim Cox has introduced legislation tha FROM CITY & STATE

the unemployment programs provided by the CARES Act while motivate unemployment claimants to find jobs by offering them Republican state Rep.work.

Jim Cox has introduced legisla bonus for finding

* the unemployment programs provided by the CARES A NEW THIS MORNING: motivate unemployment claimants to find jobs by offer * Republican leaders of the state House of Representatives thr bonus for finding work.

Friday to impeach Philadelphia elections officials if they count ballots from the May 18 primary, The Philadelphia Inquirer repo

NEW THIS MORNING:

* With the state’s wide-open races for governor and U.S. Sena shape, Republican candidates with strong ties to Donald Trum

* Republican thecontenders state House of Representat and leaders consideredof strong for the party’s nominations, ated Press reports.

Friday to impeach Philadelphia elections officials if they ballots from the May 18 primary, The Philadelphia Inqu * Democratic state Rep. Amen Brown is crafting legislation to p

get rid of a $5 copay state prison inmates are required to pay f

Scan to subscribe for free

care after prison officials said inmates had avoided COVID* With the cal state’s wide-open races for governor and U. because of the fee, NBC Philadelphia reports. shape, Republican candidates with strong ties to Dona * Peoplestrong receiving contenders unemployment are about nomin the sta and considered forconcerned the party’s weeklong shutdown of the online unemployment claims system ated Pressoverhaul, reports.

Spotlight PA reports.

* U.S. Sen. Bob Casey called GOP senators who haven’t supp * Democratic state Rep. Amen Brown is crafting legisla January 6 commission, voting rights protections or gun contro get rid of a“impediments $5 copaytostate prison inmates required change” in an interview withare MSNBC. care after prison officials said inmates had avoided CO

December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

WILLEECOLE PHOTOGRAPHY/SHUTTERSTOCK; BEAUMONDE ORIGINALS PHOTOGRAPHY

T

HE SCIENCE BEHIND the magical display of light and music might be the least talked about part of the Deck the Hall Light Show at City Hall, but it’s probably the most interesting part.

Ricardo Rivera, founder and creative director of Klip Collective, uses a combination of projection mapping, lighting and sound design to create the show experience. He was recruited by Center City District after his talents were discovered at Longwood Gardens, where he designed Nightscape, and later, the aerial lighting displays at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

His company of 15 people, headquartered at the Bok Building in South Philly, has worked with Nike, Target, Red Bull and other corporations on projects and promotions – and since 2015 – the City of Philadelphia.

“The work is created for the architecture of City Hall. You can’t just project anything and have it work up there. It’s very meticulous,” said Rivera.

Sponsored by 6abc, Center City District and Independence Blue Cross, the presentation consists of an animated light show projected onto the west portal of City Hall with an accompanying synchronized holiday soundtrack.

You have until Jan. 1 to catch the light show spectacular at Dilworth Park.

DECK THE HALLL The holiday City Hall light show is an all-around immersive sensory experience.

By Jenny DeHuff

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CityAndStatePA .com

December 2021

Trash Talk A Q&A with Terrill Haigler, a/k/a ‘Ya Fav Trashman’

By Harrison Cann

T

When you realized you wanted to make a difference, how did you come to the idea of having your own truck and hauling business?

Just knowing the process of what it takes to get illegal dumps removed out of the city, I

Haigler became a social media sensation when he showed his followers the real deal of the garbage business.

just believe that if I can have my own hauling company that I could be a help or be an additional option for Philadelphians.

The city is struggling to get off the illegal dumpings and short dumpings and to prevent them from happening. I figured if we’re going to be hauling construction and demolition, I can get some of these illegal piles that the city hasn’t gotten to yet.

Many people might not know much about the issue of illegal dumping in the city. Can you explain how construction and demolition dumping has be-

come such a widespread problem?

The issue is that the housing market in Philadelphia is booming right now. Everyone is doing development and rehabs and DIY projects. But, the counter issue is that it costs $120 a ton to dump at a dumpsite.

So, if you’re a demolition crew who’s just starting out and you’re charging maybe $700, $800 or $1,200 for your demo, and you take six tons, that’s about half of your profit. People are finding ways to not pay for dump costs, which means they’re going to neighborhoods they deem dirty and

HIBBARD NASH

ERRILL HAIGLER, a community advocate and former sanitation worker, wants to put trash in its place.

Haigler, known around Philadelphia as “Ya Fav Trashman,” made a name for himself during the pandemic calling out the working conditions of sanitation workers in the city.

After garnering social media attention and raising money for PPE, his work made its way to the national spotlight.

Haigler’s got much bigger plans now.

His own hauling business, Ya Fav Hauling Service, is set to begin this month with one dump truck. Outside of the everyday trash issues Philadelphia faces, many of its neighborhoods deal with illegal and short dumping. These garbage piles, often left by construction and demolition crews after projects, pose both health and safety risks to communities in addition to the eyesores they create.

City & State spoke with Haigler about the ongoing issue, his new hauling business and how he wants to change the trash can culture in the city.

December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

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Many side streets and vacant lots look like this in Philadelphia.

Haigler wants to change that.

”I want to be the Amazon of hauling.”

– Terrill Haigler

Resources. If you have someone with different options, and those options work economically, they’ll stop dumping. If there was a period of time where only people from the city like mom-and-pop haulers could dump and it’s at a fraction of the cost, they could buy a permit to dump there.

So, instead of dumping for $120, they’re dumping for $65. I’m sure more people would use it because I like to think nobody wants to [dump illegally].

What is the plan for your hauling business?

I have a contract with a dump already here in Philadelphia. My plan is that I want every single demolition crew, contractor or developer to know that it’s of the utmost importance that they hire haulers who are going to properly dump their construction waste. If you’re dumping in a neighborhood, you’re doing so much damage. I want to be the Amazon of hauling. I want to be so convenient and so affordable that people have no choice but to use me. Then we can probably start to see a decline in how many short dumplings pop up in the city.

dumping in vacant lots ... or they’re going under old underpasses in North Philadelphia.

What can the city do to increase that enforcement or allow other opportunities to reduce illegal dumping?

How do you plan on developing relationships with those demolition and construction crews?

I’ve been reaching out for the last two months. I used to work on a demolition crew so I’ve already had some connections with contractors and people here in the city. Some of them have already said

‘As soon as you get the truck, let’s get you moving.

Where do you see this going in the future – maybe a year or two years from now?

I want to have all different kinds of trucks.

I want trucks that are 10 yards and can fit down South Philadelphia streets, trucks with arms that can pick up dumpsters, and to be a real competitor in the hauling industry in Philadelphia. I want to be a valid competitor with the mission that I’m trying to get Philadelphia to a point where we don’t even know what short dumping is anymore.

You’re also working on a children’s book, “I’m Cool Too.” Can you explain how that came to be?

The conversations in the book are about me and my children. When I first started in sanitation, they really didn’t know how important it was. They were just like, ‘Oh, you’re not cool and who wants to be a trashman?’ Throughout the pandemic, I realized that if my kids think that there are probably a lot of kids that think that. I wanted to use it as a tool to teach them how important sanitation workers are to the community and why we have to stop littering. If I can change five-year-olds’ minds about littering, when they grow up, we’re going to be creating a whole generation of people who don’t litter.

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CityAndStatePA .com

September 2021

A lump of coal for the dumping trolls Philadelphia has a serious illegal dumping dilemma.

By Harrison Cann

Here are some of the latest numbers on the city’s trash towers: (Credit: Sanitation Division’s 311 Call Center)

BENJAMIN CLAPP /SHUTTERSTOCK

I

F YOU’RE DRIVING through Philadelphia now, you’ll see the Christmas Village, lit up trees, and most likely, mounds of trash.

The city has an illegal dumping problem. Vacant lots and alleyways can be seen with piles of trash bags, couches, sinks, and more leftovers from construction and renovation projects. Less garbage in public spaces can be linked to healthier communities and significantly less crime.

With the problem persisting in areas around Kensington, North and Southwest Philly, the city is grappling with ways to prevent it.

Kyle Lewis, recycling program director for the city’s Sanitation Division, said their 311 reporting system has been “a critical piece of the infrastructure for tracking and enforcing illegal dumping,” but there’s no one way to curb the garbage.

reports of illegal dumping in 2021

TONS 5,932

September 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

So far this year

11

of trash have been collected

(11.8 MILLION LBS.)

2

AFFIDAVITS FOR ARREST for illegal dumping

65 ACTIVE CASES

11

for illegal dumping thorough Aug. 1

CODE VIOLATION NOTICES

(carrying up to a $2,000 fine)

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CityAndStatePA .com

December 2021

Pennsylvania’s great election grant debate

DOUG GROSS/SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS

I

N 2020, a nonprofit known as the Center for Tech and Civic Life distributed roughly $350 million in grant funds to local election boards and offices across the U.S. The organization, which was founded in 2012 to increase civic engagement, doled out this grant money as part of a nationwide effort to make sure the November 2020 election was carried out safely in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the CTCL’s grant money made its way to Pennsylvania, with 23 counties – and the state itself – taking advantage of the organization’s election grants.

But the CTCL’s connections to Big Tech, coupled with questions about how Pennsylvania counties were notified about the availability of the grants, has some state lawmakers looking to ban outside election-related grants for good.

The grants provided by the CTCL were made available to any entity that administers elections in the country, as long as the funds were used for polling place maintenance, personal protective equipment, voter outreach and education, poll worker recruitment and training and expanded access to mail-in voting.

The CTCL’s COVID-19 Response Grant program, as it was known, was possible thanks to a $250 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, a contribution that CTCL Executive Director Tiana Epps-Johnson said provided “election officials and poll workers with the critical resources they need to safely serve every voter.”

But while Zuckerberg’s donation – which some refer to as “Zuckerbucks” – provided an influx of cash to state and local election offices, it has also rankled conservatives who fear that allowing outside groups to pump money into election offices could improperly sway how elections are run.

A number of states have already moved to ban these types of grants from being used to fund election administration, with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signing a standalone bill to prohibit the funding, while Georgia included a similar measure in an omnibus election bill passed in March.

The economic gains of private election grants and why they’re viewed as unfair.

By Justin Sweitzer

December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

In Harrisburg, State Sens. Lisa Baker and Kristin Phillips-Hill have introduced legislation to prohibit counties from accepting similar grants in the future. Their proposed legislation would ban the use of “private, non-government money” from funding election operations. In an interview with City & State, the two lawmakers expressed concerns that outside grants could influence how elections are administered – and do so without much accountability.

The lawmakers referred to a recent report from Broad + Liberty, a Philadelphia-based conservative news outlet,

”There’s absolutely no accountability with these dollars.”

–Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill

State Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill says private grant money towards election operations is a bad idea.

which found that former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar initially only invited select counties to apply for the CTCL grants.

The Department of State, however, later notified all counties of the available grant funding once the Zuckerberg donation was made, according to Broad + Liberty.

“The [state] constitution is very, very clear that the conduct of free and fair elections is the responsibility of the state; it is a core function of government. And in order to hold that we have to make sure that private funding in no way undermines or unduly influences the outcome of an election,” Phillips-Hill said. “There’s absolutely no accountability with these dollars.

There’s no vetting of these organizations, and there’s absolutely no uniformity.”

Baker, who previously worked as a foundation director, suggested that organizations providing grants typically do so with

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certain expectations in mind. “When you apply, you have requirements for reporting.

There’s an expectation of how that money is going to be spent.

“We certainly saw that the [state] department weighed in with certain counties they were interested in. So, they clearly steered the resources where they thought they should go,” Baker said.

Lisa Deeley, chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, contested claims that grants provided to Pennsylvania counties would improperly influence how elections are run.

“It has no nefarious effect on the election,” Deeley told City & State. “If anything, it had nothing but positive effects on the election because it enabled us to get done sooner and to provide additional access to voters.”

While the specific sums counties received won’t be fully available until the CTCL releases its annual 990 filings, Philadelphia received a grant worth more than $10 million to fund election operations in 2020. That money went toward mail-in ballot processing equipment, satellite election office costs, ballot drop boxes, as well as training, hazard pay and PPE for poll workers.

Deeley said the need for additional election funding was exacerbated by the pandemic and by Act 77 of 2019, a new state law that ushered in no-excuse mail-in voting in Pennsylvania for the first time.

Deeley said the CTCL grant – which she personally sought out – was a “lifesaver” and that without it, the city would have been in dire straits last November.

“I think that it’s likely that we would still be counting votes,” she said. “The city was in no financial position to give us the money that we needed.”

As for the bill from Baker and Phillips-Hill, a similar measure has been approved by lawmakers in the state House, and a spokesperson for Gov. Tom Wolf said the legislation is “the latest effort by Republicans to create barriers to voting and attack fair elections.”

Deeley thinks the measure would prove detrimental to counties tasked with running elections. “Why would anybody not want to save taxpayers money? I’m baffled by that. Are we now in the business of not saving taxpayer money?”

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December 2021

Power Moves December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

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Love him or hate him, Larry Krasner keeps pushing forward with his progressive agenda.

By Justin Sweitzer

PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE

L

ARRY KRASNER MADE history again in 2021. The incumbent Philadelphia district attorney who mounted a successful outsider campaign for the office in 2017 won reelection by wide margins this year despite a historic increase in murders plaguing the City of Philadelphia.

And he did so despite attacks from critics, including the local police union, which claims Krasner’s reformist style of prosecuting and his focus on reducing the number of people incarcerated and on supervision has come at a cost.

To Krasner, however, the crime spike has less to do with his policies and is instead driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the absence of programming and crime prevention efforts that ensued following mandated coronavirus shutdowns in 2020.

The disagreement over what is driving the number of homicides in Philadelphia (the city eclipsed 500 murders in late November for the first time since 1990) speaks to a larger debate over the movement to elect more progressive prosecutors – and whether the reforms they’re seeking across the nation are helping or hurting.

Shortly after taking office in 2018, Krasner ended the use of cash bail for low-level offenses, no longer requiring the use of bail for criminal mischief, DUI, forgery, resisting arrest, prostitution, and a slew of drug-related charges. He also set new policies designed to scale back the number of people on probation and parole. And notably, under his administration, the city’s jail population has continued to drop.

In an interview with City & State, Krasner said his approach to prosecuting is centered around a more “focused” approach to enforcement, “as op-

posed to this shotgun enforcement, this chainsaw kind of surgery, that’s been going on for decades in America – which is why we are the most incarcerated country in the world.”

“We progressive prosecutors are about what works, and that means focused enforcement. It means reform. And it means taking the massive savings that are generated by reducing mass incarceration and reinvesting it into things that actually work, like education, like treatment of different types for addiction, for mental health, like economic opportunity, like investing in communities where there has been a decades, if not centuries-long, disinvestment.”

Krasner expressed a sense of pride over his firstterm accomplishments, especially under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said reducing both future years of incarceration and future years of probation and parole, are two significant highlights of his first four years.

“We were able to reduce future years of incarceration by about 50% during a period of 27 months.

That is remarkable,” he said. We were able to reduce the future years of supervision in a city that is infamous for excessive supervision on probation and parole. We were able to reduce that by almost twothirds, once again, in 27 months.”

Those figures are due to Krasner’s overhaul of how the DA’s office works. In addition to curbing the use of cash bail, Krasner has exonerated 24 people through his Conviction Integrity Unit since 2018, emphasized the use of diversionary programs and has imposed new policies designed to limit the length of time a person can spend on probation.

Krasner’s critics, however, have looked to tie the city’s rising murder rate to the progressive DA,

CityAndStatePA .com

door bail policy from the D.A.’s office.”

Since Krasner took office in 2018, the city’s murder rate has ticked upward each year: Rising from 353 in 2018, to over 520 this year. The city started seeing an increase in murders beginning in 2017, a year before Krasner took office. But the rising murder rate, coupled with a yearly increase in withdrawn or dismissed cases since 2015, have given fodder to Krasner’s most vocal critics.

Among them? The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, the police union representing the city’s police officers. The union backed Krasner’s primary opponent, Carlos Vega, who was fired by Krasner in a purge of DA staffers early on in his first term.

John McNesby, the president of FOP Lodge 5, blasted Krasner’s use of plea deals and his focus on reducing incarceration.

“One homicide is too many, but in the 500s is insane. It should not be and that’s because of the attitude of the district attorney in letting people out of jail. People

know they’re not going to go to jail,” McNesby said in an interview. “We have a defense attorney sitting in the district attorney’s position right now, and it’s not good for the city.”

Former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain, now a candidate for governor, has also hit Krasner on his progressive policies as DA. In September 2020, McSwain announced charges against two individuals in Philadelphia for firearms crimes, as well as a murder charge, and looked to tie plea deals made by Krasner’s office to alleged and convicted murders that occured after the deals were made. He said murders in the city are directly linked to Krasner’s policies as DA. “The staggering homicide and shooting rates in Philadelphia are proof that the district attorney’s radical experiment has failed,” McSwain said at a September 2020 press conference, decrying what he viewed as “sweetheart plea deals” made by Krasner’s office. “We can draw a straight line from these policies to the carnage on the

JARED PIPER/PHL COUNCIL

pointing to his decision to scale back the use of cash bail, his use of plea deals, as well as his overall outlook on criminal justice.

State Rep. Martina White, who chairs the Philadelphia Republican City Committee, wrote in a September op-ed that the city’s murder rate – which hit 499 murders in 2020 and has surpassed 520 this year – is “a direct result of the failed leadership of Democratic officials at both the local and state level,” adding that “violent criminals are no longer afraid of the consequences of their actions.”

“This is thanks to the weak, lawless approach taken by Larry Krasner and his failed policies in the District Attorney’s office,” she wrote. “While police continue to do their job and arrest violent criminals for their acts, justice for families impacted by gun violence often stops when the District Attorney’s office either fails to secure convictions – or refuses to even try. Multiple young people have been murdered by perpetrators who should have been behind bars, but were sprung loose due to an open-

December 2021

AMANDA BERG

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December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

”We progressive prosecutors are about what works, and that means focused enforcement.”

–Larry Krasner

streets.”

But Krasner, who’s heading into his fifth year as district attorney, said increasing rates of murder and gun violence are not issues unique to Philadelphia.

In a recent interview with The Intercept, Krasner said the pandemic was likely behind the surge in murders, with after-school programs, art programs, houses of worship and recreation centers all closed during the height of government shutdowns. “We saw the complete disruption of normal prevention in society,” he said, adding that the spike in murders is “young people killing young people with guns.”

In his interview with City & State, he pointed to national data from the Boston University School of Public Health’s Research on Innovations for Safety & Equity (RISE) Lab, which found that from 2019 to 2020, the country’s 50 largest cities saw a 42% increase in fatal shootings. Philadelphia’s percentage increase in total murders from 2019 to 2020, Krasner noted, was

Krasner is trying to usher in a new style of prosecuting that reduces incarceration rates and eliminates cash bail.

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40% – below the national rate.

Krasner said the jump in withdrawn or dismissed gun cases since 2015 is due to a shift in how police make stops in the city, coupled with recent court decisions centered around search and seizure. He said Philadelphia police have been making more car stops than pedestrian stops, which are harder to prove in court. “It is much more difficult for a prosecutor to establish which, if any, of those people in the car had actual knowledge of that gun and have an intent to exercise control over it, which is what the law requires.”

Krasner also shot back at those who think he doesn’t take a hard enough stance on gun possession cases, adding that with those cases, “there is no magic predictor” of whether someone arrested for a gun possession crime will go on to commit more violent offenses. According to data from Krasner’s office, the Philadelphia Police Department and the First Judicial District, just 16 of 1,063 people convicted for possession without a license from January 2015 to March 2021 were later arrested for a shooting. “I consider the illegal possession of a firearm to be a serious offense,” Krasner said. “But I do not consider it to be more serious than shooting people and killing people with guns.”

As for criticisms against him, Krasner said it all comes down to one thing: politics.

“We are back to our usual cheap politics, which is a bunch of Republicans, a bunch of conservatives, a bunch of the worst kind of centrist Democrats, [having] an allergy to data. They have an allergy to studies.

They have an allergy to truth. What they love is rhetoric.”

Whether it be rhetoric or legitimate criticisms, progressive prosecutors across the U.S. have found success despite efforts to defeat, or even recall, them. In Chicago, Kim Foxx won reelection as Cook County State’s Attorney last year, and this year, an attempt to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón failed to earn enough signatures to move forward.

And in Philadelphia, voters signaled this year by 30-point and 40-point margins that they wanted to give Krasner another four years to achieve his second-term goals: taking advantage of alternatives to prosecution, tackling gun violence from a public-health perspective and fighting for an end to cash bail.

And in Krasner’s eyes, voters have given him a mandate to do just that. “This is what people actually want in the United States,” he said. “The mainstream Democratic Party has not figured it out, but this is actually what Americans want.”

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WE WILL STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT, FOR WHAT IS FAIR AND WHAT IS JUST. HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT AND NOT A PRIVILEGE. — Rep. John Lewis

Congratulations to Greg Deavens and Steve Fera on being named to the Philly Power 100. Thank you for your tireless dedication to the health and wellbeing of our region’s citizens.

From Brian Tierney and your friends at Brian Communications

briancom.com

December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

THE 2021 PHILLY POWER 100

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For better or worse, their words and actions mean the most right now.

M

ERRIAM-WEBSTER defines power as “possession of, control, authority, or influence over others.”

In some cases, power is obvious. For example, if you’re the head of a city like Mayor Jim Kenney, you have power, even if people sometimes question the ways you wield it.

If you have the kind of financial wherewithal to hand your salary as a City Councilmember to the School District of Philadelphia like Allan Domb, that’s power.

If you can give a lawmaker a call and get more funding for public television like Holly Kinser, that’s power.

But sometimes, power is more subtle, less obvious.

Sharmain Matlock-Turner’s power lies in helping people become empowered. Bill Golderer uses the power of both of his pulpits – Arch Street United Methodist Church and the United Way – to help people in need.

There is also a healing power in the arts, as Matias Tarnopolsky and Anne Ewers can tell you.

While many of these people have been with us for a while, there are also some new faces that will challenge us to look at what power might look like in the long term.

Here is City & State’s 2021 Philly Power 100.

20 CityAndStatePA .com

December 2021

1 LARRY KRASNER DISTRICT ATTORNEY When Larry Krasner was elected district attorney in 2017, many people thought that a self-described progressive D.A. wouldn’t work in a city like Philadelphia.

Many thought that his desire to focus less on incarceration and more on dealing with the problems that led to people winding up in prison would make him a one-term wonder.

And they definitely didn’t think that a DA with a camera crew following him around for a documentary would be very popular.

But he won a second term in November despite criticism over the city’s record-breaking murder rate. The former defense attorney has been successful in lowering the

city’s incarcerated population, partially by trying to address the root causes of violence, partially by exonerating those wrongfully convicted. But while there are many who applaud these efforts, there are many more who wish that Krasner, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and Mayor Jim Kenney would spend more time together working on the city’s gun violence problem.

2 JIM KENNEY MAYOR The saying goes, “heavy is the head that wears the crown.” To

Jim Kenney, that crown might feel more like an anvil these days. Battling the aftermath of a shutdown brought on by a global pandemic and a wave of gun violence that said shutdown couldn’t even stop, Kenney is trying to navigate the only landscape tougher than the one Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is trying to wade through. Kenney has been mayor of Philadelphia since 2016 and is currently serving his second term in office.

While the last couple of years have been challenging, his victory in making the city the first in the U.S. to pass a sweetened beverage tax has led to the expansion of free Pre-K and money for parks and recreational spaces. But the gun violence issue still

Krasner’s promised to end mass incarceration and reform the DA’s office.

looms overhead, and how Kenney handles that before his term ends in 2023 will most likely be a campaign issue.

3 DARRELL CLARKE CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT When the city passed its fiscal year 2022 budget, $400 million was set aside for neighborhood preservation, job creation and affordable

CITY OF PHILADELPHIA; PROVIDED; HEATHER KHALIFA – PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER FILE PHOTOGRAPH

When he leaves office, Kenney will likely be remembered for his progressive agenda and policies.

December 2021

housing. Council’s Poverty Action Plan, which took a hit when the 2021 budget was cut due to COVID-19, got $20 million added to it as well.

Those two items were part of Darrell Clarke’s wish list.

While the city’s crime rate is important to the Council president, one thing he’s focused on most over the last few years is the fact that Philadelphia is widely recognized as the poorest city of its size in the U.S. Clarke, who represents Council’s 5th councilmanic district, has focused much of his agenda on these issues. He’s been City Council president since 2012 and has presided over a Council that largely follows his lead.

City & State Pennsylvania

Evans has represented the state’s 3rd congressional district since 2019.

In recent years, Boyle has advocated for expanding access to Medicare, enacting a wealth tax and strengthening labor laws.

4 BRENDAN BOYLE MEMBER OF CONGRESS Brendan Boyle is one of two members of Congress to represent Philadelphia in Washington, D.C. and has ascended from the Pennsylvania General Assembly to the U.S. House of Representatives in less than a decade. He was first elected to represent the 13th Congressional District in 2014 and has been elected three subsequent times since then.

He currently serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means and the House Committee on the Budget.

backed separate measures to fund environmental justice efforts and solutions to solve gun violence cases.

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7 CHAIR & CEO Comcast

MEMBER OF CONGRESS

Brady boasts the nickname: “The Mayor of Capitol Hill.”

from the five-county area expressing their intentions to run both of the offices, Brady will have a full dance card. When you’re one of the longest serving leaders of a political party that represents a sizable chunk of the commonwealth’s electorate and can count President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as your friends, people are going to want to curry your favor. Since winning the seat in 1986, the Overbrook native has worked to get Democratic candidates elected locally and nationwide.

He served as a member of the House of Representatives until 2019, serving as chair of the Committee on House Administration. He’s also been a professor of organizational dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School for 22 years.

BRIAN ROBERTS

DWIGHT EVANS You’d be hard-pressed to find a lawmaker from Philadelphia with the experience to rival that of Dwight Evans. Evans has served in elected office for more than 40 years, first as a state representative in Harrisburg and later as a member of Congress in Washington, D.C. During his 30-plus years in Harrisburg, Evans became the first Black chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

Now, in his third term as a member of Congress, Evans serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Small Business Committee. Recently, he

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6 BOB BRADY CHAIR Philadelphia Democratic Party Now that everyone is starting to pay attention to the 2022 midterm elections, life is about to get a lot busier for former Congressman Bob Brady. With a U.S. Senate seat up for grabs due to Sen. Pat Toomey’s retirement, the governor’s office up for grabs, due to Gov. Tom Wolf’s term limits, and several people

Comcast has become one of the nation’s leading telecommunications companies under the watch of Brian Roberts, who has helped the company transform into a leading provider of internet and cable TV. Comcast has also become a considerable influence in the world of politics over the last two decades in terms of spending on lobbying efforts, and if you’re looking for a symbol of the company’s influence in the City of Brotherly Love, look no further than the two Comcast buildings that adorn the city’s skyline and serve as headquarters for Comcast employees and those at other Comcast-owned entities. He has received several awards for his philanthropic endeavors and for his commitment to a diverse workforce in the cable industry.

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December 2021

professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. At Penn, Cunningham has overseen initiatives to improve efficiency by decreasing emergency room overcrowding and utilizing nursing resources in care delivery systems.

Cunningham’s research interests include the impacts of nursing on health outcomes and innovative models of care, among others. She has had research published in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, Journal of Cancer Survivorship and other medical publications.

Bell is president and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

MADELINE BELL PRESIDENT & CEO Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Madeline Bell became president and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2015 after spending decades in health care and hospital administration. She kickstarted her career as a pediatric nurse in 1983 and now oversees CHOP, which employs more than 15,000 people and brings in $3 billion in revenue each year. Under Bell’s leadership, the hospital has been recognized for its work time and time again. It was named the top children’s hospital in the Mid-Atlantic region by U.S. News & World Report and was ranked the number two hospital in the nation in U.S. News & World

9 STEPHEN KLASKO PRESIDENT Thomas Jefferson University Jefferson Health has grown significantly since Dr. Stephen Klasko took over as president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. The health system has grown from three hospitals to 18 during Klasko’s tenure, and with the recent acquisition of HealthPartners Plans, Jefferson is expected to see $8.1 billion in revenues with more than 45,000

employees. Klasko was instrumental in the merger between Thomas Jefferson University and Philadelphia University in 2017. He is also known for his expertise in health care reform, writing five books, including, “UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance” and “Patient No Longer, Why Healthcare Must Deliver the Care Experience That Consumers Want and Expect.”

10 REGINA CUNNINGHAM CEO Hospital of the University Of Pennsylvania Dr. Regina Cunningham has served as the CEO of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania since 2017 and is known for her work as a nurse, scientist and educator.

She is currently an adjunct

11 RYAN BOYER BUSINESS MANAGER Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council Ryan Boyer made history in November when he became the first Black person elected business manager of the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council.

Boyer also serves as the business manager for the Laborers’ District Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity, which represents workers throughout four predominately Black local unions. Before becoming business manager, Boyer was president of the Building and Construction Trades Council. Boyer is president of LiUNA’s African American Caucus and served as chair of the Delaware River Port Authority until he left that position earlier this year.

CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA; LIUNA; PROVIDED; SHAPIRO FOR PENNSYLVANIA

8

Report’s 2021-22 Honor Roll of Best Children’s Hospitals.

Bell also keeps active in the Philadelphia business community, serving on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Comcast-NBCUniversal, among others.

December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

12

Health Group announced it formed a partnership with Quartet Health that strives to achieve faster quality mental health care for all patients, despite acuity levels or insurance types. Deavens currently serves as chair of the board of directors of Hartford HealthCare, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the African American Museum in Philadelphia, among others.

JEFF BROWN CHAIR & CEO Brown’s Super Stores For most merchants, having more than one of your stores looted during an uprising despite your work to better the community might make you reconsider if you want to stay in the neighborhood.

But Jeff Brown isn’t like most merchants. When his Brown’s ShopRite stores at 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue in West Philadelphia and Fox Street in North Philadelphia were looted during the George Floyd protests, the thought of walking away and leaving those neighborhoods never crossed his mind. Brown is chair of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Workforce Development Board and the founder and chair of Uplift Solutions, which provides a workforce system for returning citizens. He’s past chair of the Philadelphia Youth Network, treasurer of the Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, and co-chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. He is also the co-founder and chair of the PA 30 Day Fund, which has been providing assistance to small businesses during the pandemic.

13 JOANNA MCCLINTON STATE REPRESENTATIVE State Rep. Joanna McClinton is the first woman and first African American elected House Democratic Leader in the 244-year history of the General Assembly. She also made history when she was elected House Democratic Caucus Chair

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As founder and CEO of Brown’s Super Stores, Brown oversees 12 supermarkets throughout the region.

in 2018. Before becoming a state representative, McClinton worked as chief counsel to state Sen. Anthony H. Williams, working on policy and legislation. She was an assistant public defender for seven years and became assistant chief of the East Zone during her last year. McClinton has served as a member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing and secretary of the Philadelphia Barrister’s Association. She has received a list of honors including the Barristers Association of Philadelphia’s Young Lawyer of the Year award, the Pre-K for P.A. Champion Award and the Lucien E. Blackwell Guiding Light Community Award.

14 GREGORY DEAVENS PRESIDENT & CEO Independence Health Group Gregory E. Deavens became the president and CEO for Independence Health Group, parent company for Independence Blue Cross, in January. Deavens became executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer at Independence in 2017, leading the company’s financial functions and Actuarial, Underwriting, and Enterprise Risk Management organizations. Earlier this month, Independence

15 JOSH SHAPIRO ATTORNEY GENERAL Right now, Josh Shapiro is the most powerful lawman in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But his goal is to become the state’s next governor, and so far, he’s the lone Democrat running to succeed current Gov. Tom Wolf. Shapiro is currently serving his second term as attorney general. He ran on a promise to restore integrity to the office following the resignation of Kathleen Kane. During his tenure, he has focused on weeding out legislative malfeasance and protecting the right to vote for Pennsylvanians. Should he become governor, it would mark a return to Harrisburg, along with the experience needed to negotiate with a Republican-controlled legislature. Before serving as a Montgomery County commissioner, Shapiro spent three terms in the Pennsylvania state House.

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December 2021

hailed by some as a national model and has been replicated in other states.

18 DANIELLE OUTLAW POLICE COMMISSIONER

AMY GUTMANN PRESIDENT University of Pennsylvania

Harris serves Pennsylvania’s 186th legislative district in the House of Representatives.

16 JORDAN HARRIS STATE REPRESENTATIVE According to the Prison Policy Initiative, there are 96,000 people currently incarcerated in Pennsylvania’s prisons. Because a significant portion of this group is from Philadelphia, that means some may come from neighborhoods that are also likely experiencing poverty,

inadequate education or a lack of social services. State Rep. Jordan Harris, the Democratic Whip in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, has been trying to address those issues through his advocacy of education, getting illegal guns off of the streets and criminal justice reform. Harris is only the second African American to be voted into the Whip position by his Democratic colleagues. He has worked with his Republican colleagues to pass legislation like the Clean Slate Act, which would allow certain criminal records to be sealed. It’s been

Not only is Amy Gutmann the University of Pennsylvania’s longest-tenured president, but she’s received international recognition for her work at the Ivy league institution.

Gutmann has made great strides to make the university more inclusive and has worked to increase the school’s footprint in Philadelphia and across the world. Gutman led the university’s most successful fundraising effort to date and her work has also transcended education. At the start of the fall semester, she thanked her campus community for complying with the university’s vaccine requirement, reporting 90% of faculty and staff and 88% of students reporting being fully vaccinated as of August.

Gutmann was nominated to be the next U.S. ambassador to Germany earlier this year, a role she plans to accept upon receiving confirmation from the U.S. Senate.

19 CITY COUNCIL’S POTENTIAL MAYORAL CANDIDATES SEE PAGE 41.

Gutmann is the longestserving president in the history of UPenn.

PA HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS; PROVIDED

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When Danielle Outlaw became the first African American woman to helm the Philadelphia Police Department in February 2020, her appointment was cheered by a community that was hopeful that she represented reform. While she may actually do that, Outlaw is discovering that being in charge of the 6,500 sworn officers and 800 civilians that make up the nation’s fourth largest police department is complicated. Prior to her arrival in Philadelphia, Outlaw was the chief of Portland’s Bureau of Police.

She has been honored by the Police Executive Research Forum with their Gary P. Hayes Award, the Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare Culture of Caring Award for Community Relations and Civic Engagement, and has been honored as a 2019 Marie Lamfrom Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Outlaw is also a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Human and Civil Rights Committee and is an active member of the National Organization of Black Law Executives.

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20 THE FRESH(ER) FACES OF CITY COUNCIL SEE PAGE 45.

December 2021

sharing information with law enforcement.

22 VINCENT HUGHES STATE SENATOR

DAVID OH CITY COUNCILMEMBER As one of three minority seats in Philadelphia’s Democratcontrolled City Council, you could understand why David Oh, a Republican and AtLarge City Councilmember, might feel a little frustrated.

But since taking office in 2012, Oh, the first Asian American to hold political office in Philadelphia, has managed to make his presence felt.

From championing the economic benefits of the city’s creative force as chair of Council’s Committee on Global Opportunities and the Creative/Innovative Economy to his work advocating for veterans and governmental transparency, Oh has fought to make things better for Philadelphians. Most recently, he has taken on the cause of improving witness protections for those who want to help Philadelphia police solve the city’s gun violence problem by

23 MARTINA WHITE STATE REPRESENTATIVE State Rep. Martina White has seen her influence grow since first being elected state representative in 2015. At the time, White was the first new Republican elected in Philadelphia in 25 years, and she’s only continued to rise in Republican circles since then. In 2019, she was elected chair of the Philadelphia Republican City Committee, and in 2020, her colleagues in the House Republican Caucus selected her as the next caucus secretary, making her

Williams said her passion for public safety stems from the murder of her great uncle.

In 2019, White was elected chair of the Philadelphia Republican City Committee.

a member of GOP leadership in the General Assembly.

White has also spearheaded legislative efforts to enact transportation reforms and has sponsored legislation to increase access to educational scholarships.

24 JENNIFER ARBITTIER WILLIAMS U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA At a recent City Hall press conference addressing the city’s burgeoning number of deaths due to gun violence, Jennifer Arbittier Williams stood solemnly among the assembled dignitaries and members of the press. Though silent, her presence was felt,

especially in a building where far too many people have spent time at the defense table opposite her in federal court. Just days before the press conference, a federal jury found Councilmember Bobby Henon and labor leader John Dougherty guilty of federal crimes. Arbittier Williams has been the region’s federal law enforcement officer since January, and since her appointment, she has launched the Threat Intervention and Prevention Network, which brings together regional law enforcement officers, local businesses, schools, nonprofits and community groups to prevent acts of extremist violence. Williams has been honored with the Anti-Defamation League’s SHIELD award and the Federal Trade Commission’s National Criminal Liaison Award.

PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL; PROVIDED

21

As the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, state Sen. Vincent Hughes has been instrumental in the creation of the Pennsylvania Small Business Grant Program, a program that’s given $275 million in grants to the businesses that are often forgotten by such programs. He also led the negotiations that created the commonwealth’s new $30 million Violence Prevention Grant program, which gives money to community based organizations. Hughes also partnered with Gov. Tom Wolf to help bring more than $20 million in new funding to clean and repair toxic and crumbling schools in Philadelphia.

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Consortium are an example of what happens when people see a need and don’t wait for someone else to meet it.

When Stanford, a practicing physician for more than 20 years, noticed that African Americans in Philadelphia were being diagnosed and dying of COVID-19 at disproportionate rates, she gathered together a group of doctors to begin testing, and later vaccinating people in communities of color. To date, the consortium has vaccinated more than 51,000 people and has tested more than 25,000.

Stanford has been honored with The Philadelphia Award for her work. In October, she opened the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity.

PRESIDENT Temple University Jason Wingard is a relative newcomer to Temple University, being confirmed as the university’s president over the summer. But as president of Temple, Wingard will hold considerable clout in the city, overseeing 17 schools, eight campuses, 600 academic programs, and most importantly, more than 35,000 students. The West Chester native was unanimously confirmed by the Temple Board of Trustees in June 2020. He previously spent time at Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, and also worked at Goldman Sachs and The Education Board, Inc.

26 JOHN FRY PRESIDENT Drexel University While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a lot more online learning than anyone really wanted to participate in, the prospect for change and creative thinking excites John Fry. He sees it as a chance for universities and other organizations to collaborate, innovate and re-learn how to work together at a time when not everyone is comfortable returning to the in-person environment. Fry became Drexel’s 14th president in 2010 and set out to transform the school into a private research university with a strong public purpose. During his tenure, Drexel has helped revitalize parts of West Philadelphia, leading to its designation as

Fry became the 14th president of Drexel University in 2010.

a federal Promise Zone and initiating Schuylkill Yards, a 14-acre innovation district at William H. Gray III 30th Street Station.

27 LESLIE RICHARDS GENERAL MANAGER SEPTA When it comes to transportation, Leslie Richards, the CEO and general manager of SEPTA, knows what’s going on. As SEPTA’s 11th general manager, Richards leads the nation’s sixth largest public transportation system with a budget of $2 billion, 9,500 employees and 2,800 vehicles in service. Prior

to joining SEPTA, Richards was the first woman to lead PennDOT under Gov. Tom Wolf and has been recognized for her leadership in the transportation sector. She spent three years as vice chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. She has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

28 ALA STANFORD FOUNDER Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium Dr. Ala Stanford and the Black Doctors COVID-19

29 JERRY JORDAN PRESIDENT Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Earlier this year, Dr. William Hite, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, announced that he would be leaving the district when his contract expires next year. To find a new superintendent, the district plans to hold virtual and in-person listening sessions to hear from district stakeholders about who would make a good replacement.

Among those stakeholders will be Jerry Jordan. A lifelong Philadelphia resident who attended district schools and taught high school in the district, Jordan has been

DREXEL UNIVERSITY; PHILADELPHIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

JASON WINGARD

SALUTES

Greg Deavens and Steve Fera Independence Blue Cross congratulates our own Greg Deavens and Steve Fera, and all of those honored, for being named to the Philly Power 100 list.

Now more than ever, Independence is steadfast in its commitment to improve the lives and health of the people in our region.

Gregory E. Deavens President and CEO Independence Blue Cross

Stephen P. Fera Executive Vice President Public Affairs

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STEPHEN FERA EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC AFFAIRS Independence Blue Cross

Matlock-Turner is president and CEO of the Urban Affairs Coalition.

president of the union since 2007. He led the union during a time when the statecontrolled School Reform Commission supervised the district and through to the return to local control. In September, Jordan negotiated a new, three-year contract with the district, shortly before the old one was set to expire and PFT members had threatened a strike.

30 SHARMAIN MATLOCK-TURNER PRESIDENT & CEO Urban Affairs Coalition If you’re one of the many parents in Philadelphia whose child has managed to find

part-time work that not only allowed them to raise enough money for new school clothes but also learn something they might be able to use in the future, thank Sharmain Matlock-Turner. Because it reminds her of the summer job of her youth, the sense of purpose it gave her, and the loafers it allowed her to buy without her parent’s help, the Urban Affairs Coalition is near and dear to her heart. Since becoming the first woman to serve as president and CEO of the UAC in 1999, MatlockTurner has been trying to connect young people to the program that’s helped many young people for the last 30 years. It has also figured into some of her other work, including serving as co-chair of Philadelphia City Council’s Special Commission on Poverty Reduction and Prevention.

When the pandemic hit the Greater Philadelphia region, it was a real challenge trying to connect residents in underserved communities with testing and vaccinations – places where COVID-19 was hitting the hardest.

But it was a challenge that Stephen Fera took on through the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, which he oversees. The $130 million foundation gave $675,000 in grants to the PHL COVID-19 fund to help community organizations do their vital work and the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium to provide community-based testing.

Fera’s work has included expanding long-term addiction and recovery programs at colleges and universities, launching mental health programs for nurses and creating a partnership with Philadelphia City Council and PhilaWorks to help home health aides become nursing assistants. He has used his skills as a connector to bring state, local and federal entities to the table to spur not only improved health care outcomes for the region, but also economic growth.

32 MALCOLM KENYATTA STATE REPRESENTATIVE In Pennsylvania, one of President Joe Biden’s most visible surrogates on the campaign trail was state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

Kenyatta, the first openly

33 SHARIF STREET STATE SENATOR As the 2022 midterm elections approach, the number of people throwing their hats into the ring for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Pat Toomey is probably going to grow. But one of the names that has already hinted at making a run for that seat is state Sen. Sharif Street. Street represents the Pennsylvania Senate’s third district and also serves as vice chair of the commonwealth’s Democratic party. Among the issues he’s championed in the Senate are criminal justice reform, cannabis reform, expanding health care, food access and voting rights. He also chaired committees on Election Reform and State Government.

In October, Street put together a bipartisan Pennsylvania Crime Prevention caucus to try and find solutions to the

KARIM MUHAMMAD; JOHN CARLANO/PHILADELPHIA BAR ASSOCIATION

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LGBTQ person of color to win a seat in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, is hoping that the name recognition he picked up going through places like Forty Fort Borough campaigning for Biden will help him become the youngest U.S. Senator in Pennsylvania history. During his time in the legislature, Kenyatta has championed raising the minimum wage, addressing generational poverty and gun control. And he was one of the “Rising Stars” picked to deliver a keynote address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Get back to a work-life balance that’s actually balanced.

YOUR CENTER CITY WORKDAY IS WAITING. GET RE-CENTERED. CENTERCITYPHILA.ORG/GETRECENTERED @CENTERCITYDISTRICT

@CCDPHILA

#GETRECENTERED

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Matthews in October upended District Council 33’s leadership for the first time since 1996. As an official at Local 394, representing water department workers, Garrett now leads an organization of more than 10,000 members, from sanitation workers to correctional officers and 15 unions. Going forward with a worker-centric message, Garrett is hopeful the city recognizes the labor movement during upcoming contract negotiations.

34 PAUL LEVY PRESIDENT & CEO Center City District Once upon a time, Philadelphia’s Center City was, well, meh. But these days, a trip downtown offers you clean streets and sidewalks, nice restaurants, welcoming shopfronts and other improvements that have made this section of the city one that now attracts tourists.

At the center of the Center City District’s success is Paul Levy, who has served as CEO for the business improvement district since its inception in 1991. Levy uses the district’s $29 million annual budget to provide marketing, extra security, hospitality and cleaning services to keep it friendly and viable. The Center City District has financed and implemented $152 million in streetscape improvements, including the revamping of Dilworth Park at City Hall.

Levy has been the founding chief executive of Center City District since its inception in 1991.

Insulators and Asbestos Workers Local 14. Eiding is an officer on the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council, serving as its secretary-treasurer, and also is a member of the executive council of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. He is also on the general board of the national AFL-CIO.

the SEPTA board after being appointed by House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton.

In his current role, Vera represents roughly 3,000 workers and has prioritized the importance of diversity in labor. Vera worked in construction before becoming an organizer for the Laborers and rising through the ranks.

PRESIDENT

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Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO

ESTEBAN VERA JR.

ERNEST GARRETT

You can’t talk about Philadelphia labor without mentioning Patrick Eiding.

He’s currently in his sixth term as president of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, which is comprised of 100 local unions in Philadelphia and represents more than 150,000 families. He was first elected council president in 2002, and prior to that worked as business manager and financial secretary of

BUSINESS MANAGER

PRESIDENT

LIUNA Local 57

AFSCME District Council 33

Esteban Vera Jr. made history when he became business manager for Laborers’ Local 57 in 2016, as he was the first Latino labor leader of a major union in the Philadelphia area. Not only that, but Vera, an Army veteran who served in Bosnia, is also the first Latino member to serve on

Ernest Garrett’s surprise victory over incumbent president Herman “Pete”

35 PATRICK EIDING

38 LYNNE FOX INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT Workers United Philadelphia Joint Board Born into the labor movement, Lynne Fox’s father was a longtime manager of the Philadelphia Joint Boards.

Following in his footsteps, she’s served as manager of the Joint Boards and has spent more than 15 years as the International President of Workers United. In her role, Fox oversees more than 80,000 members in the U.S. and Canada in industries ranging from textile and apparel manufacturing to hospitality and retail. She’s also advocated for stronger

Garrett represents members of Philly’s blue-collar municipal union, D.C. 33.

CENTER CITY DISTRICT; SUSAN BEARD DESIGN

commonwealth’s growing crime problem.

January

Power of Diversity: Black 100

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Above & Beyond

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Healthcare Power 100

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Pennsylvania Power 100

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Pride Power 100

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June

Forty Under 40: Rising Stars

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Print

Political Consultants Power 50

Transportation Summit

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Forty Under 40: Rising Stars

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41 STEPHEN COZEN CHAIR Cozen O’Connor Rhynhart has pressed the city to strengthen its financial management through annual audits.

OSHA protections, as well as better enforcement and accountability measures.

39 AL SCHMIDT

Accountability Office in Washington, D.C. and served as a policy analyst for the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets.

40

VICE CHAIR

REBECCA RHYNHART

Philadelphia City Commissioners

CITY CONTROLLER

Al Schmidt, the lone Republican and longesttenured member of the commissioners board, received national attention in 2020 for his defense of the city’s election results. That came despite criticisms from then-President Donald Trump and a number of death threats to Schmidt and his family.

Now in his third term as City Commissioner, Schmidt has decided to move on. He’ll be resigning as commissioner in January to take over as the next president and CEO of the good-government watchdog group the Committee of Seventy. As commissioner, Schmidt worked to modernize elections in Philadelphia and improve integrity. He is a former senior analyst at the nonpartisan U.S. Government

When Rebecca Rhynhart defeated incumbent Controller Alan Butkovitz in the 2017 primary, she was on her way to making history as the city’s first woman elected to the City Controller’s office. Since then, and as she begins her second term as the city’s financial watchdog, Rhynhart has made her voice heard on matters of transparency. She joined City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier in petitioning the mayor to do more to combat gun violence. She recently issued a report indicating the funding that the city is applying to the problem is being used for solutions that do nothing in the short term.

Rhynhart has also made good on her promise to make the controller’s office more accessible. Instead of having to rely on only paper

When high-profile Philadelphians need counsel on important legal matters and how it impacts everything from business law to governmental relations, they reach out to Stephen A. Cozen, founder and chair of Cozen O’Connor, a law firm with offices around the world.

Everyone from former Gov. Ed Rendell to Drexel University President John Fry to officials at the Kimmel Center has sought out his advice. Cozen spearheaded the creation of the Samuel D. Cozen PAL Center, named for his late father, a former basketball coach at Drexel University and Overbrook High School. He’s also a member of the boards of the National Museum of American Jewish History, The Philadelphia Foundation and the President’s Leadership Council for the Kimmel Center.

42 ROB WONDERLING PRESIDENT & CEO The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia Rob Wonderling has been a vocal advocate for the business community in the

Greater Philadelphia area since joining the chamber in 2009. Throughout his tenure, he helped to implement a new member engagement model to foster more opportunities for Chamber members, and established diversity, equity and inclusion programming. Wonderling is a former member of the state Senate, where he chaired the Senate Communications & Technology Committee, as well as the Senate Transportation Committee. He also spent time as a deputy secretary of transportation in the Ridge-Schweiker administration. Wonderling will depart the chamber in June 2022.

43 JOHN MCNESBY PRESIDENT Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5 A former Philadelphia police officer, John McNesby has been a member of the Philadelphia Lodge #5 Fraternal Order of Police since 1986. But as president, he represents more than 14,000 active and retired officers of the Philadelphia Police and Sheriff’s Department. He served the union in various capacities before taking over as president in 2007. Since

Schmidt will soon take over as president of the Phillybased Committee of Seventy.

OFFICE OF THE CITY CONTROLLER; J. DOWNS

when it comes to seeing the results of her audits, she put infographics on her website that allow residents to follow the money more easily.

Congratulations to

Mollie McEnteer Senior Advisor, Government Relations

Philadelphia Top 100

1 OF ONLY 5 LAW FIRMS NAMED A LAW 360 PENNSYLVANIA POWERHOUSE Full-Service Legal and Government Relations Philadelphia

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Harrisburg

|

Congratulations PSG President & CEO John Hawkins and everyone on City & State PA’s Philly Power 100 list

Pittsburgh

|

15 Offices Nationwide

|

BIPC.com

Congratulations!

Sharmain Matlock-Turner President & CEO Urban Affairs Coalition

The UAC Family joins City & State PA in congratulating all Philly Power 100 Honorees

UAC.org

@UACoalition

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then, he’s helped negotiate five contracts, and most recently, engaged in a battle with D.A. Larry Krasner over police misconduct disclosures.

It should go without saying that Philly’s officers have no bigger backer than McNesby.

GERARD SWEENEY PRESIDENT & CEO

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Brandywine Realty Trust

CHERYL BETTIGOLE CITY HEALTH COMMISSIONER

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Young is president and CEO of Temple University Health System.

secretary of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP and served as president of the Guardian Civic League in Philadelphia. She retired from the Philadelphia Police Department in 2013.

46 MICHAEL YOUNG

ROCHELLE BILAL

PRESIDENT & CEO

SHERIFF

Temple University Health System

The power in the sheriff’s office lies with overseeing sheriff’s sales, enforcing court orders like tax liens and securing courthouses, among other things. Although Rochelle Bilal’s short time in office has not been without controversy, she did break barriers when she was sworn in in January. Bilal, a 27-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, became the first African American woman ever elected sheriff in the 181-year history of the office. Bilal previously was the

Michael Young has led the Temple University Health System since February 2020, overseeing four hospitals, seven multispecialty centers and a collection of community offices and urgent care locations. Young brought more than 30 years of leadership experience at academic medical centers when he came to Temple in 2018.

He continues to spearhead the system’s restructuring, including the recently announced conversion of

the former Cancer Treatment Centers of America hospital campus into a hospital for women’s health.

47 KEVIN MAHONEY CEO University of Pennsylvania Health System Kevin Mahoney had been in Penn Medicine leadership for 23 years before being named CEO in 2019. He’s gone from working in information technology, strategic planning, the primary care network and human resources to now leading one of the nation’s leading health care institutions. Mahoney oversaw the development of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center, and more recently, the brand new hospital known as The Pavilion on Penn Medicine’s West Philadelphia campus.

49 STEVEN SCOTT BRADLEY CHAIR African American Chamber of Commerce When the subject of violence in certain parts of Philadelphia comes up, something that

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM; DERRICK DRAN

Dr. Cheryl Bettigole took over operations at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health earlier this year, replacing Dr. Thomas Farley, and was named the city’s new health commissioner just last month.

She is now in charge of leading citywide efforts during the COVID-19 and has made it a priority to address issues related to health equity. With experience as a primary care doctor and longtime public servant, Bettigole says she is committed to improving access to primary care and addressing the racial disparities exposed during the pandemic.

Gerard “Jerry” Sweeney has served as president, CEO and trustee of Brandywine Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust, since its founding in 1994. During that time, he has helped the company grow from 200,000 square feet and a total market capitalization of less than $5 million to more than 24 million square feet and a total market capitalization of about $5 billion. He’s focused on urban and transit development, including the proposed $3.5 billion Schuylkill Yards development in University City. Sweeney serves as chair of the Schuylkill River Development Corporation and as a member of the Center City District Foundation, the King of Prussia Rail Coalition Advisory Committee and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority.

Bellevue Strategies'

MUSTAFA RASHED for being named to City & State PA's Philadelphia Power 100 List!

Bellevue Strategies is a full service government relations, advocacy, and strategic communications firm. Please find us at: www.bellevuestrategies.com

congratulations

RO B WO N D E R L I N G

President & CEO, The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia 2021 Philly Power 100 List

The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia brings area businesses and civic leaders together to promote growth and create opportunity in our region. Our members represent 11 counties, three states, and roughly 600,000 employees from thousands of member companies and organizations.

Be at the Heart of Good Business.

To learn more about the benefits of membership and join us in this important work, call 215-790-3700 or visit chamberphl.com/join.

We congratulate our Partner

Lauren McKenna

on being named to

City and State PA’s Philadelphia 100

950 attorneys nationwide @CHAMBERPHL #GOODBIZPHL

PHILADELPHIA

2000 Market Street

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December 2021

51 NARASIMHA SHENOY CHAIR Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia

Shenoy is chair of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia.

gets mentioned is the lack of investment in parts of the city, particularly when it comes to commerce.

Changing that dynamic is Steven Scott Bradley’s mission. His is the agency tasked with connecting the tri-state area’s Black community with the resources and mentoring it needs to either start a business or expand one. It’s something Bradley knows well because he has a business of his own.

As president and founder of the Bradley and Bradley Associates commercial insurance firm, he specializes in commercial insurance and risk management. He’s taken part in trade missions for the City of Philadelphia to China, Korea, Germany, Israel and the United Kingdom, where he has also participated in an economic studies program.

50 JENNIFER RODRIGUEZ PRESIDENT & CEO Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Jennifer Rodriquez leads efforts at the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to promote opportunities and growth for Hispanicowned businesses in the Philadelphia region. This year, Rodriguez and the GPHCC partnered with other diverse chambers of commerce in the area, including the African American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware and the Asian American

When Narasimha “Nick” Shenoy started the Kedar Corporation in 1996, he found out the hard way that succeeding in business as an immigrant, no matter how long you’ve been in the U.S., can be a challenge. He recognized he could help others get through this challenge by sharing what he’s learned, which is why he started the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia nearly 20 years ago. Shenoy served as president of the chamber until October, when Khine Saw became the organization’s new leader. He currently serves as chair of the organization’s board. At the height of the pandemic, Shenoy created a program, Asian Eats, to help Asian businesses continue to prosper through helping them connect with grants.

52 BILL GOLDERER PRESIDENT & CEO United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey As the senior pastor of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church, the founder of

Broad Street Ministry and co-founder of the Rooster Soup Company, Bill Golderer knows the importance of inspiring people to create more equitable communities.

And as president of the local United Way, Golderer takes the mission of his ministry a step further with the help of the more than 100,000 donors, advocates and volunteers that make up the United Way family.

Through the PHL COVID-19 Fund, the United Way and its partner organizations were able to raise $18 million to give to nonprofits providing assistance to those most impacted by the pandemic.

Recently, the organization launched a public-private partnership called The Promise, whose mission is to lift 100,000 Philadelphians out of poverty over the next five years.

53 H. PATRICK CLANCY PRESIDENT & CEO Philadelphia Works In order to find a better job in a city filled with “Eds and Meds,” it helps to have access to the skills and training needed for these sectors. Connecting people to the training they need is the job of H. Patrick Clancy, president and CEO of Philadelphia Works, Inc. As the head of the organization that serves as Philadelphia’s workforce development board, Clancy leads the organization’s strategy on investing in the workforce. Before joining

PRIYA MADAMPHIL; PHILADELPHIA WORKS

Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia to form the “Diverse Chambers Coalition of Philadelphia” – a partnership designed to promote diversity and economic growth, while also allowing the respective chambers to speak with a collective voice.

Community College of Philadelphia congratulates Dr. Donald Guy Generals, President for his Philly Power 100 Recognition The Philly Power 100 recognizes the top leaders in the areas of health care, education, government, advocacy, business, labor and nonprofits.

During the most challenging time in the last 100 years, Greg Deavens, Steve Fera, and Independence Blue Cross provided the leadership to move Philadelphia forward.

Congratulations on being recognized for your contributions.

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December 2021

Philadelphia Works, Clancy oversaw an $80 million Welfare to Work program for the commonwealth. He also helped draft the Workplace Innovation and Opportunity Act’s state plan for the U.S. Department of Labor. Clancy is a member of the Community College of Philadelphia’s Board of Trustees and the Workforce Development Council of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He launched the PHL Career Portal, which gives Philadelphia’s workforce free access to resources and online training.

most notably, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. He gained his wealth in cinema and then purchased the Eagles for $195 million in 1994, but his influence in Pennsylvania goes beyond football. As a philanthropist, Lurie has devoted his time and resources to raising autism awareness and contributing toward research and care.

To date, the Eagles Autism Challenge has generated more than $10 million for institutions focused on autism research.

54 JEFF GUARACINO Visit Philadelphia If you’re a visitor to any city, the best way to find out where the best restaurants, shows and shops are is to ask a local. In Philly, the local whose job it is to make you want to come to the City of Brotherly Love and spend your tourism dollars here is Jeff Guaracino. Over the last 20 years, he’s used his abilities to help maintain the city’s image as a tourist destination despite its blemishes. That ability has helped the city begin to bounce back from the hit tourism took in 2020.

According to data from STR and Tourism Economics, Philadelphia’s hotel industry has experienced the quickest recovery to 2019 levels among competitive destinations.

Guaracino has authored two books on gay and lesbian tourism and co-authored a book with Ed Salvato showcasing the best practices in terms of LGBTQ tourism.

He’s also been a contributor to the Philadelphia Gay News since 2009, authoring a travel column.

As CEO of Visit Philadelphia, Guaracino is charged with building the city’s image and driving visitation.

55 MARCUS ALLEN CEO Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region has seen considerable growth since Marcus Allen took over as CEO in 2013, both in terms of revenue and the number of children helping through the organization’s mentorship programs. Allen became the organization’s first Black chief executive in its 100-year history in 2013 and is co-chair of Big Brothers Big Sisters of

57 America’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee. Allen has been honored for his work in the Philadelphia area and has been named Philadelphia Business Journal’s Most Admired CEO and named one of The Philadelphia Tribune’s Top 10 Most Influential African Americans Under the Age of 40.

56 JEFFREY LURIE CHAIR & CEO Philadelphia Eagles Jeffrey Lurie is a movie producer, businessman and

In 1994, Lurie bought the Eagles for $185 million.

MICHAEL RUBIN & JOSH HARRIS PARTNERS Philadelphia 76ers Michael Rubin wears many hats. As part of Harris-Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, he bought the Philadelphia 76ers from Comcast Spectacor in 2011 and has made a name for himself in the world of sports, most notably as the CEO of Fanatics, a global sports merchandise platform. But he’s also been active in the social justice space, frequently advocating for criminal justice reform as co-chair of the REFORM Alliance, which he chairs alongside Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. With the REFORM Alliance, Rubin has helped advance probation and parole reform legislation in states like California, Michigan, Georgia, New York and Louisiana – and has attempted to do the same in Pennsylvania.

VISIT PHILADELPHIA; CEO PORTRAIT

PRESIDENT & CEO

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City & State New York

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MAYORAL WANNABES FROM CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS Allan Domb, Helen Gym, Derek Green, Cherelle Parker, Maria Quiñones Sánchez, Cindy Bass

T

HERE ARE A LOT OF things about running for mayor that require a lot of thought before you do it. For most people, keeping your job while running for office is possible. But if you’re a member of City Council, Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter requires you to quit it.

The reason for this is, elections for Council and mayor are held at the same time. It would create a conflict of interest for someone who is making the laws in Council to then be asked to ratify them as mayor. The “Resign to Run” rule hasn’t dissuaded anyone from Council who really wants the job of mayor, but you’re taking a chance. Here are six Council members who are rumored to be thinking about doing just that.

Of all of the Council members, few are better positioned – at least financially – than Allan Domb. Every year, a school in Philadelphia gets a $130,000 donation from City Council that’s over and above what it receives from the city. That’s the equivalent of Domb’s Council salary, which he’s never taken in his two terms in office. Domb has also spent much of his time in Council focused on ways to help the city reposition itself as no longer the poorest of its size in the U.S. When she ran for re-election in 2019, City Council member Helen Gym was the top vote getter among all Council members with 187,000 votes. That was just 26,000 short of Mayor Jim Kenney’s total, and she won in 55 of the city’s 66 wards. Gym first came on the scene as a community organizer fighting the commonwealth’s takeover of the school district. Since joining City Council, she’s continued her educational activism by successfully lobbying to restore nurses, counselors and other programs to the schools.

Before becoming a member of Council, Derek Green served as special counsel to former City Council member Marian

Left to right: Allan Domb, Helen Gym, Derek Green, Cherelle Parker, Maria Quiñones Sánchez and Cindy Bass

Tasco and as counsel to the chair of the Philadelphia Gas Commission, a position that he still holds. He has been championing the creation of a public bank for the city, something he believes would help solve the city’s problem with retaining minority-owned businesses by providing them with access to capital.

Cherelle Parker, Council’s majority leader, also chairs the Delaware River Port Authority. She has focused on making sure workers have retirement security, training for small business owners and housing preservation loans that would allow current homeowners to repair and maintain their properties. Before her election in 2015, Parker served as a state representative in Northwest Philly. While in the state House, she championed bills that fought off predatory lending and preserved paid sick leave.

The first Latina to hold elected office in Philadelphia, Maria Quiñones Sánchez won her first term to City Council in 2007 and she’s had to fight off primary challengers and the Democratic City Committee itself to stay in office. As Appropriations chair, she played a big role in last year’s budget negotiations and has advocated for progressive tax reform designed to help small businesses create jobs.

Much of Council member Cindy Bass’s focus has been on neighborhoods, from fighting to regulate bins designed for charity donations to holding businesses accountable for nuisance patrons. As chair of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services, Bass wanted to examine the city’s Department of Human Services’ scorecard on umbrella agencies that manage children under DHS care.

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OFFICE OF CITY COUNCILMEMBER ALLAN DOMB; PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL; JARED PIPER; PROVIDED

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Leaphart is chair of The Lenfest Foundation, CEO of Replica Creative and founder of Philanthropi.

Division of Aviation and serves as the city’s representative for all things aviation as it pertains to local, state, national and international aviation issues. Cameron previously worked for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for 13 years.

She is an Air Force veteran, serving as an active-duty officer for seven years, and one year as an Air Force civilian employee.

was CEO of Empirical Media Advisors, a consulting firm specializing in news organizations, and also spent a decade in global advertising sales, marketing and business development for The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications. Friedlich also co-founded XM Capital, a New York media investment firm.

59 KEITH LEAPHART & JIM FRIEDLICH The Lenfest Foundation, The Lenfest Institute

And for years, fans of the Philadelphia 76ers were hoping that someone who actually cared about basketball would come in and save their team from what could only be described as benign neglect. While the team’s play hasn’t led to a championship parade similar to the one he witnessed as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, Josh Harris, the managing partner of the 76ers and the co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Harris Philanthropies, is making a lot of the right moves. Harris has helped the Sixers get to the NBA playoffs for four straight years. Harris’s family foundation, Harris Philanthropies, has been an active part of the Philadelphia community, pledging $3.5

million to the Philadelphia Police Athletic League in 2015.

58 ROCHELLE CAMERON CEO Philadelphia International Airport Rochelle “Chellie” Cameron oversees the operations of the City of Philadelphia’s airport system, which includes the Philadelphia International Airport and the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. She is in charge of the planning, development and administration of the city’s

Dr. Keith Leaphart’s view of business and philanthropy is the same as his view of the medical profession: To optimize the impact of all of those things, you have to make things as innovative as possible. Leaphart believes that just as doctors are given the task of directing support staff to help treat patients, big philanthropy should be used to enhance charitable giving. As chair of The Lenfest Foundation, Leaphart has an understanding of the philanthropic ecosystem and what works with it. In 2018, he put together a talented team at Philanthropi to help maximize donor funding.

Jim Friedlich knows a thing or two about media. He’s currently the executive director and CEO for The Lenfest Institute, a nonprofit that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and is devoted to providing support to local news organizations across the country. Friedlich previously

60 SHAWN MCCANEY & JANET HAAS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BOARD CHAIR William Penn Foundation Public space and the best way to utilize it is something that Shawn McCaney, executive director of the William Penn Foundation, and Dr. Janet Haas, chair of the foundation’s board, think about a lot. Haas has been a part of the William Penn Foundation’s strategic grant making process for decades. Her aim is to make the kinds of investments that protect the Delaware River watershed and support the arts, culture and development of public space. A specialist in palliative care with the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Haas is a board-certified physiatrist, specializing in rehabilitation from brain injuries. She serves

Cameron leads one of the nation’s busiest airports, accounting for 100,000 jobs.

PHIL KRAMER; WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION

CHAIR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO

December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

as a trustee for a variety of organizations including the University of Pennsylvania, Morris Arboretum and the Free Library of Philadelphia.

After spending almost two decades in architecture and engineering firms focusing on community planning and public infrastructure, including a stint as an associate principal and director of planning, McCaney knows what can turn a good public space into a great public space. And it shows in the William Penn Foundation’s investments. Among the projects that the William Penn Foundation has financed during McCaney’s tenure are the Free Library of Philadelphia’s 21st Century Initiative, Mayor Jim Kenney’s Rebuild Initiative, the Penn’s Landing Redevelopment Project, Schuylkill Banks and Dilworth Park.

61 MOLLIE MCENTEER SENIOR ADVISOR, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

MICHAEL GRAY; JESSICA PARRISH

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC As a senior lobbyist for Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC’s Philadelphia office, Mollie McEnteer currently represents Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration, as well as the City of Philadelphia in Harrisburg. McEnteer has worked to protect Kenney’s landmark soda tax, which dedicates funding for pre-K programs. McEnteer has also helped further the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Core Project and has represented the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, which works to bring major events to the city. McEnteer has expertise in appropriations, economic development and legislative initiatives.

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and founded a fourth firm that specializes in digital marketing, communications and crisis management.

He’s currently the CEO of Brian Communications, the chair of Realtime Media and serves as chair of the Poynter Institute Foundation. He recently penned a piece in the Philadelphia Business Journal suggesting that most leaders today are missing the quality of empathy.

Rashed is president and CEO of Bellevue Strategies in Center City.

62 MUSTAFA RASHED PRESIDENT & CEO Bellevue Strategies To make sure that the story you want told is delivered the way you want it to be, you have to control the narrative. That was among the lessons that Mustafa Rashed picked up as a high school student interning at the Philadelphia Tribune. It’s also something he’s carried with him as an advocate and communications expert.

Rashed has coached political campaigns and handled crisis communications on a variety of issues. He has led political strategy for corporations, policy leaders and even presidential candidates. Prior to joining Bellevue, Rashed was a Navy veteran who served in Operation Desert

Storm in Iraq and Operation Restore Hope in Somalia.

He currently serves on the board of directors of the African American Museum, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth and the Dean’s Council at Temple University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.

63 BRIAN TIERNEY CEO Brian Communications A former owner and publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Brian Tierney has developed a reputation as a successful media entrepreneur in the Philadelphia region. In addition to his time owning the paper, Tierney has developed and sold three advertising and communications firms throughout his career

64 JEFF JUBELIRER VICE PRESIDENT Bellevue Communications Group If you are a frequent watcher of 6abc’s “Inside Story,” chances are you’ve seen Jeff Jubelirer sharing his views on whatever has gone on in the Philadelphia area.

Jubelirer, vice president of Bellevue Communications Group, is considered one of the Philadelphia area’s top communications strategists.

Businesses, executives and institutions come to him for his expertise in issues and crisis management. In 2016, Jubelirer was inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Association’s Hall of Fame. When he isn’t helping corporate clients deal with the media, Jubelirer is an adjunct professor in the Department of Communications at Villanova and serves on the board of directors at Eluna, a nonprofit which helps children affected by grief or addiction. He is

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also on the advisory board of Legacy Youth Tennis and Education.

65 NICOLE CASHMAN FOUNDER & CEO Cashman & Associates When Nicole Cashman created Cashman & Associates 20 years ago, a woman being the head of her own strategic marketing firm wasn’t something that was all that common because the “Boys Club” was in full effect. That’s not the case anymore, and Cashman is a big reason why. She leads a team of strategic marketing and communications professionals that handles marketing and public relations for a variety of businesses including tourism, hospitality

and entertainment. Cashman has a diverse client list including Starr Restaurants, Brandywine Realty Trust, AKA, Constellation Culinary Group, Philly Fights Cancer, Visit Philadelphia, Comcast NBCUniversal, James Beard Foundation, Steak 48, Virgin America, SoulCycle, DryBar and more. The company has also been at the center of some of the city’s most iconic events including Live8, Made in America, the NBA All-Star game, as well as political conventions.

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Mount Holyoke College and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, has committed her career to alleviating the effects of poverty and improving outcomes for disadvantaged children and youth. This past summer, Pew awarded nearly $3.5 million in grants to help Philadelphia-area residents and organizations recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

68 TUMAR ALEXANDER CITY MANAGING DIRECTOR Mayor Jim Kenney’s daily operations run through Tumar Alexander. As managing director for the city, he assists in crafting long-term policy, implementing the mayor’s vision and delivering effective and responsive public services. A City Hall veteran, Alexander has held positions in the administrations of former mayors John F. Street and Michael Nutter. Alexander is a North Philadelphia native who attended William Penn High School and Penn State University. During his first few months in this new role, he’s maintained a commitment to reducing gun violence around the city.

69 MARC LAMONT HILL

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FRAZIERITA KLASEN

MEDIA PERSONALITY

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

HOLLY KINSER

As senior vice president, Frazierita Klasen supervises Pew’s portfolio of projects that seek to inform discussions on important policy issues facing the City of Philadelphia and the southeast region. Klasen, who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill wears several hats, depending on the day. The Philadelphia native is best known as the host of BET News, the Coffee & Books podcast and Al Jazeera English’s “UpFront.”

He graduated from Carver High School in the city before earning his bachelor’s degree in education and Spanish from Temple University. Hill then earned his Ph.D. from

PRESIDENT The Kinser Group When government officials at the local, state and federal levels are preparing their

The Pew Charitable Trusts

COLIN LENTON; THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS

Cashman has grown her company into a thriving agency with a diverse client list across Philadelphia.

budgets for the next fiscal year, it’s easy to forget that the organizations that bring art, culture and public assistance programs to municipalities need financial help, too.

Fortunately, organizations like the Broad Street Ministry, the Free Library of Philadelphia, WHYY, the Museum of the American Revolution and others have Holly Kinser on their side. Kinser is considered one of the commonwealth’s premiere lobbyists because of the millions of dollars in state and city capital and operations funding that she’s helped secure for institutions like the Please Touch Museum, SEPTA, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Visit Philadelphia and others. Since establishing the first public affairs office for a Fortune 40 company in Harrisburg in 1990, Kinser has proven herself to be a political powerhouse. She became the first managing director of Greenlee Partners in 1995, and in 2002 was named executive vice president at S.R. Wojdak and Associates. She opened her own firm in 2012.

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City & State New York

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CITY COUNCIL’S FRESHMEN FOUR

Jamie Gauthier, Isaiah Thomas Kendra Brooks, Katherine Gilmore Richardson

Left to right: Jamie Gauthier, Isaiah Thomas, Kendra Brooks and Katherine Gilmore Richardson

P

HILADELPHIA’S freshman four took office back in January 2020 with hopes of making structural changes while on City Council.

Little did they know, last year would give rise to a global pandemic and the murder of George Floyd – two events that would soon change Philadelphia – possibly forever. The four Council members, Jamie Gauthier, Isaiah Thomas, Kendra Brooks and Katherine Gilmore Richardson, have big ambitions for the city’s future.

They hit the ground running once in office, championing relief efforts for those hardest hit by the pandemic and related business closures. Gilmore Richardson,

the youngest woman ever elected to City Council, spearheaded a small business relief fund that helped keep struggling businesses stay afloat before federal aid came down the pipe. Thomas, who got his start in politics working for then-state Rep. Tony Payton Jr., put together Black Workers Matter legislation that looked to hire back Black and brown workers who were laid off in the hospitality industry. He also made a name for himself earlier this year by passing two “Driving Equality” bills designed to curb negative interactions between law enforcement and drivers by limiting when police can pull over drivers for secondary traffic violations. Brooks and Gauthier saw their legislative accomplishments

come through the Emergency Housing Protections Act, which kept thousands of renters on the brink of homelessness in their homes and increased access to affordable housing. Brooks, who hails from the city’s Nicetown section, is the first Working Families Party member to be elected to City Council. Gauthier, born and raised in West Philadelphia, brings housing and economic development experience to the 3rd district.

Together, the four have been a strong voice for equitable treatment for minority communities. They continue to try and address issues related to gun violence, workforce development and more.

- Harrison Cann

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JARED PIPER; KYRON RYALS; NASYA JENKINS; JARED PIPER

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the University of Pennsylvania and now serves as the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at his undergraduate alma mater. He is the author and co-author of six books about politics, hiphop and international affairs.

senior staff counsel in the ACLU’s national Racial Justice Program. During his tenure in that office, he pioneered legal challenges to racial profiling practices nationwide. These were the issues that led him to become a civil rights lawyer after witnessing incidents of prejudice, discrimination and lack of opportunity in his community. Shuford was named one of the Philadelphia Tribune’s Most Influential African Americans and was given the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 2020 Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award.

70 ERNEST OWENS CEO Ernest Media Empire

71 CATHERINE HICKS PRESIDENT, PHILADELPHIA NAACP As president of the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP and publisher of the Philadelphia Sunday

Shuford is executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Sun, Catherine Hicks sees the issues that the city is facing every day, issues that Philadelphia’s Black community through the NAACP is expected to address. Hicks took over the Sun in 2015 after the death of her fiance’, the late J. Wyatt Mondesire. He, too, was the president of the NAACP’s Philadelphia branch. So, in a way, she’s following in his footsteps. Before joining the Sun as a public relations consultant and producer of the radio show, “Freedom Quest,” on WDAS-FM radio, Hicks was the director of project management and communications in the Philadelphia Sheriff’s office.

She is a member of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, the African American Chamber

of Commerce and the Black Women’s Leadership Council.

72 REGGIE SHUFORD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ACLU of Pennsylvania At a time when the Constitution is taking a beating on a whole host of fronts, Reggie Shuford has one of the most important jobs in Pennsylvania. Shuford has a full plate of issues to tackle, including criminal justice reform, racial justice and freedom of speech.

Before coming to the ACLU of Pennsylvania, he was

Owens married his college sweetheart, Barry Johnson, in October of this year.

73 ANTHONY H. WILLIAMS STATE SENATOR Sen. Anthony H. Williams, the Democratic Whip for the Pennsylvania Senate’s Democratic Caucus, was instrumental in the creation of the senate’s Philadelphia Illegal Gun Task Force. He is a member of the Special Council on Gun Violence and the Juvenile Justice Task Force. While best known for his advocacy for school choice, he was one of the creators of Pennsylvania’s charter school law. Williams has worked to establish a diversity apprenticeship program and has advocated for allowing Philadelphia to use the cigarette tax to fund public schools. His Sunset for Probation and Parole Act, which would cap parole sentences at six years and

CAMBRIAE W. LEE; JAMES ROBINSON

These days, there are a lot of conversations going on in journalism about diversity, intersectionality and accountability. Ernest Owens is more than willing to discuss all three things with you.

Through his work as Editor at Large for Philadelphia Magazine, the work he does through his company, Ernest Media Empire, and through his role as president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, he touches on all of those things and more. Owens’s work, which looks at society, race, pop culture and the LGBTQ community through his Black, gay, millennial lens, has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and other media outlets. His book, “The Case for Cancel Culture,” comes out in January. He has been honored by Forbes, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists.

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City & State Pennsylvania

employees, prevent wage theft and incentivize new apprenticeship programs in the state.

76 NIKIL SAVAL STATE SENATOR

PA SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS; JOSEPH GIDJUNIS

Haywood was raised by his mother, who instilled in him the value of hard work and getting a quality education.

State Sen. Nikil Saval did more than just mount a major upset when he defeated incumbent Larry Farnese in the 2020 race for the state’s 1st Senatorial District. He also became the first South Asian American elected to the state Senate in the process.

The political newcomer cofounded Reclaim Philadelphia, a progressive organization that is looking to restore political power back to the working class. The writer and community organizer-turnedelected official played a pivotal role during the pandemic in providing emergency rent relief and preventing evictions around the city and commonwealth. His book, “Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace,” was a New York Times notable book of 2014.

allow for a path to reduce it further, is moving through the legislature.

worked at Community Legal Services, Regional Housing Legal Services and Esperanza.

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ARTHUR HAYWOOD

CHRISTINE TARTAGLIONE

STATE SENATOR

STATE SENATOR

DONNA BULLOCK

When Gov. Tom Wolf was looking for someone to help him figure out how to improve COVID-19 vaccine distribution, state Sen. Art Haywood was among the people he turned to. Haywood was a busy man during the pandemic, fighting to allocate $193 million in CARES funding to prevent homelessness, evictions and foreclosures in Pennsylvania.

He’s remained busy since then through organizing with Black college students at Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities.

Before his election to the state Senate in 2014, Haywood

State Sen. Christine Tartaglione has been serving the residents of the 2nd District since 1995, when she became the fifth woman elected to the state Senate.

She then became the first woman to serve in Senate Democratic leadership in 2010. Now, serving as minority chair of the Senate Labor & Industry Committee, Tartaglione continues to make labor issues a key focus of her legislative career. She has sponsored legislation this session to raise the minimum wage to $15, expand OSHA protections to public sector

STATE REPRESENTATIVE

77 State Rep. Donna Bullock represents the residents of the 195th House District, areas spanning from Powelton Village up to Strawberry Mansion and including the art museum and Fairmount Park. She first won the seat back in 2015, but had gotten involved in politics well before

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then. Upon graduating from Temple University in 2004, Bullock served as special assistant to City Council President Darrell Clarke before going on to serve as his community and economic development coordinator.

Today, Bullock serves as chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, advocating for environmental justice, gun violence prevention and more.

78 BRIAN SIMS STATE REPRESENTATIVE State Rep. Brian Sims has broken barriers before, but he’s not done yet. He was the first openly gay state legislator to be elected and is now looking to become the first openly gay candidate to win a statewide election as he seeks the lieutenant governor’s office. Sims represents the 182nd House District in Center City, which includes Rittenhouse Square and what’s known as the Gayborhood. Prior to his time in the legislature, he served as the president of Equality Pennsylvania, chair of the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia and as staff counsel for policy and planning at the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Tartaglione is fighting to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Pennsylvania.

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operations of more than 16,000 employees at more than 1,000 Five Below stores across 38 states. He’s served as president and CEO of the Philadelphia-based company since 2015. He brought plenty of commercial experience to Five Below, having previously worked in executive positions at Walmart.com and Toys “R” Us Inc. Anderson, who received his bachelor’s from St. Olaf College and master’s from the Harvard Business School, also sits on the board of Sprouts Farmer’s Markets Inc. Five Below’s most recent financial numbers show a 27% increase in total sales in the third quarter compared to last year.

MARK SEGAL PUBLISHER Philadelphia Gay News

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Morrison said her motivation comes from hate crimes committed against LGBTQ individuals across the city.

national LGBTQ charities he currently works with, including The Trevor Project and the William Way Community Center. He also was a founding benefactor to the Gloria Casarez Residence, Pennsylvania’s first young adult LGBTQ friendly supportive housing development. In 2018, Heifetz won The Philadelphia Award for a lifetime of giving and activism.

MEL HEIFETZ

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HOSPITALITY PROFESSIONAL

CELENA MORRISON

Mel Heifetz grew up poor in South Philadelphia and became a businessman, developing bars, hotels and restaurants in Philadelphia’s “Gayborhood.” Until 2013, he owned and operated Sisters, the city’s only lesbian bar. Heifetz made a $16 million endowment to the Philadelphia Foundation in 2017 that will allow the organization to provide assistance to local and

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs Ten years ago, Celena Morrison moved to Philadelphia and became a vocal advocate for the city’s LGBTQ community, with an emphasis on providing support, education and resources to the transgender community. She’s now the first openly transgender

person to run a city department. Morrison was named executive director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs in 2020. Before this work, Morrison served on Philadelphia’s Human Relations Commission for two years. She served as a Community Engagement Specialist at the Mazzoni Center and as a recovery specialist at Morris Home, where she worked with trans and gender non-conforming people. Morrison was also the director of programs at the William Way Community Center, where she helped create the Arcila-Adams Trans Resource Center.

82 JOEL ANDERSON PRESIDENT & CEO Five Below As director of the American chain of specialty discount stores, Joel Anderson oversees

83 YAKIR GOLA & RAFAEL ILISHAYEV CO-FOUNDERS & CO-CEOS GoPuff Depending on how those relationships go, the people you meet your freshman year of college can either fade away from your memory before your senior year starts or can impact you for the rest of your life. In the case of Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev, it was rather the latter. The cofounders and co-CEOs of the food and drink delivery app, GoPuff, met as freshmen at Drexel University and created the app, which is currently operating in 1,000 cities in the U.S. and the U.K. Gola and Ilishayev were named to Forbes magazine’s “30 under 30” list in 2017 and received the Drexel University Founders

ROB LOCONTE; GOPUFF

They say that journalism is the first draft of history.

In the case of Mark Segal, the journalist not only got to write the first draft of history, he also participated in it. Segal, author of the book, “And Then I Danced: Traveling The Road to LGBT Equality,” was a participant in the Stonewall Riots, an event widely recognized as the beginning of the LGBTQ liberation movement.

Throughout his career, Segal has fought to increase visibility for the LGBTQ community.

He partnered with the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration to help create the John Anderson Apartments, the nation’s first affordable housing development that was also LGBTQ friendly.

In 2020, Segal donated his personal papers and artifacts to the Smithsonian Institute of American History in Washington, D.C.

December 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

Award in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, GoPuff was named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50.

previous experience at community colleges in New York and New Jersey. He recently received recognition at the ALL IN Awards for his work cultivating democracy and voter participation on campus. He’s also been a vocal advocate for free community college and federal Pell Grant reforms. His latest book, “Booker T. Washington: The Architect of Progressive Education,” was published in 2013.

84 TODD CARMICHAEL CO-FOUNDER & CEO La Colombe Todd Carmichael has gone beyond coffee at La Colombe, inventing a bevy of beverages that he describes as “shimmering” to the tastebuds.

When he first began, he helped introduce Europeanstyle brewing methods and ethical trade practices at the start-up company that is now in high-end cafes around the globe. Now that he’s changed the way Philadelphians drink coffee, he wants to change how they drink water. Carmichael, who is also a renowned traveler and adventurer, announced earlier this year he’s stepping down from roles as CEO to start Rebel Beverage Labs, which is experimenting with new ways to make sparkling water.

85 PETER HOTZ PRESIDENT & CEO

PA SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS; JOSEPH GIDJUNIS

Vybe Urgent Care The City of Philadelphia’s COVID-19 response wouldn’t be where it is without Vybe Urgent Care. The urgent care provider played a critical role in the city’s testing efforts and has become a leading provider of affordable, accessible and high-quality health care in Philadelphia with more than a dozen locations. Peter Hotz is the man behind Vybe. Having spent time as a board member at Luminate Health, ConnectYourCare and Dorsata, Hotz is a seasoned business executive with years

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Hawkins founded his City Hall lobbying firm, Philadelphia Strategies Group, in 2019.

of experience in consumerdirected health care. His goal is to continue expansion and increase accessibility to quality care.

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and the Committee of Seventy before turning his attention to lobbying. Hawkins, who prides himself on being the first to know what’s happening and how it impacts his clients, also taught at the Fels School of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.

PRESIDENT & CEO

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Philadelphia Strategies Group

DONALD GENERALS

If Philadelphia City Council is having a discussion related to the city’s hospitality industry, chances are John Hawkins is somewhere in the building. Hawkins is considered one of the most active lobbyists in City Hall, advocating on behalf of the hotel association, the Building Industry Association, GrubHub and Microsoft through his firm, Philadelphia Strategies Group. Before starting the firm in 2019, he worked for Wojdak Government Relations. He worked for thenCouncilmember Jim Kenney

PRESIDENT

JOHN HAWKINS

Community College of Philadelphia The city’s only public college, Community College of Philadelphia, serves more than 35,000 credit and noncredit students from a variety of backgrounds.

Dr. Donald “Guy” Generals believes that his mission is pursuing social justice for the citizens of Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. He became the sixth president of the college in 2014, having

88 AJAY RAJU CHAIR Raju LLP As an entrepreneur, civic activist and venture philanthropist, Ajay Raju is compelled to see the City of Philadelphia shine like the acres of diamonds Temple University founder Russell Conwell believed he saw. Raju founded The Philadelphia Citizen, a solutions-based journalism outlet, and The Ark Institute, a consortium of people from the life sciences, public health and supply chain sectors who work together to prepare for and prevent another global health crisis like COVID-19. With an eye toward making the city a biotech hub, Raju is trying to attract the investment capital needed to make this happen by aligning each of his five investment outfits – Indigo Global, Indigo Bio, Backswing Ventures, Togo and 215 Capital.

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MARK DOUGLAS PRESIDENT & CEO FMC Mark Douglas has led FMC’s commercial, operational and technology organizations since June 2018 and took over as president and CEO two years later. He joined the agricultural solutions and chemical manufacturing company in 2010 as vice president of global operations and international development. Prior to that, he served as corporate vice president for Rohm and Haas Company in Shanghai and as vice president for Dow Advanced Materials. In addition to his work at FMC, Douglas is a member of the Crop Life International Board of Directors and serves on the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

90 PHILLY MEDIA PERSONALITIES SEE PAGE 51.

91 KATALIN KARIKÓ SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian biochemist, spent her

entire career immersed in the possibilities of using messenger RNA – or mRNA – technology to instruct the body to create its own defenses against disease and illness. And her greatest success couldn’t have come at a more pivotal moment. Karikó’s mRNA research was crucial to the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which has helped save countless lives. In addition to her groundbreaking research, she also serves as an adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

92 Fileccia has become the commonwealth’s go-to advocate for the hospitality industry.

BEN FILECCIA DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS & STRATEGY Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association Whether you’re an unrepentant foodie with a penchant for four-star dining and hotels or a college kid in town for Made In America, crashing at an Airbnb and looking for just the right latenight cheesesteak, Philly’s hospitality community has something for you to enjoy.

But when its hospitality community needs someone to stand up for it due to the havoc wreaked by a global pandemic, it turns to Ben Fileccia. Fileccia believes that the foundation of a vibrant and evolving community is a strong hospitality sector and facilitating that foundation is his mission. The pandemic presented a challenge to the hospitality industry, but Fileccia did what he could to help it meet that challenge.

At Philabundance, Jones strives to end hunger in the Greater Delaware Valley.

93 MATIAS TARNOPOLSKY & ANNE EWERS PRESIDENT & CEO, CHAIR The Philadelphia Orchestra & Kimmel Center When the Kimmel Center was built in 1986, the developers’ original idea was to merge the center with the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the main artistic ensembles that calls the Kimmel home. While they couldn’t make it happen at the time, the idea of combining these two artistic entities never went away. But when the pandemic hit and arts organizations started thinking about how things might change, Matias Tarnopolsky and Anne Ewers revisited the idea. Tarnopolsky became president and CEO and Ewers became chair of the board. Tarnopolsky joined the orchestra in 2018 and has

worked with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin to create an organization that meets Philadelphians where they are. Ewers, who has since retired from the Kimmel Center, envisioned the merger as her parting gift to Philadelphia’s arts community.

In 2007, she became president and CEO of the Kimmel Center campus, which also includes the Academy of the Arts and the Merriam Theater. During her tenure, she helped the center retire its construction debt, raise its endowment and establish the biennial Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

94 LOREE JONES CEO Philabundance Loree Jones’ mission is making hunger in Philadelphia

PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY; PROVIDED

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City & State New York

PHILLY’S MEDIA MAESTROS

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Jim Gardner Terry Gross Solomon Jones Rich Zeoli

Left to right: Jim Gardner, Terry Gross, Solomon Jones and Rich Zeoli

“The Simpsons.”

Solomon Jones has made his own mark on the Philadelphia media landscape.

Jones is the current host of “Wake Up With WURD” on 900 AM and 96.1 FM, as well as the host of “Your Voice” on Classix 107.9 FM. As a columnist for The Inquirer, he frequently writes about racial justice and gun violence and he also blogs for WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate. Jones has authored more than 10 books, with his latest title, “Ten Lives, Ten Demands: Life and Death Stories and a Black Activist’s Blueprint for Racial Justice,” set to be published early next year. He is also the founder and executive director of

ManUpPHL, a nonprofit focused on fighting gun violence in the city.

Rich Zeoli has made a career out of advising political candidates and elected officials and his love for debate and dialogue ultimately led him to Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Philadelphia, where he hosts “The Rich Zeoli Show” from 6 to 10 a.m. He is also an author, having published “The 7 Principles of Public Speaking: Proven Methods of a PR Pro,” and founder of RZC Impact Executive Communications Training. Zeoli is active with the Philadelphia Police FOP Lodge 5’s Survivors Fund, as well as the Travis Manion Foundation.

– Justin Sweitzer

■

WPVI; JESSICA KOOURKOUNIS; MILTON PERRY; LISA WARD PHOTOGRAPHY

P

HILADELPHIA IS KNOWN as the birthplace of democracy – home to the Liberty Bell and where both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were drafted.

It’s also home to one of the largest media markets in the U.S., which holds its own unique influence in the minds of Philadelphians, Pennsylvanians and East Coast residents alike. That’s due in part to the work of the city’s most celebrated media figures who have established themselves as go-to sources of information and commentary on news impacting Philadelphia and beyond.

Take Jim Gardner, for instance. The longtime 6abc newscaster announced this year that he will scale back his broadcasting schedule at the end of 2022 after a 40-year career. Gardner has been a mainstay on Philadelphia television sets, covering everything from fires and storms and protests to championship victories by the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles and presidential elections. With Gardner’s retirement announcement came an outpouring of support and nostalgia, cementing his status as one of the city’s most beloved broadcasters.

As the host and producer of WHYY’s “Fresh Air,” Terry Gross continues to grace airwaves across the U.S. with her inviting voice, polite demeanor, yet probing and interesting interviewing technique. Gross has a reputation for being one of the best-prepared interviewers in the business and has been honored for her work time and time again. In 2016, she received the National Humanities Medal and she has also received the Literarian Award. “Fresh Air” is distributed nationally to more than 650 radio stations across the nation and the show has won the George Foster Peabody Award, one of broadcasting’s highest honors. In a measure of Gross’s importance to pop culture, she even has portrayed herself on

52 CityAndStatePA .com

a thing of the past. Before joining Philabundance, she was chief of staff at Rutgers University-Camden. She has served in leadership positions in nonprofit organizations, education and city government throughout her career, including roles with the School District of Philadelphia.

Jones’ extensive nonprofit experience includes serving as co-executive director of City Year Philadelphia and as executive director of the African Studies Association, the largest scholarly association for the study of Africa in the world. She currently serves on the board of directors for Health Partners Plans, the Philadelphia Health Partnership, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the Independence Foundation.

95 LUIS CORTÉS JR. FOUNDER & CEO Esperanza As a child in New York’s Spanish Harlem, the Rev. Luis Cortés, Jr. grew up with a stable family environment within a strong Latino faith community. It was that foundation that led him to create Esperanza, America’s premiere Hispanic faith-based evangelical network. Focused on building an Opportunity Community in Philadelphia’s Hunting Park neighborhood, Esperanza’s footprint includes the Esperanza Academy Charter Schools (5-12), the Esperanza Cyber Charter School (K-12), and Esperanza College. There is also a focus on homebuilding, mortgage counseling and employment training programs. He currently serves as a board member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Jefferson Abington Hospital, and is a member of the Hispanic Clergy of Philadelphia.

December 2021

96 LAUREN MCKENNA CHANCELLOR Philadelphia Bar Association For Lauren McKenna, serving the community through the law and community service is a gift she gives to the city she’s adopted as her home. As chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, McKenna believes that her mission at the oldest metropolitan bar association in the country is to promote justice while serving the public, justice and the rule of law. Before becoming chancellor, McKenna had been chair of the bar association’s board of governors and co-chair of the Women in the Profession Committee. McKenna also serves as president of Eagles Fly for Leukemia, which raises money to combat childhood leukemia and other pediatric cancers.

97 JOSEPH CORADINO CEO Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust Serving as chair of the board of trustees and CEO of PREIT, Joseph Coradino oversees the commercial real estate giant in the region. The Philadelphia-based company owns and operates more than 22 million square feet of retail space, including the malls in Plymouth Meeting, Scranton, Exton and the new fashion district in Philadelphia.

He previously served as a member of the board of directors for A.C. Moore and now serves as a trustee of Temple University and a board member of the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation.

98 ROBERT ZURITSKY PRESIDENT & CEO Parkway Corp.

The Zuritskys were born into the parking industry.

Robert Zuritsky is the current president and CEO of the 90-year, three-generation family business. Since taking over for his father in 2005, he’s overseen the company’s parking, real estate and airport services operations, including more than $1 billion in investments in commercial real estate development.

Zuritsky also serves on the board of the National Parking Association and as chair of the Philadelphia Municipal Parking Authority.

99 CHEKEMMA FULMORETOWNSEND PRESIDENT & CEO Philadelphia Youth Network Philadelphia’s children and their futures are the focus of Chekemma FulmoreTownsend. Townsend, the president and CEO of the Philadelphia Youth Network, impacts the lives of about 15,000 young people every year through her programs

McKenna is president of the Philly-area children’s charity, Eagles Fly for Leukemia.

designed to promote equity and end poverty for children and young adults. She’s been recognized for her dedication to dismantling the cycle of poverty in impoverished communities and for creating systems that promote academic achievement, economic opportunity and personal success for youth.

Toward that goal, Townsend serves on the board of the Community College of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board and the Delaware County Board of Managers for Juvenile Justice.

100 KENYATTA JOHNSON CITY COUNCILMEMBER City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson started his political career in 1998 as an activist mourning the loss of loved ones to gun violence. As chair of Council’s Special Committee on Gun Violence, Johnson was among a group of Council members who convinced Mayor Jim Kenney to set aside $155 million in American Rescue Plan funding towards ending gun violence, including $22 million designated for community groups. But while prevention is a focus of his, helping those who have lost loved ones is another. In 2020, voters passed a referendum supported by Johnson and community groups like Mothers In Charge that would create the Office of the Victims Advocate. This office would serve as a one-stop shop for families trying to find assistance for medical and burial expenses and the like.

Prior to his time on Council, Johnson represented the 186th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House. He faces a corruption trial in February 2022.

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CITY & STATE PENNSYLVANIA MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING Publisher Susan Peiffer speiffer@cityandstatepa.com Group Publisher Tom Allon Event & Sales Director Lissa Blake Vice President of Operations Jasmin Freeman Comptroller David Pirozzi

Who was up and who was down last month

LOSERS THE BEST OF THE REST

ALA STANFORD The Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity, a new primary care clinic in North Philly, opened in early November to help underserved communities.

Stanford made a name for herself last year while running COVID-19 testing clinics in Black and brown neighborhoods through her Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. This new clinic, funded by private dollars, grants and donations, will look to be a model for the city to address health care disparities in communities of color.

LORI DUMAS Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Lori Dumas looked to be on the losing end of two elections for seats on the state’s Commonwealth Court. In the days following Election Day, Dumas inched ahead of Republican Drew Crompton and a statutorily-mandated recount of the race confirmed her victory, making her the only Democrat to win a statewide appellate court race in November’s election.

CREATIVE Creative Director Andrew Horton Senior Graphic Designer Aaron Aniton Photo Researcher Michelle Steinhauser Junior Graphic Designer Izairis Santana ADVERTISING advertising@cityandstatepa.com Senior Sales Executive Michael Fleck mfleck@cityandstatepa.com Sales Executive Frank Feinberg ffeinberg@govexec.com Sales and Events Coordinator Laura Hurliman events@cityandstatepa.com

MARGO DAVIDSON Former state Rep. Margo Davidson pleaded guilty to stealing from the state, after Attorney General Josh Shapiro charged her with theft for filing fraudulent per diem requests and other expenses while a member of the state House. After entering a guilty plea, Davidson is now prohibited from holding public office in the state ever again.

DIGITAL Digital Director Michael Filippi Digital Marketing Manager Caitlin Dorman ADVISORY BOARD Chair Governor Ed Rendell Board members Leslie Gromis-Baker, Gene Barr, Samuel Chen, Joseph Hill, Teresa Lundy, Anne Wakabayashi, Ray Zaborney, Tricia Mueller

THE REST OF THE WORST

JOHN DOUGHERTY & BOBBY HENON Philly labor titan John Dougherty and City Councilmember Bobby Henon were convicted of a slew of charges in a federal bribery trial last month, and as a result, Dougherty resigned his position at IBEW Local 98, while Henon relinquished multiple city council committee roles. Henon has yet to resign from City Council, but the verdict likely marks the end of the duo’s political power in Philadelphia.

GLEN GRELL & JIM GROSSMAN Amid investigations into the state’s public school pension fund over errors in investment numbers, executive director Glen Grell and chief investment officer Jim Grossman are planning to retire. PSERS board members have said they’ve lost confidence in the executives and Gov. Tom Wolf called for the PSERS investigation to be made public. This probably isn’t the way these two imagined riding off into the sunset.

Vol. 1 Issue 6 December 2021 Trash talk

Why Philly can't come clean

As the murder rate soars, DA Larry Krasner plays

Good Cop/ Good Cop The Philly Power 100

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DECEMBER 2021

Cover illustration: Ryan Olbrysh

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U.S. CONGRESS; COMMONWEALTH MEDIA SERVICES

TIM HOLDEN Tim Holden, chair of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, deserves a drink. Under Holden’s leadership, state liquor sales saw a historic increase in the last fiscal year, with the PLCB recording $2.91 billion in sales – a 13.7% increase from the prior year. That figure also represents the largest yearly sales increase in the board’s history.

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

Oh, the weather outside is … well… starting to get frightful. And fortunately, 2021 is almost at an end, which, in year 2 of a pandemic, we likely all find delightful. But before we look ahead to the New Year, there are winners and losers in Pennsylvania politics to celebrate and admonish. So, before we close the book on 2021, find out below who finished the year strong, and who is likely getting coal in their stocking.

EDITORIAL editor@cityandstatepa.com Editor-in-Chief Jenny DeHuff jdehuff@cityandstatepa.com Senior Reporter Justin Sweitzer jsweitzer@cityandstatepa.com Staff Reporter Harrison Cann hcann@cityandstatepa.com NY Editor-in-Chief Ralph Ortega

To All

Esteban Vera, Jr. Business Manager Stanley Sanders George Hutt Charles Blackwell Confesor Plaza

Secretary-Treasurer President Vice President Recording Secretary

Executive Board, Membership & Staff