| Dianne Morales | |
| Birth Date: | 21 June 1967 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Education: | Stony Brook University (BA) Harvard University (MA) Columbia University (MEd) |
| Party: | Democratic |
Dianne Morales is an American nonprofit executive and politician. She was a candidate in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary.[1]
Morales is Afro-Latina; her parents are from Puerto Rico.[2] [3] She was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, growing up on DeKalb Avenue, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan in New York City.[4] [5]
Morales then went on to attend Stony Brook University[2] and earned a Master of Social Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Master of Education Administration from Columbia University.[6] [7] [8]
While working at the New York City Department of Education, Morales helped open the Office of Youth Development and School-Community Services under Chancellor Joel Klein, and served as its Chief of Operations from 2002 to 2004.[9] [10] From 2004 to 2005, she served as a director of The Teaching Commission, a national task force that focuses on improving teaching quality in American schools.[11] Morales was a founding member of Jumpstart, a national early childhood nonprofit organization.[9] [12] From 2005 to 2009, she served as executive director of The Door, a youth-development organization that serves over 11,000 young people every year.[13] [14]
Since 2010 Morales had been the executive director and CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods in the South Bronx, a Bronx social services organization that fights poverty, until she stepped down to run for mayor in 2019.[15] [3] [10] [11] She serves on the board of the NYC Human Services Council and the Community Schools Advisory Board.[16]
In 2011, she founded the charter school Broome Street Academy.[17]
See main article: 2021 New York City mayoral election. In 2019, Morales announced her candidacy for Mayor of New York City in the 2021 election.[1] In January 2020 she quit her job to campaign full time,[18] [19] in her first political campaign.
Her campaign-announced priorities include reforming the New York City Housing Authority, desegregating city schools, promoting equitable and affordable mass transit, creating green jobs, building affordable housing, a guaranteed minimum income, rent cancellation, cutting the New York Police Department budget, an elected police oversight body, and reforming the police.[20] [21] [22] [9] Morales also is looking to create a "community first responders department" to respond to non-criminal issues such as homelessness and mental health that are currently handled by the police.[23] The New York Daily News in November 2020 described her as one of the most progressive candidates in the race.[24] If elected, she would have become the city's first Afro-Latina mayor and its first female mayor.[25] [26]
In May 2021, senior staffers campaign manager Whitney Hu and senior adviser Ifeoma Ike resigned from the campaign. Four other women attempting to unionize remaining staffers were fired.[17] The departures were preceded by allegations of racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and employee abuse.[27] The New York Times reported on June 9, 2021: "At least four political groups, including the Working Families Party, have rescinded their endorsements, donations slowed to a crawl and her senior adviser has joined a rival campaign."[28]
Morales finished in sixth place in the Democratic primary election held on June 22, 2021.
Morales is a single mother and lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant with her two children and her parents.[4]