About the Writer

Monsignor Kevin Sullivan is the Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Catholic Charities is a federation of more than 90 human service agencies that provide help and create hope for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need – non-Catholic and Catholic alike – throughout the 10 counties of the Archdiocese of New York.

Appointed Executive Director in 2001 after serving as Chief Operating Officer for five years, and in other leadership positions for more than 17 years, Monsignor Sullivan continues to represent the Catholic Charities agencies in public policy discussions about issues such as immigration, welfare reform, job development, and foster care. Monsignor Sullivan served as a member of the New York City Council Speaker’s Commission on Homelessness, the Public Policy Committee of the New York State Catholic Conference, and has provided expert testimony about human service issues before Congressional committees. Recently, he served as a member of the NYC Mayor’s Commission for Economic Opportunity, as well as Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Human Services Policy Transition Advisory Committee. After the 9/11 attacks, Monsignor Sullivan, as Chair of the 9/11 United Services Group, led the coordinated assistance to victims by New York charities. He now Chairs the Disaster Preparedness Division of the NY Human Services Council, of which he is a Vice-Chair.

During the 1970s and 1980s, when Monsignor Sullivan served as a parish priest at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Washington Heights, he co-founded the Washington Heights-Inwood Coalition and the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, two neighborhood development organizations that continue to thrive. He was a Board member of many healthcare organizations, including St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center, Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, the Carmel Richmond Housing Corporation, and the St. Vincent de Paul Residence. During the 1990s, he served as Co-Chair of the Partnership for the Homeless.

Monsignor Sullivan received a Masters Degree in public administration at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, and a doctorate in Public Administration at New York University. He graduated cum laude from Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception. He has taught in graduate programs at the Mendoza College of Business, and the University of Notre Dame where he was a consultant to the dean regarding the College’s Masters program in non-profit management. He has taught at New York University and the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy of the New School University. Monsignor Sullivan continues to maintain both an academic and pragmatic interest in evaluation and performance measurement of non-profit organizations.

Monsignor Sullivan was born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers. He studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary, was ordained in 1976 by Terence Cardinal Cooke, and named Monsignor by John Cardinal O’Connor in 1999.