WHITE PLAINS, NY — Food Bank for Westchester, the leading organization providing programs for the 200,000 county residents who are food insecure, announced today the appointment of Leslie B. Gordon as its new President and CEO effective January 17, 2017.
Gordon, who has extensive experience at City Harvest developing initiatives to serve the hungry in New York City, succeeds Ellen Lynch who announced in September that she was stepping down as President and CEO.
“Leslie Gordon brings to Food Bank for Westchester a wealth of leadership experience and expertise to help us in our ongoing efforts to eradicate hunger in the county. Leslie has a proven record of success at City Harvest where she developed and implemented innovative programs to help feed people who face hunger. We are thrilled to have her on board as our new President and CEO,” said Maria Bronzi, Board Chair of Food Bank for Westchester.
“I am truly honored to have the opportunity to lead one of the region’s most admired organizations fighting hunger. I look forward to working with everyone on the Food Bank team — from our outstanding board and dedicated staff and volunteers to our community agencies and donors — to continue the mission of creating a hunger-free environment in Westchester,” Gordon said.
As Senior Director, Program Strategy & Operations for City Harvest, Gordon served as a key executive leading City Harvest’s “Healthy Neighborhoods” plan to improve food access and nutritional behaviors for a half-million low-income residents and pioneering a new strategy that doubled the food distributed annually from 30 to 60 million lbs. in 5 years. City Harvest collects nutritious food that would otherwise go to waste and delivers it free of charge to soup kitchens, food pantries and other community food programs across the five boroughs.
Prior to joining City Harvest in 2007, Gordon was under Anthony Kennedy Shriver the State Director of Best Buddies Pennsylvania, an organization that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Prior to that, she served as Founding Director of Made in Hudson Valley, which promoted products manufactured in the Hudson Valley, and served under General Colin Powell as National Director of America’s Promise-The Alliance for Youth, a foundation dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth from all socioeconomic sectors.
A lifetime Westchester and fourth generation resident of Tarrytown, Gordon is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz where she majored in sociology. She is a frequent guest speaker at various organizations addressing issues of hunger including the National Conference on Emergency Feeding and the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine on Seniors & Hunger. She is also a guest lecturer of Fordham University’s Non-Profit Leadership Graduate Program.