We are very pleased to announce that Lara Birnback will join the BHA as our new Executive Director.

Lara Birnback has over fifteen years of experience in the U.S. public, nonprofit, and international development sectors as a project leader, trainer/facilitator, and communications specialist. Most recently, she served as the Director of Capacity Building Initiatives in the Neighborhood Development Division at NYC Small Business Services.


Her work with NYC Small Business Services was focused on providing tools, resources, and professional & leadership development to neighborhood-based economic development organizations and individuals working in the field of commercial revitalization and community development across the five boroughs.

Lara’s previous work experience includes designing and implementing community and stakeholder engagement projects in a variety of communities across the United States. She has also lived and worked overseas, supporting nascent civil society activists and organizations in East/Central Europe on behalf of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and more recently as a communications specialist for the United States Agency for International Development in Nairobi, Kenya.

She holds an MA in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA degree in Development Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1996.

Lara lives in Brooklyn Heights with her husband and daughter.