Marian Urquilla serves as Principal of Strategy Lift, a national consulting practice focused on coaching, strategy development and large-scale community change. Current and former institutional clients include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Center for the Study of Social Policy, the East Bay Asian Development Corporation, The Kresge Foundation and Strive Together. She also serves as a senior faculty member for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Results Count program, and she is a co-founder of the Center for Community Investment. As a consultant, Marian has helped launch philanthropic initiatives focused on climate resilience, community development and community health, and she has designed a range of national leadership programs including efforts focused on diversifying non-profit sector talent pipelines and strengthening educational partnerships.
From 2008 to 2012, Marian served as Director of Program Strategies at Living Cities, a national philanthropic collaborative. At Living Cities, she led the organization’s programmatic efforts, and she managed the Integration Initiative, a five-region, $75-80 million program to revitalize neighborhoods and connect low-income people to regional opportunities. Prior to her work at Living Cities, Ms. Urquilla worked for more than a decade at the local level in Washington, DC. There, she co-founded the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative where she served as executive director for 12 years. During her tenure, Ms. Urquilla spearheaded the citywide implementation of family group decision-making; launched a youth violence prevention partnership that dramatically lowered Latino youth homicide rates in the District of Columbia; and served as a senior consulting advisor to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Children, Youth, Families and Elders in Mayor Anthony Williams’ administration and senior consultant for human capital to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration. Recognized by the Rockefeller Foundation as a Next Generation Leader, Ms. Urquilla has been a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities and an Annie E. Casey Foundation Children and Family Fellow.
