Matthew S. Washington is Vice President & Chief of Staff of Phipps Houses. He is responsible for external affairs, government relations, communications and office operations. Matthew also helps coordinate all land use projects and integration of services between Phipps Houses and its social service affiliate, Phipps Neighborhoods. 

Prior to joining Phipps, Matthew served as Deputy Manhattan Borough President in the office of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. In that role, he oversaw the distribution of over $150 million in funding to enhance parks, theaters, hospitals, museums, affordable housing developments, community centers and public schools. He was appointed by the Borough President to be on the board of more than 15 organizations, including Business Improvement Districts, Park Conservancies, the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the NYS Regional Economic Development Council for NYC and as a trustee of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System which is the pension fund for over 350,000 active and retired NYC workers. Matthew was named to the 2018 New York City 40 Under 40 Rising Stars list published by City & State New York.  

Matthew has a diverse professional background in real estate and non-profit organizational management. He was Deputy Director of External Affairs at The Durst Organization where he managed public affairs for a new development in Queens, worked with the construction and external relations teams on One World Trade Center and worked on other projects including supporting the operation of New York Water Taxi. Matthew was previously the Executive Director of Friends of the High School for Environmental Studies where he built relationships with other organizations to help students gain experiential learning opportunities across 26 different states in the summer while students were on break. He was also Deputy Director of Friends of Hudson River Park where he was a part of the team that successfully advocated for the funding to build Hudson River Park on Manhattan’s West Side. 

Matthew was a member of the board of numerous organizations over the years and he is particularly proud of the 10 and a half years he was on Manhattan’s Community Board 11 which represents East Harlem where he was born and raised. He was elected as Chair of the board at 26 and served in that role for 6 years as the youngest community board chair in New York City. 

Today, Matthew is a volunteer at Times Square Church and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Waterfront Alliance, Green City Force, Randall’s Island Park Alliance and the Association for a Better New York (ABNY) Foundation. Matthew is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Alfred University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Cultures.