Fairmount Park Conservancy taps UPenn exec for top job

The Fairmount Park Conservancy has hired a veteran of the University of Pennsylvania s area and economic enhancement efforts to serve as its next chief executive officer Tony Sorrentino an associate vice president at UPenn who has worked on projects such as the revitalization of the th Street retail corridor and the evolution of the Pennovation Works tech hub will take up the helm at the conservancy in October The -year-old nonprofit organization serves as the steward for the city s -acre park system raising funds overseeing big park renovations and running recreational and educational programs Sorrentino a Philly native and a UPenn-trained urban planner disclosed he is looking forward to amplifying the impact of the public-private partnership between the city and the conservancy to increase funding for parks and improve residents access to green spaces I ve seen first-hand examples of philanthropy coming in and playing huge roles in improving civic life in cities and I believe there is a group of people that may not even see themselves as philanthropists that will be excited about supporting open green space resilient cities and sustainability he explained in an interview He joins the conservancy as it oversees the largest project in its history a controversial million renovation of FDR Park in South Philly as well as a major overhaul of the Welsh Fountain and surrounding landscape in West Fairmount Park and other projects The nonprofit is also approaching the final stages of a five-year million fundraising campaign Tony brings just a wealth of experience and enthusiasm and really relevant knowledge of Philadelphia s residents green space as well as ability to really advocate for our work and for the benefit of the residents given his prior experience in public-private partnerships at Penn and and elsewhere announced Carol Eicher the conservancy s president and board chair Between town and gown Sorrentino was born in Overbrook and grew up in Upper Darby and he has roots in South Philly where his father s family ran a corner grocery store He attended La Salle University and UPenn and lived in Germantown Center City and West Philly before settling in Chestnut Hill he commented The Wissahickon is just kind of part of my DNA at this point It kind of courses through me he noted Wherever I ve lived I ve kind of sought out the parks whether it was Rittenhouse or Fitler Square or the Wister Woods in Germantown Clark Park in West Philadelphia or the Schuylkill Banks Sorrentino headed communications departments at the Franklin Institute and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance before joining UPenn where he s as of now an associate vice president in the office of the executive vice president His duties include overseeing staff involved in land planning real estate evolution area progress marketing communications and several other areas He mentioned his work has been part of the anchor institution movement of the last two decades which aims to use the materials of big organizations like universities and hospitals to improve urban environments He spent years meeting with residents in their homes and churches asking them what they yearned from the university and then worked to turn th Street into a cool Main Street with shops restaurants a reopened masses library improved street lighting and other amenities he commented Sorrentino worked on the university s redevelopment of a large swath of land along the Schuylkill River into the Penn Park sports fields complex and created a farmer s domain at th and Walnut he noted He worked on Penn s -year campus advancement plan ran a campaign to publicize the university s socioeconomic impact on the city and contributed to its Context Action Plan He has a book coming out called Medicine for the City about how academic health districts like Philadelphia s break boundaries in healthcare and drive economic development A green backbone with economic benefits At the Fairmount Park Conservancy Sorrentino plans to focus on the idea that healthy parks make for a resilient city providing a place of respite for all residents in an era of advancing circumstances change he mentioned We have million people we have a lot of acreage and it seems that there are parks that have maybe greater amenities than others and I don t think anybody whether you re a senior citizen or a child should have to tour miles for a safe place to play or a safe place to sit under a cool tree on a hot summer day That is about access and equity he reported He praised the role of the Fairmount Park Conservancy s programs in getting young people interested in environmental sciences its work coordinating an army of supporters who help maintain parks and the economic evolution benefits of its sessions All cities need a green backbone and the park system can be the green backbone Out of that physical place and the way that it s programmed it generates social and economic activity he revealed The parks can anchor the city writ large but on a very neighborhood level in a city of neighborhoods they can anchor communities Sorrentino declined to comment directly on the FDR Park debate saying he needed to evaluation up on it A group of residents unsuccessfully sued to try to stop the removal of hundreds of trees as part of the conservancy project Certain have also protested the creation of new wetlands athletic fields and other features on a former wild meadow Somewhere between the passion of advocacy and the complexity of municipal management there are solutions in between Sorrentino disclosed Organizations like the conservancy play perfect roles between that advocacy and that passion and facts and science and planning A huge demand for information Eicher explained Philly s parks have perhaps billion or more worth of demands and that Sorrentino s skills will help the conservancy move toward satisfying that demand She noted that the organization has grown from staffers to nearly over the past quarter-century and now has a million budget million of which goes toward project costs and the rest for operating expenses I like to think that we re in our adolescence so we still have an enormous amount of accomplishable expansion and projects in front of us that the residents of the city really are looking to someone to undertake she commented Tony coming on board is going to make a step change in our ability to raise funds and to deploy those funds for the betterment of Philadelphia s parks The conservancy s previous CEO Maura McCarthy stepped down in September after five years in the job Tim Clair the organization s interim CFO has been serving as interim CEO and will return to his prior position when Sorrentino begins McCarthy s base pay was in according to the conservancy s most of just now available tax filings Sorrentino s future salary has not been published The post Fairmount Park Conservancy taps UPenn exec for top job appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY