LAURA PERMUT SPARKS ‘93 NAMED PRESIDENT OF COOPER UNION The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City was built in 1859 on the radical idea that higher education in technology should be accessible to all who qualify regardless of gender, race, religion or economic status. Since then the college has developed a reputation for world-class programs in architecture, art and engineering, with many graduates becoming leaders in their fields. Tower Hill alumna Laura Permut Sparks ‘93 took the helm at Cooper Union as president in January 2017, bringing her strong background in community-focused philanthropy to the historic college. “We are so fortunate to have identified a new leader who brings substantial executive-level experience from the non-profit sector as well as industry,” said Johnny C. Taylor Jr., Cooper Union trustee and co-chair of the Presidential Search Committee. “We wanted someone who valued Cooper as a first-class, unique educational institution, and also had significant experience leading a large, complicated organization through challenging financial circumstances. Laura Sparks has both skill sets.” Sparks graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College, where she was a philosophy major and economics minor. Her coursework in those areas grew into an interest in community development finance, where capital can help underserved populations. She worked in finance and earned an M.B.A. and a J.D. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania before becoming director of business strategy and director of development finance initiatives at Citi in New York. There she worked to build programs to increase affordable housing and eliminate barriers to opportunity for low-income families. In 2012 Sparks became the executive director of the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia. There she was responsible for numerous initiatives addressing social and environmental challenges in the city and
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Tower Hill Bulletin
Spring 2017
for designing programs in education, public space, the arts and the environment. Under her guidance, the foundation launched and refined new strategic priorities, focusing its $115 million grant budget on improvements in urban education for economically disadvantaged children, protection of the water resources serving 15 million people across four states, development of world-class urban parks and trails in underserved communities, and cultivation of a vibrant cultural sector. Sparks’ experience putting finance to work to bring about meaningful change will likely prove useful at Cooper Union. The college has faced financial difficulties in recent years, necessitating the introduction of tuition to the traditionally free school. Yet if anyone is prepared for the challenge, it’s Laura Sparks. “Cooper Union holds a unique and important place among America’s colleges and universities,” Sparks said. “Its remarkable history and the visionary goals of its founder, Peter Cooper, continue to provide an inspiration for American higher education, with its emphasis on excellence, admissions based on merit alone and scholarships that support full and equal participation by all students.” Sparks is married to fellow Tower Hill alum Andrew Sparks ‘91, whom she has been with since their high school days. Her husband has worked extensively in the K-12 and higher education fields to address the needs of students and teachers in urban schools. They live in Philadelphia and have two children.