New York City's First Chief Service Officer: Diahann Billings-Burford

First Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris, Sway Calloway, Diahann Billings Burford, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Courtesy: The City of New York

Mayor Michael Bloomberg today named Diahann Billings-Burford as the city's Chief Service Officer, responsible for leading NYC Service, a city-wide initiative to promote volunteerism launched by the city in April.

The Mayor's office claims the municipal-level position is the first of its kind in the nation, although two states, California and New York, have cabinet level posts charged with promoting service. Ms. Billings-Burford joins other young talent in the Bloomberg administration charged with assisting nonprofits, including the president of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, Megan Sheekey, and the Commissioner of the Community Affairs Unit, Nazli Parvizi.

Some of NYC Service's goals are to introduce a public service curriculum at New York City's schools; develop a universal background check that all nonprofits can use for their volunteers, and focus New Yorkers' volunterism in the strategic areas of health, education, the environment, strengthening communities, and emergency preparedness. To make it easier for New Yorkers to volunteer, the city has launched a database of volunteer opportunities, and a volunteering campaign with the slogan, "Use your BLANK for good."

"New York City is the first city to strategically harness the power of its volunteers to solve its most pressing challenges, and I am excited to lead the charge," Ms. Billings-Burford, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, said.

Ms. Billings-Burford put the spotlight on the NYC Service program Middle School Mentors, which seeks to recruit 2,000 new mentors to work in 51 of the City's highest-need middle schools. "Having been a middle school teacher myself, I couldn't agree more that encouraging New Yorkers to give back by mentoring at-risk students at that critical time in their development will invariably change the lives of those students for the better."

The program calls for mentors to work one-on-one with sixth graders to help them transition to middle school; team mentors with students at the bottom third of their classes, and create mentor advisory groups where mentors will meet with students.

Prior to her appointment, Diahann Billings-Burford served as Deputy Executive Director of External Affairs for City Year New York, which seeks to use volunteers to help public school students. She has also worked at Achievement First, a charter school management system, and Prep for Prep. She is a 1990 graduate of Poly Prep, a 1994 graduate of Yale University, and a 2002 graduate of Columbia University's School of Law.

In an interview posted on the Shinnyo-en Foundation Web site, she gave a definition of service: "I think to serve, it is to sacrifice, using your best gifts, give them to someone else, for another person’s benefit. Yet for those of us who engage in service, we know that in that act, we are receiving more than we are giving."

The Mayor announced the appointment at the High School for Public Service: Heroes of Tomorrow in Brooklyn, where he was joined by First Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris and Sway Calloway of MTV News to honor school students who have given back to their communities.