Andrew Maxwell has joined the Rescue Mission Board of Directors.
Currently serving as Senior Program Manager & Innovation Strategist at the C&S Companies and Visiting Scholar at SUNY ESF, Andrew was a Democratic candidate for Mayor of Syracuse in 2017.
From 2015 to 2017, Andrew served as the Director of Policy & Innovation for the City of Syracuse. He led the City’s Office of Innovation, after securing a $1.35 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to fund this initiative. The Innovation Team is charged with using creative and data-driven approaches to solve Syracuse’s “intractable problems.” The Innovation Team has focused on creative infrastructure practices and improving economic opportunity in Syracuse.
Andrew served as Director of the Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency from 2013-2015. In this role, he promoted sound planning that fosters greater economic vitality, environmental stewardship, and improved quality of life. He oversaw the completion of the City of Syracuse Comprehensive Plan: 2040, the most detailed and extensive municipal plan in the City’s history, and the springboard for the City’s first-ever effort to holistically rewrite its zoning ordinances in order to improve business development and create better outcomes for neighborhoods.
Andrew served as founding Director of the City of Syracuse Bureau of Planning & Sustainability from 2010-2013. The Bureau of Planning & Sustainability coordinated the City’s efforts relative to the completion of the Onondaga Creekwalk and the Connective Corridor. Maxwell spearheaded the City’s partnership with the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge program, which brought experts from IBM to Syracuse to assist with the City’s vacant property problem in the fall of 2011.
Andrew began his service with the City of Syracuse Department of Community Development in 2006 working with the Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today (TNT) and Community Development Block Grant programs.
Andrew has been involved in local politics, serving as a member of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee since 2005. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2012 for President Barack Obama.
He received his bachelor’s degree in history and American studies from St. John Fisher College in 2005 and his master’s degree in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2006.
Andrew is a proud graduate of Syracuse’s Corcoran High School, and lives in downtown Syracuse with his wife, Lindsay.