Lara Birnback chosen as new executive director of Brooklyn Heights Association

July 11, 2019 Mary Frost

Lara Birnback. Photo courtesy of Lara Birnback

Share this:

The Brooklyn Heights Association announced late Wednesday that it has chosen Lara Birnback as its new executive director, replacing Peter Bray, who stepped down last month.

Birnback, who lives in Brooklyn Heights with her husband and daughter, has more than 15 years of experience in the public, nonprofit and international development sectors as a project leader, trainer/facilitator and communications specialist.

Most recently, she served as the director of Capacity Building Initiatives in the Neighborhood Development Division at NYC Small Business Services. There she worked to provide tools and resources to neighborhood economic development organizations and people working in the field of commercial revitalization and community development. In May, Birnback was a panelist at the 2019 Smart Cities conference, where she spoke on the topic of building capacity for “smarter” NYC commercial districts.

Previously, she designed and implemented community and stakeholder engagement projects across the country. Birnback has also worked overseas, supporting civil society activists and organizations in Eastern and Central Europe on behalf of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. She was also a communications specialist for the United States Agency for International Development in Nairobi, Kenya.

Birnback holds an MA in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA degree in Development Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1996.

Check back for more on her appointment.