Ward Wolff

Ward Wolff is Associate Director of Upstart Co-Lab, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors focused on investing for social and environmental impact in creative enterprises and real estate. Ward oversees Upstart’s strategic partnerships, field building efforts, research, and investment pipeline. In this role Ward has worked with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) on the development and launch of the NYC Inclusive Creative Economy Fund and co-authored “The Community Reinvestment Act and the Creative Economy” published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Ward was a graduate fellow with the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management, consulting on sustainable urban development with a focus on parks and public open space through engagements in Colombia and the Philippines. He previously co-founded an online platform to activate community spaces and recreation facilities. For several years he managed strategic marketing and corporate partnerships at SummerStage, NYC’s largest free performing arts festival, as well as its parent nonprofit City Parks Foundation. Ward graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College with a BA in English & Creative Writing and received his MBA from NYU Stern where he was the recipient of the Alex S. Auerbach Award. He was an early member of the Steering Committee for the Trust for Public Land’s Next Gen Council in New York, driving engagement among local young professionals. He currently serves on the Middlebury Performing Arts Council.

He is now based in Los Angeles with his wife, Zmira, a museum curator and doctoral candidate in Art History at USC. Having grown up in Marin County, CA with family in the Bay Area going back generations, he is thrilled to honor the long legacy of local conservationists, environmentalists and social activists to help advance TPL’s work across the state and ensure parks for all people for generations to come.