Robert Cordero

Audit Committee | Board Development Committee
Chief Executive Officer, Grant Street Settlement 

Robert Cordero has served as Executive Director Grand St. Settlement since 2015. With an operating budget that increased from $15M to $35M during the first five years of his tenure, Robert works to guide the growth of a historic settlement house in its next 100 years of service in the Lower East Side and throughout Brooklyn. He prods himself and others to think creatively about innovative solutions that amplify impact, all while remaining focused on Grand Street’s mission, vision, culture and values in service to over 15,000 low income New Yorkers annually.

To date, he has restructured and strengthened Grand Street’s administrative, finance, fundraising and advocacy functions, while dramatically expanding youth services and early childhood program serving the highest need families. He and his team launched a new social enterprise job training program, GrandLo Café, and intergenerational community center at Essex Crossing in the Lower East Side.

Robert got his start as a public school educator and community organizer in Chicago. He received the Joan H. Tisch Community Health Leadership Prize for outstanding work in the fields of health and harm reduction services in 2012, later completing the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Program at the Anderson School of Management as the former President and Chief Program Officer of BOOM!Health in the Bronx, New York.

In 2018, he completed the Greater New York executive leadership program and currently serves as a Trustee on the Board of the New York Foundation. Robert holds a master’s degree (AM, 1997) from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.