Debra Schwartz is Director of Program-Related Investments (PRIs) for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Under her leadership, the Foundation has tripled its commitment to PRIs (below-market loans and investments made for charitable purposes), allocating $300 million to this innovative form of philanthropy. Schwartz administers a self-financing PRI portfolio that supports organizations and special-purpose financing vehicles dedicated to advancing community development and affordable housing across the United States. Before coming to MacArthur as senior associate to the president, Schwartz was CFO for a child welfare agency in Chicago. From 1987 to 1992, she was a public finance investment banker at John Nuveen & Co. She also served as a presidential appointee to the Treasury Department's Community Development Advisory Board, and she is a founding member of the national PRI Makers Network steering committee. Schwartz received a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a master's degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Panel:
Financing Social Entrepreneurs: Transformative Models for the Future

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