Mayor Wu Announces Stephen Chan as Senior Advisor for Partnerships

Mayor Michelle Wu today announced Stephen Chan as her senior advisor for partnerships. Chan will serve as a key driver of the Mayor’s agenda by developing and deepening ties to area institutions and other external stakeholders, including philanthropic foundations and higher education, to advance key initiatives to support youth and schools, climate leadership, and the equitable growth of Boston. He started in his new role today.

“Stephen’s deep connections to Boston’s higher education and philanthropic foundations will help enhance our goals as we continue to engage anchor institutions and all sectors as partners in our work,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “I’m thrilled to welcome Stephen back to City Hall in this new role to further our public-private collaboration to advance our work to make Boston a city for everyone.”

“Stephen is a collaborative force in Boston,” said Mike Firestone, Chief of Policy and Strategic Planning. “We’re delighted to welcome him to our City team as we build and strengthen partnerships across philanthropy, higher education, and industry to enliven our City and empower our families.”

Chan brings more than 15 years of leadership experience across higher education, philanthropic, nonprofit, and public institutions in Boston. Most recently, he served as Chief of Staff to the President at Northeastern University, helping to advance the university’s mission of providing personalized, experiential education for more than 40,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students across the U.S., U.K., and Canada. Before Northeastern, Chan served as Vice President for Strategy and Operations at the Boston Foundation where he led strategic planning, operations, data and research, and public education programs.

Chan’s approach to systems transformation and problem-solving is informed by his prior experience advancing public-private partnerships at the City of Boston. As an Advisor to Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Stephen brought together public and private stakeholders to launch the Mayor’s Office of Food Initiatives (now the Office of Food Justice) and coordinated the City of Boston’s engagement with Success Boston, a public-private initiative to dramatically boost the number of Boston Public Schools’ graduates who complete their post-secondary degrees.

"I am honored to join the team at City Hall to expand upon and activate the partnerships to advance Mayor Wu’s vision for our youth and schools, climate leadership, and equitable growth,” said Stephen Chan, Senior Advisor for Partnerships. “Boston is blessed to be home to an unrivaled ecosystem of institutions and partners who are deeply committed to the health and well-being of our communities. I am looking forward to working with colleagues across the cabinet and departments to develop and deepen collaboration between the City and our partners."

Chan’s deep understanding of Boston’s unrivaled ecosystem of civic institutions is also informed by his work as a board advisor and trustee. He currently serves on the boards of the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce and the Asian Community Fund. His previous service includes serving as a trustee of Bunker Hill Community College and as a board member of Philanthropy Massachusetts.

Chan received his MBA from Harvard Business School, MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and BA in Public Policy from Stanford University. He lives in the South End with his husband and two children.