PROVIDENCE – A former city councilor and mayoral candidate is now set to lead City Year Providence.
The education and youth support organization announced Friday that Nirva LaFortune has been named its new executive director and senior vice president. City Year says LaFortune will be formally introduced Friday evening at the organization’s 30th anniversary gala at the WaterFire Arts Center and will start her new role May 24.
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LaFortune will assume the executive director role at City Year previously held by Jennie Johnson. Johnson back in January was named the Community College of Rhode Island’s vice president for the college’s Division of Workforce Partnerships.
LaFortune in 2017 won the Ward 3 seat on the City Council back in 2017. The Ward 3 seat was recalled at the time after former city councilor Keith Jackson was indicted on embezzlement charges.
This past year, LaFortune ran for the city’s mayor, but lost in the Democratic primary to Brett Smiley – who eventually became the city’s new mayor. She finished third in the race with 22% of the vote behind Smiley’s 42% and Gonzalo Cuervo’s 36%.
LaFortune also has worked in higher education for 17 years, City Year said. Her most recent role was with Brown University, where she was assistant director of the Ivy League institute’s Curricular Resource Center for Peer Advising.
“As a graduate of Providence Public Schools and an advocate for all young people to have equitable access to an excellent education and for students and their families to have greater voice in decision-making, it’s an honor to join City Year Providence as it embarks on its fourth decade of service to the students and schools of our city,” LaFortune said in a statement.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
