Our Team
Mark Willis
Mark Willis is the Senior Policy Fellow at the NYU Furman Center, conducting research, writing, and speaking on such urban-related policy issues as affordable housing, housing finance reform, community development lending and investment, and the Community Reinvestment Act.
Before joining the NYU Furman Center, Mark was a Visiting Scholar at the Ford Foundation, working on research related to community development and the financial services sector. Prior to his time at Ford, he spent 19 years at JPMorgan Chase overseeing its community development program, serving as Executive Vice President and Founding President of the Chase Community Development Corporation. Mark has also held positions with the City of New York in economic development, tax policy, and housing, where he was the Deputy Commissioner for Development at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He also worked as an urban economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Mark has taught Housing and Community Development Policy at New York University’s Law and Wagner Schools. He co-chairs the Economic Development and Housing Committee of the Citizens Budget Commission, co-chairs the Policy and Research Committee of the National Housing Conference, and is member of the boards of the National Community Investment Fund, the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, and a number of other organizations involved with housing and community development
Mark has a B.A. in economics from Yale University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. in urban economics and industrial organization from Yale University.
