Center for Social Innovation

Lorie Slutsky and Ralph Dickerson were in their offices at Two Park Avenue when American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, four miles to the south. “My first thought was for the safety of the staff,” said Slutsky, president of the New York Community Trust. “And then I thought about our collective response. I knew that Americans would come through as they always do in a disaster.” Within a few hours, Slutsky was meeting with Dickerson, president of the United Way of New York City (UWNYC), as well as senior staff members of both organizations, to start charting that response. No one appointed them. But in the crisis atmosphere that immediately followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, ... Read more