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Kathryn Garcia
43rd Commissioner of the New York City Sanitation Department
In office April 1, 2014 – September 18, 2020
Mayor	Bill de Blasio
Preceded by	John Doherty
Succeeded by	Edward Grayson
Personal details
Born	(1970-03-03) March 3, 1970 (age 54) New York City, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Jerry Garcia (divorced)
Children	2
Education	University of Wisconsin–Madison (BA)

Kathryn A. Garcia (née McIver; born March 3, 1970) is an American public official who served as commissioner for the New York City Sanitation Department and is running for mayor of New York City in the 2021 election.

Garcia served as interim chair and CEO of the New York City Housing Authority and was appointed "food czar" for New York's emergency food program during the COVID-19 emergency response.

Early life and education

Kathryn Garcia was born in Brooklyn and adopted as a baby by Bruce C. and Ann McIver. She was raised in Park Slope, along with five multiracial kids. Her father was the chief labor negotiator for former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, and her mother was a Medgar Evers College English professor and executive director of a nonprofit. Actor Clark Gregg is her cousin.

Garcia completed her primary education at P.S. 321 in Park Slope and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. She went to the University of Wisconsin at Madison and received a bachelor's degree in economics and history.

Career

Garcia started her career as an intern at the New York City Department of Sanitation, and then worked as a policy analyst at the New York City Department of Finance and as vice president at Appleseed, focusing on strategic planning and economic impact studies. She later served in several roles at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection during the Bloomberg administration, including as Chief Operating Officer. There, she was responsible for the operation of the city's water supply, water and sewer system, and wastewater treatment plants. She implemented efficiency measures that led to $30 million reduction in the agency's expenses, and helped restore 42 pumping stations and a wastewater treatment plant that was affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Commissioner of Sanitation

Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Garcia as the 43rd Sanitation Commissioner for the New York City Department of Sanitation on March 31, 2014. She was the second woman to serve in that role. As commissioner, Garcia oversaw garbage collection, recycling collection, street cleaning, and snow removal. She pursued an ambitious zero waste to landfills agenda, and built the nation's largest residential curbside food scraps collection and composting program. She also established a commercial franchise zoning system, an overhaul of commercial garbage pickup intended to make the industry safer for pedestrians, workers and the environment.

During her tenure, Garcia also oversaw the construction of marine transfer stations, negotiated major disposal contracts, supported the passage of waste equity legislation, made internal systems paperless, launched a procurement program to support businesses owned by people of color and women, and started the NYC Food Waste Fair.

Interim chair of NYCHA

Following widespread controversy and criticism after the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) admitted to falsely saying it had performed mandated inspections for lead paint that hadn't been done for years, de Blasio named Garcia Senior Advisor for Citywide Lead Prevention in October 2018. In that role, she coordinated citywide efforts to reduce childhood lead exposure, and produced LeadFreeNYC, a comprehensive plan to eradicate childhood lead exposure at NYCHA and in private homes.

In February 2019, Garcia was appointed as CEO and Interim Chair of NYCHA. In that role, she focused on further improving lead paint compliance, safety, and quality assurance, as well as long-term financial stability. She pursued the conversion of NYCHA buildings to private management through the Rental Assistance Demonstration program as well as “infill” private development on NYCHA land.

During her tenure, NYCHA federal monitor Bart M. Schwartz claimed Garcia omitted material details while testifying about its lead paint scandal. He also claimed that she potentially misled the public by not revealing that officials relied solely on resident disclosure forms to determine where children under six reside, and questioned whether X-ray testing for lead paint in 135,000 apartments would be finished by the end of 2020.

COVID-19 food czar

On March 22, 2020, Garcia was named Food Czar for New York's COVID-19 emergency response, and tasked with ensuring that every New Yorker in need has access to food and securing the city's food supply. In her first month as food czar, she coordinated a massive effort to distribute free meals at more than 400 schools, and a home delivery program that hired 11,000 taxi drivers to provide 120,000 to 140,000 meals per day to seniors, COVID-vulnerable, and homebound New Yorkers. The program cost the city $170 million and distributed 130 million meals during Garcia's tenure.

2021 mayoral candidacy

On September 18, 2020, Garcia resigned from her roles as Sanitation Commissioner, Interim NYCHA Chair and Food Czar due to the budget cuts to the Department of Sanitation and her intention to explore a run for New York City Mayor.

In May 2021, The New York Times and The New York Daily News endorsed Garcia. In the second mayoral debate, held on June 2, 2021, Garcia scored the third-highest among all the candidates onstage in the New York Times's opinion article on the debate with the Times's Michelle Goldberg writing, "No one treated her like a leading candidate, so no one tore her down. She continues to exude down-to-earth competence."

Personal life

Garcia married Jerry Garcia in 1995, but the couple later divorced. She has two children, Anna and Alex. Since 2014, Garcia has resided in Park Slope.

Footnotes

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• 1970 births
• Living people
• Politicians from Brooklyn
• People from Park Slope
• Stuyvesant High School alumni
• University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni
• Commissioners in New York City
• New York (state) Democrats
• Public housing in New York City