Juan Ramos, a longtime community leader in housing and human rights, was appointed to the position of Executive Director of Southside United HDFC-Los Sures by the Board of Directors. He assumed the role effective October 2, 2017.
Shortly thereafter, on October 17, he was honored by the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence as one of the “2017 Advocates of the Year.”
Mr. Ramos, prior to his new role, has been an active Los Sures Board Member since 2012, and served as Chair for the past two years.
Mr. Ramos is a community leader who developed firsthand knowledge of the inner workings of the organization since his initial volunteer efforts with Los Sures and the Southside more than ten years ago. He is a well-known figure in the community and has a proven record of accomplishment is managing non-profit organizations and coalition building.
Most recently, he has served as the Deputy Director of the Crown Heights Mediation Center, where he was responsible for supervision of staff and programming at all of the organization’s Brooklyn sites.
The Mediation Center is part of the Center for Court Innovation, a not-for-profit that seeks to create a more effective and humane justice system by designing and implementing programs, performing original research and providing reformers around the world with the tools to launch new strategies.
Juan created relationships with funders, citywide partners, and government officials that contributed to the overall success of the program.
Mr. Ramos began his career at Safe Horizon, where he served in various capacities helping families and communities overcome a cycle of violence; eventually becoming Director of their Batterer Education Program and the recipient of their Gordon Campbell Leadership Award in 2012.
The 17 years that he spent with the organization nurtured his sense of community and human rights. He worked as the Program Manager of The Center for Court Innovation’s Save Our Streets Bed-Stuyvesant Program until 2016, when he was promoted to Deputy Director for the organization’s Crown Heights Mediation Center.
Juan serves as a consultant to A Call to Men, a national organization that seeks to engage men, boys and communities to overcome their role in society’s violence against women. In this capacity, he has represented the US State Department in Latin America and has conducted trainings with professional sports teams in this country.
Juan has been widely recognized for his contributions. He was acclaimed by El Diario la Prensa as one of The Most Influential Latinos in New York in 2008 and his outstanding training and advocacy efforts were acknowledged by the NYC Department of Mental Health last year.
He has also been recognized by local organizations and political leaders including Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, then City Councilperson (now Deputy Borough President) Diana Reyna and the St. Nick’s Alliance.
Juan has also served on the boards of many local organizations. He is Chair of the North Brooklyn Coalition Against Family Violence, the co-founder and a Board member of Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH), a former Board member of El Puente.