New York, NY – April 3, 2023 – The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, one of New York City’s leading nonprofit providers of behavioral health and social services, announces the appointment of Julia Pinover Kupiec as the agency’s new Chief Public Policy Officer effective today. As Chief Public Policy Officer, she will work to drive large-scale systems changes by addressing inefficiencies within the legislative and regulatory frameworks governing New York State’s human services organizations.
Pinover Kupiec was a founder and managing attorney for Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) in New York City, where she brought successful litigation to expand access for people with disabilities to voting and polling places, and fought for increased access to New York City’s subways, sidewalks, and taxis for people with physical and sensory disabilities.
She has also held several high-ranking roles in New York State government. As Assistant Counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo, she led significant policy decisions on poverty alleviation, child welfare, mental health, disability services, and addiction treatment. Her work encompassed complex legal and policy decisions at state agencies including Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), Office of Mental Health (OMH), and Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). In her most recent government role, she served as Special Counsel to Governor Kathy Hochul.
“To create a sustainable future for social service organizations, government will need to fund the adoption and scaling of proven evidence-based models, and rebalance the funding of the medical system to ensure that systems besides hospitals such as mental health, preventative and social services receive their fair share. We also need to make it possible for people to receive better integrated care among medical, mental health, addiction, and social services providers,” said The Jewish Board’s CEO Dr. Jeffrey Brenner. “Julia has the ideal mix of government experience and policy expertise to help The Jewish Board drive the generational changes that the human services sector desperately needs.”
Pinover Kupiec commented “As the Governor and Legislature consider legislative and regulatory changes that affect social services organizations, and as agencies implement new programs, The Jewish Board is well-positioned to drive and advise on necessary large-scale transformational change. I’m excited to return to my nonprofit roots and make sure that the voices of The Jewish Board staff and clients who are so often given short shrift are heard by policy makers and are unable to be ignored by our political process.”
A former Trustee of The Jewish Board, Pinover Kupiec holds a JD from Georgetown University Law School, which she earned with honors, and an LLM from New York University. She has lectured at Yale Law School and Columbia University.
About The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services
For nearly 150 years, The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services has been delivering innovative, best-in-class mental and behavioral health services. With hope and resilience guiding our work, we promote recovery by addressing all aspects of a person’s life, including mental and physical health, family, housing, employment, and education. Each year, we serve more than 45,000 people of all ages across the five boroughs of New York City. Learn more at JewishBoard.org.
