Amanda Burden was Planning Commissioner as well as director of New York City’s Department of City Planning from 2002 to 2013, leading one of the city’s largest re-planning operations —intervening in 124 neighbourhoods, nearly 40 percent of the city— and catalysing significant new housing opportunities in several communities in New York City’s five boroughs. In 2007, the New York Times wrote of her, “Burden is leaving an indelible legacy on the look and feel of all five boroughs for decades to come.”

Throughout her career, Burden has emphasised the role of communities in improving urban landscapes, working to restore waterfronts and create dynamic new public spaces, such as the East River Esplanade and the High Line. 

For Amanda Burden, becoming an urban planner meant being able to truly change the city she lived in and loved: before joining Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, Burden helped establish the Midtown Community Court in Times Square, prized as a model of community justice that offers alternatives to fines and jail time as a response to low-level crimes.

Today, Burden is one of the most prominent people within Bloomberg Associates, the philanthropic consulting arm founded by Mike Bloomberg.