Craig Howard
Director of Community and Economic Development

Email: choward at macfound dot org

Craig Howard is the Director of Community and Economic Development for the Program on Human and Community Development, with responsibility for grantmaking in neighborhood revitalization and public housing transformation.

Howard has more than 25 years of nonprofit experience, most of it working in workforce and community economic development, designing and implementing replicable programs that create jobs and opportunities for disadvantaged people here and abroad. In 1999, Howard was recruited to be Vice President and most recently, co-director of the Low Wage Worker and Communities unit of MDRC, a well-respected national program design, management and evaluation organization. He also managed and provided guidance to the research and evaluation component of MacArthur’s New Communities Program, and was Project Director for the Jobs-Plus Demonstration for Public Housing Residents and the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative teams. Howard was also Project Director for California Works for Better Health, a joint project of the California Endowment and the Rockefeller Foundation. Prior to joining MDRC, he was Senior Program Director for the James Irvine Foundation in San Francisco. Howard was formerly a Planner with the National Economic Development and Law Center and a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, first in the Office for Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, and later in the Urban Poverty Program in the Foundation’s New York office.

Howard managed the Sector Intervention Demonstration Project at the National Economic Development and Law Center, which was designed to increase employment opportunities for disadvantaged populations in targeted industries or sectors and led to widespread interest in linking poor communities to industrial sectors in local and regional labor markets. Howard also served as a consultant to the MacArthur Foundation on two occasions: to establish the East St. Louis Community Fund; and to provide technical assistance to the Glades Community Based Development Project in Bellglade, Florida. Throughout his career, he has had a commitment to measuring the results of programs and continuing to fund only those programs that can show measurable results.

Howard holds a BA, magna cum laude, in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, and Masters degrees in Public Health and in International Affairs from Columbia University.

Herman Brewer
Program Director, Chicago Working Group

Email: hbrewer at macfound dot org

Herman Brewer is the Director of the Chicago Working Group in the Foundation's Program on Human & Community Development. He is responsible for integrating grantmaking strategies for the Program's work relating to Chicago neighborhoods, particularly in the areas of community change, education, juvenile justice and affordable housing.

Brewer joined the Foundation in May 2003 after a year as the Chief Operations Officer at the Center for New Horizons (CNH), a social service agency that helps Chicago's low-income families become more self-sufficient. Prior to his work with CNH, Brewer served as a Program Vice President with the national office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) from 1998-2002. At LISC he had major responsibility for its community development programs in seven cities, including decisions for project financing, underwriting and credit decisions for housing, commercial buildings, and community facilities. In the course of developing the financing needed for activities in the cities, Brewer worked closely with community development corporations, state and local governments, financial institutions, and foundations. As a member of LISC's national staff, he served on a committee that reviewed community development activity in all 38 LISC program sites. Previously he served as Vice President for Investor Relations at the National Equity Fund (1996-1998). Earlier in his career, Brewer was Senior Program Officer in LISC's Chicago Office (1994-1996), Director of Community Development for the Village of Park Forest (1991-1994) and Senior Planner and then Assistant to the City Manger of Richmond, Virginia (1984-1991).

Brewer is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology with a degree in City and Regional Planning and has done graduate work at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Spruiell D. White
Senior Program Officer

Email: swhite at macfound dot org

Spruiell D. White is a Senior Program Officer in the Program on Human and Community Development responsible for grantmaking in the areas of Public Housing and Community Change. He joined the Foundation as a Program Officer in 1995, and was promoted to his current position in 1998.

Prior to his arrival at the Foundation, White served in a number of executive leadership positions for the Chicago Jobs Council, the United Negro College Fund and Urban League affiliates in San Francisco and Seattle. He is a founding member of Chicago Blacks in Philanthropy and a board advisor to the Illinois Ethnic Coalition and the Center for Impact Research. White has served as a mayoral appointee to the Private Industry Council and the Empowerment Zone Coordinating Council.

White received his undergraduate degree in English literature from Luther College, and his Masters in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago.