By Guy F. Smith
March 20, 2006

Cardell Cooper, former mayor of East Orange (NJ) and confirmed by the United States Senate in 1998 as Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Clinton Administration, is the new Executive Director of the National Community Development Association (NCDA) in Washington (DC). Cooper succeeds Chandra Western, who headed NCDA for the past eight years.

NCDA’s board of Directors, consisting of community development officials from across the nation, selected Cardell Cooper in February to serve as the Association’s new Executive Director, beginning March 1. Cardell brings to the position a history of leadership at both the local government and federal levels and a strong commitment to local governments and the low and moderate-income persons they serve.

NCDA is affiliated with The United States Conference of Mayors and is strongly committed to the goal of assisting local governments achieve high quality, locally-responsive programs for making communities better places in which to live, particularly for low and moderate-income people.

Conference of Mayors Executive Director Tom Cochran said Cooper will bring extensive experience to NCDA as a mayor and former Clinton official in charge of oversight for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program of HUD, as well as other vital programs for the cities of the United States. “He joins NCDA at a critical time when the Conference and our coalition of public interest groups and housing organizations are fighting against any cuts in the CDBG program. Cooper will be a valuable ally in that lobbying effort,” Cochran said.

NCDA is a national nonprofit organization comprised of more than 400 members, primarily cities and counties that administer the CDBG program, federal affordable housing programs (HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program, Emergency Shelter Grants Programs, Housing for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) and HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants programs), and federal economic development programs (Brownfields Economic Development Initiative, Section 108 Loan Guarantees).

In 1989, Cooper was elected mayor of East Orange, making him the youngest mayor in the city’s history. He was re-elected to a second term in 1993. During his two terms as mayor, East Orange experienced a rise in business development, improvements in public school test scores, expanded affordable housing, a reduction in the crime rate, and upgrades in the city’s infrastructure.

From 1989 to 1990, Cooper served as County Administrator of Essex (NJ), the largest, most diverse and most urban county in the state. Additionally, he served as the Business Administrator for Irvington (NJ), and served eight years as the Director of Human Services for East Orange (NJ).

Cooper served on the Advisory Board of the Conference of Mayors and chaired its Health and Human Services Committee and Task Force on Immigration.

Under the auspices of the Conference of Mayors, Cooper traveled to Taiwan in 1995; to Jerusalem in 1994; and to Japan in 1993. These visits focused on issues such as economic development and international trade opportunities. Former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio selected Cooper to lead the state’s first economic trade mission to Ghana, West Africa, in 1993. In 1990, Cooper was chosen as a member of the Conference of Mayors delegation to Poland, providing assistance and guidance to Poland’s newly elected mayors following this country’s first free elections in 50 years. Cooper represented the United States in Switzerland at the Young Leaders International Conference. Cooper also visited South Africa as a member of the Sister Cities International Mission to that country.

Cooper received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Montclair State University in 1974 and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Rutgers University in 1978.

Cooper and his wife, Sandy, have two daughters, Tiffane and Dana.

Since leaving the Clinton Administration in 2001, Cooper established Cooper Associates, a consulting group and served as its President.

NCDA was created in 1974 and grew out of the Models Cities Directors Association, which was created in 1968. Although the Model Cities program no longer exists, its guiding principles of local control and direct neighborhood improvement are still very much alive in the CDBG Program, the main source of locally administered community development funding in the nation.