Deacon Mary D. Redd

Mary D. Redd was born, raised and educated in West Virginia. She is a licensed social worker who received her advanced degree from Fordham University. She has dedicated her life to serving New York City’s most vulnerable and neediest children and families. Since assuming the leadership role of directing Steinway Child and Family services in 1978, Ms. Redd has established the organization as one of the most respected, dependable and ethnically diverse human service agencies in New York City. She currently serves as the agency’s President and C.E.O., a title she assumed in 1997 after serving in the capacity as Executive Director for more than nineteen years.

Steinway is a multi service agency with locations in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan. The clients served by Steinway are predominantly people of color and working class ethnic groups. Ms. Redd has always insisted on the delivery of high quality services to all. She feels strongly that a person’s socio-economic status, ethnicity, race or disability should not determine the excellence of care that they receive.

Ms. Redd in recognizing the impact of AIDS on our communities has led Steinway in the direction of program development in this area. Steinway is one of the city’s leading providers of Scatter Site Housing for people with AIDS. She is also a co-founder of the "Pioneers and Friends" a group that helps to develop public policy in HIV/AIDS services for women, sponsored by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.

Ms. Redd's distinguished career has made her one of the most respected and well known leaders in the field of Human Services in New York State. Her professional accomplishment are many; to name a few, first African American and second woman to be elected to serves as President of the Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies, an umbrella organization of more than 100 mental health agencies serving people with mental disabilities.

Ms. Redd has served on many local, state and national task forces Committees/Councils. She is very proud of her work as Co-Chair of the Child and Adolescent Task Force which set the blue print for the establishment of the New York City Department of Mental Hygiene- Bureau of Child and Adolescent Services. Statewide, Ms. Redd served as a member of the Commissioner Mental Health Multicultural Advisory Committee. She also served on the Statewide Planning Committee for the New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute. She was a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZ).

Ms. Redd was appointed by Mayors David Dinkins, Rudolph Guiliani and Michael Bloomberg to serve as a member of the Community Services Board for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

In August 2004, Ms. Redd was elected to the Board of Directors of the Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural and Minority Medicine in Washington, DC whose mission is to eliminate disparities in the health care for people of African descendant. In conjunction with Healthy People 2010 and Healthier US this group advocates for improving the status and quality of health for African Americans, other minorities and the underserved.

She has received numerous awards and honors for professional services and community activities. She is actively sought after to be a workshop leader, panelist, and keynote speaker in areas of Child Welfare, Mental Health, Management and Religious Education.

Ms. Redd is a golden life member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., where she was recently appointed Co-Chair of the National Social Action Commission.

Ms. Redd has been a member of the Convent Avenue Baptist Church for more than thirty-five years. She has held various leadership positions in the Sunday Church School, Women’s Missionary Fellowship, John W. Saunders Group Home, Betty B. Wilson Learning Center, etc. She was ordained in May 2006 along with 17 other women as the first female deacons of Convent Avenue Baptist Church. Currently, Ms. Redd is the Chairman of the Board of Deacons, being the first female to serve in such a capacity.

Ms. Redd is a woman whose life stands firmly on a triangle of religious faith, family and service. She is a woman of great pride, compassion, caring and dedication to others.