Marcus Escobedo, MPA

Vice President, Communications and Senior Program Officer

Marcus R. Escobedo, MPA, is vice president, communications and a senior program officer at The John A. Hartford Foundation, where he develops and implements the organization’s communications strategy and oversees a grants portfolio of communications and special projects. He joined the foundation in 2006, and as a program team member, he has managed grant initiatives to support academic geriatrics training programs for specialist physicians and improve emergency departments and surgical care for older adults.

Mr. Escobedo's career has focused on bringing about social change for underserved and marginalized populations. He previously worked at the Women’s Foundation of California, a statewide community-based foundation that invests in women’s and girls’ organizations in the areas of health, economic development, safety, and leadership. Prior to that, he was resource development and communications coordinator for Communities in Schools of Georgia, part of a nationwide network of nonprofit organizations connecting community resources to local K-12 schools. Mr. Escobedo taught elementary school in Oakland, California through the Teach for America program.

He currently serves on the board of directors for Grantmakers in Aging, a membership association for funders in the field of aging. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid-funded Vitality Signs Project and the Leadership Roundtable for America’s Volunteer Driver Center of ITNAmerica, a national nonprofit transportation network for older adults and people with mobility challenges. He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and serves on the board of directors for the New York City Anti-Violence Project, the largest anti-LGBTQ violence organization in the country.

Mr. Escobedo previously was a steering committee member for the Aging PCOR Learning Collaborative, which promotes the engagement of older adults in all aspects of research. He served for six years as a board member of Hispanics in Philanthropy, a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing philanthropic resources to Latino communities. He was also a member of the Community Advisory Board for the Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations through Workforce, Informatics and Structural Enhancements (GEDI-WISE) project at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He has previously served on the board of One Stop Senior Services in the upper west side of Manhattan, as well as the Regional Health Equity Council as part of the Office of Minority Health’s National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (Region II).

Mr. Escobedo received a BA in sociology and a BS in communications from the University of Texas at Austin and he earned his MPA in public and nonprofit management and policy at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.