Renita Francois

Chief Strategy Officer • she/her

Renita Francois is the Chief Strategy Officer at Tides Advocacy. Prior to joining Tides Advocacy, Renita built and led one of New York City's signature community safety initiatives as the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), a citywide, multi-agency intervention focused on reducing violence by resourcing residents, City agencies and community-based organizations to address the factors underlying safety. For 7 years, she was tasked with developing innovative strategies to mobilize residents in historically underserved neighborhoods to build community power, while directing the City's resources to increase well-being, create access to opportunity, and combat inequity. She is known as one of the key architects of NeighborhoodStat, a place-based process that brings stakeholders in impacted communities together with City leadership to identify shared priorities and implement non-law enforcement centered public safety strategies. As a result of this work, Renita became a founding leader of New York City’s Office of Neighborhood Safety.