Name Leslie Cornfeld | ||
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Spouse Michael Urfirer (m. 1987–2001) | ||
Leslie Cornfeld is a policy advisor as well as a public and private sector consultant. Cornfeld most recently served as the Special Advisor to United States Secretaries of Education Arne Duncan and John King Jr. during the Obama administration. She was also a fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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During the Bloomberg administration, Cornfeld was a public policy consultant to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and served as Chair of the Mayor’s Interagency Task Force on Truancy, Chronic Absenteeism & School Engagement.
Cornfeld is also a former Federal Prosecutor, and served as Deputy Chief of the New York City Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (also known as “the Mollen Commission”). Cornfeld has contributed articles and opinion pieces to The New York Times, Newsweek, Newsday, and New York Law Journal, and has made television appearances on Dateline NBC, Turning Point, and PBS/WNET. She speaks regularly at national conferences and summits.
Early life and education
Born in Hollywood, FL, Cornfeld is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Career
Cornfeld began her career as Special Assistant to United States Senator Daniel P. Moynihan in Washington, D.C. She also served as a law clerk to federal judge Pierre N. Leval of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York before becoming a litigation associate at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Cornfeld served as the Deputy Chief of the New York City Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (the “Mollen Commission”), where she supervised investigations of alleged police corruption and brutality, and the anti-corruption systems of the NYPD.
Cornfeld served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and the Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Division for the Eastern District of New York. As a federal prosecutor, Cornfeld led several public corruption and criminal civil rights cases.
Following the highly publicized child abuse death of Nixzmary Brown, Cornfeld was appointed Director of the Mayor’s Interagency Task Force on Child Welfare and Safety.
Cornfeld was appointed Chair of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Interagency Task Force on Truancy, Chronic Absenteeism & School Engagement in June 2010.
Awards
Cornfeld twice received the National U.S. Attorney General’s Director's Award for Outstanding Performance as a U.S. Attorney, Washington, DC.
Boards
Cornfeld has served as trustee on non-profit and other boards, including the Children’s Defense Fund, Washington, DC for over a decade; the Dalton School in New York City; the Hospital for Special Surgery; the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Law, Brain and Behavior, and is founder of a public speaking program Girls Speak! in East Harlem, where she serves as a coach and mentor.