Board Members

John Bess

A graduate of the Not-For-Profit Institute of the Columbia University Business School and a former recipient of the coveted Revson Fellowship at Columbia, John Bess is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Valley, Inc., comprehensive human service agency for young people, and currently sits on the CLDC board.

Selected as one WCBS-TV's 1997 Fulfilling The Dream award winners, Bess was also a recipient of the 1995 "Measure of a Man Award from The New York Conference of the NAACP. He was described in a New York Times article as a "hell raiser" on behalf of young people. He was one of 27 New Yorkers selected as "Community Heroes" by the United Way to carry the Olympic Torch through New York City on it way to the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.