Diane Englander

About Diane Englander

For the few years I was a lawyer and the many as a consultant to non-profits, my professional life was all an exercise in left-brain activity: analyzing, problem-solving, putting in order, writing to explain or persuade. Then, in the spring of 2008 I began to paint and glue full-time. Cold turkey, from left-brain to solely right-brain activity. And from waking up worrying about clients to confronting a blank page or canvas. Initially, this transition was hugely liberating. Then, it came to feel unbalanced. Happily, the Right Question Institute fell into my world, and much more recently New City Parks, and now my professional life has two complementary components: painting, where the only relevant standard has to be whether a painting works esthetically for me; and being on the board of RQI and an advisor to New City Parks, which do so much good in the world and where I can occasionally be helpful with a bit of analysis or problem-solving. You can visit all three endeavors, at and Specialties: Visual arts, non-profits

Experience

1. Communications and Strategy Advisor

   New City Parks

   Sep 2019 — Present · New York, NY, US

   New City Parks is an initiative to address the lack of thriving urban parks in neighborhoods of need. NCP works with a small number of Northeastern cities that have supportive mayors and agencies open to action, ready to build or revitalize their systems and invest in programs and partners to steward their parks so that people will have nearby spaces in which to move, to play, to touch nature, to build community. NCP was founded by Rose Harvey, recently Parks Commissioner for NY State and formerly with the Trust for Public Land.

Education

• Harvard Law School

  JD cum laude

  1978 — 1981

• Harvard University

  BA magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Government

  1974 — 1978

• Columbia University

  Ed. M., Psychology