Eric D. Shaw
Vice President of Programs and Policy
Eric D. Shaw grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He has lived in Boston, Washington D.C. and Miami, and he moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2008. As Vice President of Programs and Policy at Foundation for Louisiana, Eric leads all of the Foundation’s programmatic initiatives, including grantmaking, advocacy support and policy work. Prior to his position with Foundation for Louisiana, Eric was Director of Community Planning for the Louisiana Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit. During his term as Director, he cultivated partnerships with local planning agencies, managed a $10M grant program dedicated to community resiliency and supported recovery programs for more than fifteen parishes in northern and central Louisiana. Prior to his work with Louisiana’s Office of Community Development, Eric worked as a program officer with the renowned Silicon Valley Community Foundation where he contributed to the development of land use and transportation planning grantmaking strategies and managed a neighborhood grants portfolio. Eric has also served as Deputy Director for Policy at the Growth Partnership, an initiative of the Collins Center for Public Policy. There, he designed programs and policies devoted to transit-oriented development and regional strategies for social equity. Currently, Eric’s civic service includes his position as Vice Chair for Policy with the Planning and the Black Community Division of the American Planning Association (APA), his membership on the APA Committee for Sustainable Planning, and his participation in the New York Regional Catastrophic Planning Group Housing Task Force. Eric graduated from University of California, Los Angeles where he earned a B.A. in international development studies with a minor in public policy studies. He went on to earn a Masters in urban planning from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In his off time, Eric enjoys travel, great food and pondering the meaning of life.