Tom Quinn

A lifelong New Yorker, Tom worked at the Ford Foundation for nearly two decades, serving in various writing and editing posts, including senior writer, speechwriter/special assistant to the president, and co-founder and editor-in-chief of the foundation’s award-winning quarterly magazine.

Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, he was a speechwriter for New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo. As a free-lance writer, he won a New York Emmy Award for a documentary he co-wrote about McSorley’s Ale House, New York’s oldest saloon. He has published many articles in daily newspapers and national magazines, including Esquire, Newsday Magazine, and The New York Observer.

As editor of the Ford Foundation’s magazine, he reported on water issues from the Amazon to Zimbabwe to the South Bronx. He has lived within walking distance of the Hudson River most of his life and it has always been one of his passions. His first “official” association with the river was as a cook on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Three years ago, to raise awareness about the Hudson, he completed his first cross-Hudson swim in the 15th Annual Hudson River Swim for Life. He completed the 5K course again last September and is training for this year’s event.

Tom graduated from Manhattan College with a B.A. in English and education. He went on to pursue a Writing Project Fellowship at the CUNY Graduate Institute, where he was certified as a specialist in the teaching of writing.  Tom lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and four children. Besides swimming, he enjoys hiking, biking and cooking.