Meet Tischelle George, Director of Special Projects in Operations Support Services

While Tischelle George has held roles in different departments throughout her 16-year career at NYCHA, they have all furthered her passion for education, mentoring, and ensuring residents and employees have the information and resources necessary to be successful. 

Currently, Ms. George is the director of special projects for Operations Support Services (OSS), where she provides project management to the elevators, pest, waste, heat, and emergency services teams.  She also focuses on training and development, helping OSS staff leverage in-house trainings offered by HR’s Learning & Development Department.   

“Tischelle has been a great addition to the team,” said Keith Grossman, NYCHA’s Senior Vice President for Operations Support Services. “She is instrumental in ensuring that our training prepares staff for the job they will encounter in our developments. Her NYCHA experience and educational background bring a much-needed view to not only how we train, but how we develop our frontline staff. She is bringing her vast experience with engagement, to the frontline staff and using the outcomes to inform real improvement to our highly specialized training programs.” 

Before joining the OSS team in July 2022, she was focused on resident engagement and outreach through various roles in Community Engagement & Partnerships (now known as Resident Services, Partnerships & Initiatives). As a director in Resident Engagement, Ms. George led strategy on civic engagement and leadership development for residents. While in the Resident Economic Empowerment & Sustainability (REES) Department, she was the assistant director of asset building and financial literacy, helping to connect residents to financial education resources and homeownership opportunities. 

Ms. George got her start at NYCHA in 2006 as the web coordinator in the Department of Communications (DOC). Her legacy there includes launching the Authority’s use of social media, creating NYCHA’s Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as the agency’s first social media policy.  

“It wasn’t until Superstorm Sandy that we realized as an agency how valuable real-time communications with residents via social media could be,” Ms. George said. “Residents that evacuated reached out to us via social media to ask questions. The communications team was working around the clock to maintain communications with residents throughout Sandy, and that was the first time we [DOC] had immediate back-and-forth communications via social media.” 

Of all the roles she’s held at the Authority, Ms. George said managing the NYCHA-CUNY Scholarship, “is probably my favorite job and most impactful because I could see immediately and over time the difference this investment has made in the lives of residents.” 

The NYCHA-CUNY Scholarship awards NYCHA residents studying at City University of New York colleges with $1,000 towards education-related expenses. Since 2005, the scholarship program has awarded more than $328,000 in scholarships. Ms. George managed the program from 2010 to 2018. 

Over the years, Ms. George mentored many of the NYCHA-CUNY Scholars, getting recognized with the Isaac Liberman Public Service Award in 2016 for this work. Christine Ho received the NYCHA-CUNY Scholarship 10 years ago and is now a certified nurse care manager with a master’s in nursing from Columbia University (she’s also a new homeowner); Ms. Ho recently wrote to Ms. George: “You are definitely one of my angels. I’ll never forget how you’ve helped me and the NYCHA youth in general by coordinating these programs, outreach projects, and scholarships. It really helped me, and it was so memorable.” 

The tables have turned now as some of her former mentees are serving as mentors to her as she pursues a doctorate in education from New York University. She is hard at work on her dissertation, which focuses on building a participatory budgeting process for public housing residents to engage in financial decision-making. It is fitting that Ms. George’s career has inspired her pursuit of further education. “NYCHA is like a university and every department is like a new major,” Ms. George said. “It’s engaging to be in an organization where I can always learn something new.”  

Ms. George has a bachelor’s degree in social sciences interdisciplinary and journalism from Stony Brook University, and a master’s in urban affairs with a concentration in non-profit management from Hunter College.  

“I spent most of my time on the community engagement side of the house and now I’m working on the operations side of the house, which is eye opening,” she said about her new position with OSS. “It feels good to know that the conversations and meetings we’re having means we’re all working towards making a difference for New Yorkers.”