As the Deputy Director for Real Estate and Investments at Newark Alliance, Jerrah supports the strategic real estate development and investment work to advance equitable development here in the city. He works closely with Newark Alliance’s Chief Real Estate Investment Officer and other divisions at the Alliance, along with partner organizations to provide resources to the small business landscape and economic development ecosystem using place-based solutions uniquely crafted for Newark.

Just prior to joining the Alliance, he helped run the City of Newark’s Department of Economic and Housing Development (EHD) as Assistant Director. There he focused on implementing Mayor Ras J. Baraka’s equitable growth strategy, harnessing billions of dollars of new investment in Newark to create opportunities for residents and businesses. He helped lead a team that developed and implemented new policies, programs and financing tools to preserve and expand affordable housing, minimize foreclosures, prevent evictions, help residents purchase their first homes, transform abandoned properties into neighborhood assets, and create mixed income housing through inclusionary zoning. Through investment instruments like tax abatements, local trust fund dollars and federal and private grants, while carrying out policy improvements through zoning law enhancements and the establishment and amendments of ordinances, he helped contribute citywide to Newark’s vibrancy. Before being named Assistant Director, Jerrah managed EHD’s Office of Affordability and Sustainable Housing, working across other departments and non-government entities to strengthen Newark’s affordable housing production, preservation and protection ecosystem.

Before the joining the City of Newark, he led initiatives to support and grow businesses along neighborhood commercial corridors and established and grew a network of integrated services workforce centers as the Economic Development Program Officer for Greater Newark LISC. There he also represented LISC and its community-based partners in Newark Alliance’s Hire Buy Live Newark 2020 initiative.

He brings to the Alliance almost three decades of leadership experience in roles ranging from an investment advisor for a global investment firm, to a New Jersey Planning Official while Chairman of Newark’s Central Planning Board, to Chairman of Newark’s Equitable Growth Advisory Commission, along with formal education in real estate and community and economic development finance.

Born and raised in Newark, he is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC. With graduate education in strategic management; real estate and community and economic development finance from Harvard University’s Extension School, he continues to work for the betterment of Newark, where he was now raises his own family. Outside of work, he likes to attend cultural events and travel. He plans to one day take his young daughters to get immersed in some of his favorite places in which they are named; from as local as Brooklyn and Harlem to as far away as Egypt.