Gift Endows Program to Broaden Diversity in Real Estate Profession

By Ken Brown

The School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) recently received a $1 million gift from James and Marjorie Kuhn for its Real Estate Institute (REI)—home to NYU’s graduate and continuing professional education programs in real estate and construction management and related fields—to endow the James and Marjorie Kuhn Program to Foster Diversity. This initiative will help fund recruitment, financial aid, mentoring, placement, and other efforts to increase the numbers of future real estate professionals from diverse backgrounds.

      The Kuhns have fond memories of REI, having first met while Marjorie was doing course work there and James was teaching as an adjunct. Today, Marjorie is active in philanthropic, civic, and educational causes, while James is president of Newmark Knight Frank, one of the world’s largest independent real estate service firms. He is also the chair of the REI advisory board and dinner chair for REI’s 40th Anniversary Urban Leadership Dinner in June. Kuhn has also served as chair of REI’s Real Estate Roundtable, and his advocacy was instrumental in the creation of the M.S. in real estate. 

      The Kuhns believe that the real estate industry should broaden the participation of women and men of diverse ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. 

      “It’s the right thing to do,” says James. “And the profession will benefit by further embracing the nation’s multi-cultural character, considering the global trends impacting the real estate business.”

      The couple is creating the program to seek out candidates from all backgrounds, both for high caliber academic training and, eventually, for senior industry posts. The initiative aligns with James’s lifelong efforts to support inclusiveness. In 1985, as chairman of what was then the Young Men’s Real Estate Association of New York, he successfully advocated its name change to the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association.

      “Since then, women have made great strides, and today many of them stand at the pinnacle in banking, investment, and development,” James says.

      “James and Marjorie Kuhn’s visionary gift will help the REI keep its doors wide open to motivated, high-achieving men and women,” says SCPS Dean Robert S. Lapiner. “The support structures to be funded through the James and Marjorie Kuhn Program to Foster Diversity in Real Estate will help students of all backgrounds attain mastery of different aspects of real estate practice and foster their emergence into industry leaders.”

 

Marjorie and James Kuhn