Joe Tarver
Chief Operating Officer

Joe Tarver is the Chief Operating Officer of the High Line, where he oversees Park Operations, Planning, Design & Construction, and Food Services departments. He has broad-based experience working in the non-profit, public, and private sectors in New York City and Washington, DC.

Tarver was previously Vice President of Operations at Educational Alliance, a social services provider with locations in Lower Manhattan, where he oversaw facilities operations and IT, and managed construction projects. Before that, he was Managing Director of Operations at Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice; worked for the Office of the NYC Comptroller managing the Community and Government Relations Division; and was Director of Operations at Empire State Pride Agenda, New York State’s LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. He also worked for Organic, an internet services company, during the period of rapid growth in internet adoption in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

In Washington, DC, Tarver was White House Liaison at the US Department of State for President Clinton, worked for the Deputy Director of the Clinton Presidential Transition, and was on the 1992 Clinton Presidential Campaign as a member of the Senior Finance Staff. He also worked at public affairs companies Cassidy & Associates and Arnold & Porter Consulting. His first job in Washington, DC was in the House of Representatives working for Congressman Solomon P. Oritz (D-TX) as a legislative assistant.

Tarver has a Master of Philosophy degree in Soviet and East European Studies from the University of Glasgow, and a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He was born and raised in Port Arthur, Texas.