Solutions for Sustainable Communities: Speaker Biographies

 

David M. Abromowitz is a director (principal) in the law firm Goulston & Storrs, based in Boston, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington DC.  He is nationally known for expertise in housing and economic development.  In January 2008, he wrote the “A Great American Dream Neighborhood Stabilization Fund” proposal, the basis for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program enacted by Congress later in 2008, which has funded nearly $6 billion for communities hard hit by foreclosures.

Mr. Abromowitz serves on the Board of MassDevelopment, the economic development finance agency for Massachusetts.  He is a past chair and founding member of both the Lawyers’ Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness and of the American Bar Association’s Forum Committee on Affordable Housing and Community Development. He is Treasurer and a board member of the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association, a founder of and counsel to the Council for Energy Friendly Affordable Housing, and a member of the Multifamily Leadership Board of the National Association of Home Builders. In 2004 he was awarded the Trailblazer award of the National Economic Development and Law Center of Oakland, California, in 2007 he was honored by the Fair Housing Center of Boston, and in 2008 recognized as a “social capitalist” by SCI Social Capital, Inc.

Mr. Abromowitz co-chaired the Housing Policy Working Group of then Governor-elect Deval Patrick (D-MA) and served on Boston Mayor Tom Menino's advisory task force during his first term. Charitable boards he serves on include YouthBuild USA, The Equity Trust, and B’nai B’rith New England.  A frequent columnist, his opinion pieces have appeared in the Huffington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times online, Baltimore Sun, Detroit Free Press, La Opinion, AOLnews online, and other publications.

A New Jersey native, Mr. Abromowitz is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

 

Russ Adams has been the Director of the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability since 1995.   He has worked as a nonprofit advocate and community organizer for over 25 years.  During this time, he has helped to build community coalitions in support of economic and racial justice; sustainable & equitable development; access to Green Jobs; better land-use and urban growth policies; workforce development hiring goals for woman, people of color, and minority owned businesses; community led Transit Oriented Development along Regional Transitways; and challenged public officials to address environmental justice concerns. The Alliance (AMS) and its partner groups have secured millions of dollars in public investments for transit, affordable housing, “digital inclusion,” equitable hiring and contracting by public agencies, and brownfields clean-up.  It has also advanced innovative strategies like Inclusionary Housing measures, Community Benefits Agreements and community engagement/equitable development outcomes for a Twin Cities regional HUD Sustainable Communities grant.

In June of 2006, Russ took a temporary Leave of Absence from the Alliance to work as the Field Director for the successful Keith Ellison for U.S. Congress campaign, helping to elect the nation’s first Muslim-American member of Congress.  His Board & Volunteer service includes the Sierra Club Northstar Chapter; Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM); and the Sustainable Resources Center.

 

Geoff Anderson is the President and CEO of Smart Growth America (SGA) and Co-Chair of the Transportation for America Campaign. He came to his current position in January 2008 after 13 years at the US EPA where he headed the Smart Growth Program. During his tenure at EPA, he was instrumental in creating the Agency’s Smart Growth Program, creating the ten smart growth principles, and he helped to found the Smart Growth Network. In addition, he helped to catalyze the creation of the National Vacant Properties Campaign, the LEED for Neighborhood Development Certification program, and the Governors’ Institute on Community Design. 

He has co-authored numerous publications including: This Is Smart Growth, Getting to Smart Growth Volumes 1 and 2, Protecting Water Resources with Higher Density Development, The Transportation and Environmental Impacts of Infill vs. Greenfield Development, Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change and many others.  His work has also included direct technical assistance, helping with smart growth implementation in communities nationwide including Cheyenne, WY, Prince George’s County, MD, and the flagship smart growth project Atlantic Station in Atlanta GA.

Geoff received a Masters Degree from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment with a concentration in Resource Economics and Policy.

SGA is a coalition of national, state, and local organizations working to improve the ways we plan and build the towns, cities and metro areas we call home.  The coalition includes many of the best-known national and state organizations advocating on behalf of historic preservation, the environment, farmland and open space, community revitalization and more.

 

Danielle Arigoni, AICP, is the director of the Codes, Standards and Sustainable Design Division in EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities.  Prior to this position, her work in EPA and other federal agencies, including HUD and USAID, has focused on the affordability and environmental benefits of more compact, green housing and community development through technical assistance, policy analysis, and research.  She has led technical assistance efforts for EPA in Greensboro, NC, Cedar Falls, IA, and Hartford, CT, and is the principal author of “Affordable Housing and Smart Growth:  Making the Connection” and co-author of “Getting to Smart Growth:  100 Policies for Implementation” and “Smart Growth for Coastal and Waterfront Communities.”

Ms. Arigoni has been working in the fields of planning, municipal management, affordable housing, and smart growth both domestically and internationally for more than 15 years.  She is an accredited member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.  She holds a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Planning and Public Policy from the University of Oregon.

 

Rushern Baker was elected the 7th County Executive of Prince George’s County on Tuesday, November 2, 2010.

A modest man of courage and conviction, Rushern Baker was born on October 24, 1958 in Valdosta, Georgia. As the son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Rushern experienced life in Okinawa, Japan; North Carolina; and Massachusetts where he graduated from high school.

Rushern converted an early struggle with reading to a hearty appetite for books, thanks to the vigorous support of his parents and a few dedicated teachers.

Rushern attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he received his Bachelor's degree in History in 1982 and later a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1986 from Howard University Law School.

Rushern's professional experiences include serving as an equal opportunity lawyer, economic development specialist, and private practice attorney. The citizens of the 22nd District (22B) elected Rushern to the Maryland House of Delegates where he served on various subcommittees and task forces from 1994 to 2003, including a stint as Chair of the Prince George's Delegation for four years.

Mr. Baker also served as Executive Director of Community Teachers Institute, a K-12 education reform nonprofit, which is based in Lanham, MD.

While at Howard University, Rushern met and married the lovely Christa Beverly, a graduate of Howard University's undergraduate program and William and Mary Law School. The couple has three children, one attending public school in Prince George's County, another attending college at St. Mary's College of Maryland and one attending graduate school at Yale University in New Haven, CT.

The Baker family lives in a modest home in Cheverly, Maryland where they have been actively engaged in improving the lives of Prince George’s County citizens for many years.

 

Lori Bamberger is a Dartmouth- and Yale Law-educated entrepreneur who works at the intersection of business, government, capital markets, and nonprofit organizations. Her firm, Lori Bamberger Consulting, offers innovative approaches to affordable and sustainable communities, energy financing, and policy formulation for CDFIs and financial institutions, foundations and think tanks, and local, state, and federal agencies.

In government, Lori served as the Assistant Chief of Staff to the US. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as the Deputy Director of the San Francisco Mayors’ Office of Housing, and as Housing Finance Counsel to the US Senate Banking Committee. She was also a Vice President of Providian Financial (now Chase). Currently, she serves as the Entrepreneur in Residence to Calcef Innovations, a think tank affiliated with a leading cleantech venture fund, where she is developing a set of policy recommendations for energy upgrades to California residences. She is also a consultant to the Low Income Investment Fund in a pilot providing a menu of financing options to nonprofit-owned community facilities. She also leads a California initiative for the San Francisco and Ford Foundations implementing an onbill financing pilot for single family moderate income households.  Lori has written two cutting edge papers for Brookings around catalyzing energy retrofits through financing innovations for single-family and multifamily buildings.

 

Noreen Beatley is a Program and Policy Consultant working on sustainable community issues such as green building, energy efficiency, workforce development, affordable housing, and community economic development.  She works with a range of clients, from nonprofits to State agencies, researching innovative practices and developing strategies to promote sustainable community policies.  She has written white papers and case studies examining national and local policies’ impact on green building, energy efficiency, and health; developed guidelines to help build a green-collar workforce; and worked to build partnerships and coalitions that bolster support for affordable housing and community development.

Noreen is the former Director of State and Local Policy for Enterprise Community Partners, where she worked on smart growth, green building, affordable housing and community revitalization issues.  At Enterprise, she built the capacity of local nonprofit community development partners to engage in advocacy and policy development.  She provides trainings on nonprofit advocacy, coalition building, green building and energy efficiency practices and policy development, and is a trained facilitator. Noreen holds a Masters degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Urban Development and Political Science from the University of Rhode Island. 

 

Joe Belden is Deputy Executive Director of the Housing Assistance Council, a national nonprofit provider of loans, grants, research, information, training and technical assistance for affordable rural housing.  Previously a research associate at HAC, he has also worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on Capitol Hill, and for several policy-oriented research organizations in Washington, DC.  Belden is the co-author of Housing in Rural America: Building Affordable and Inclusive Communities (Sage 1998) and Dirt Rich, Dirt Poor: America’s Food and Farm Crisis (Routledge 1986).  He is a graduate of the University of Texas-Austin and the Baylor University Law School.

 

Kaid Benfield is director of sustainable communities at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC. He leads the organization’s activities pursuing solutions to environmental challenges in America’s metro regions, cities, and neighborhoods. These include research, public education, and work with all levels of government and the private sector.

Kaid co-founded LEED for Neighborhood Development, a national process for defining and certifying smart, green land development under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council. He is also a founder and board member of Smart Growth America, a nationwide coalition of one hundred organizations working together on revitalizing cities, building walkable, inclusive neighborhoods, and stopping the spread of suburban sprawl.

Kaid was recently voted one of the world’s “top urban thinkers” in a comprehensive online poll and was also named one of the nation’s leading voices for sustainability by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. He writes commentary on green community practices for The Atlantic, Grist and Sustainable Cities web sites, along with a popular daily blog on NRDC’s web site dedicated to community and development issues. He has authored or co-authored many leading publications on smart growth, transportation and sustainability, including the books Smart Growth in a Changing World, Solving Sprawl, and Once There Were Greenfields.

Kaid has also served as chair of the environmental task force of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a member of the National Academy of Sciences public advisory board on transportation and the environment, and of several other steering committees and boards relating to sustainability, smart growth and transportation. He also teaches regional planning and sustainable development at the George Washington University School of Law.

Prior to coming to NRDC, Kaid worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, and in private legal practice in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of Emory University and Georgetown University Law Center.

 

Scott Bernstein is President and Co-Founder of the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Scott leads CNT’s work to understand and better disclose the economic value of resource use in urban communities, and helps craft strategies to capture the value of this efficiency productively and locally.

He studied at Northwestern University, served on the research staff of its Center for Urban Affairs, taught at UCLA and was a founding Board member at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Center. President Clinton appointed Scott to the President’s Council for Sustainable Development, where he co-chaired its task forces on Metropolitan Sustainable Communities and on Cross-Cutting Climate Strategies and to other Federal advisory panels on global warming, development strategy, and science policy. He helped write a climate change strategy for the 1st 100 days of the new Administration. Scott is a Fellow of the Center for State Innovation, a Board Member of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and Congress for the New Urbanism, works with governors, mayors and metropolitan organizations across the U.S., and most recently helped create the Chicago Climate Action Plan at the request of Mayor Richard M. Daley. CNT is a signer of the Charter of the New Urbanism and Scott is a member of the Urban History Association, which includes urbanists old and new.

Some key ideas in this practice are that successful urban and metropolitan economies are “high-road,” that is, they provide higher wage, lower waste and most inclusive economic pathways; that they work best if founded on economies of scope or network economies as opposed to simple economies of scale, and that communities contain assets that too often are hidden, disconnected or poorly deployed; all of which are changeable conditions. A beneficial result of these ideas is a blurring of the lines between “consumers” and “producers” of public goods.


Michael Bodaken serves as President of the National Housing Trust. He has served the Trust in that capacity for over 15 years. The Trust engages in preservation policy, affordable housing development and lending. He has been largely responsible for growing the organization in becoming a nationwide leader in the field of affordable housing preservation. The Trust is a multi-faceted organization, performing a pathfinding role in the housing preservation field through a unique mix of public policy development, lending, and real estate transactional activities.

Members of Congress, state and local officials and their staff frequently call upon the Trust for advice on housing finance legislation and programs. The Trust’s policy engagement with federal, state and local governments has led to the allocation of billions of dollars of funding to conserve existing rental housing. More recently, the Trust has conceptualized and advocated for “Green Preservation,” creating programs and policies that provide resources for the energy retrofitting of existing housing and preserving affordable housing near mass transit.

The Trust’s policy position is informed by actual practice in the field. Mr. Bodaken serves as President of NHT/Enterprise, an organization which owns and operates 3,000 affordable apartments in eight states and the District of Columbia. The Trust’s affiliated CDFI, NHT Community Development Fund, provides low interest loans to preservation developers. During Mr. Bodaken’s tenure, the Trust has financed and preserved over 20,000 apartments throughout the nation, involving over $1 billion in financing.

 

Melissa Bondi is a leading regional expert on nonprofit advocacy, policy authorship and budget negotiations, focused on the needs of vulnerable and low-income populations.

Melissa currently serves as a Project Coordinator for the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, focused on improving nonprofit-government partnerships to deliver safety net and related services to local residents.

A former Housing Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, Melissa led campaigns to integrate housing and equitable access principles into local budget, policy and planning decisions throughout the Washington Metro area. She has consulted on federal housing initiatives with Smart Growth America, and helped to lead safety net program and funding protections in numerous regional coalitions in the District of Columbia and many Northern VA jurisdictions. She serves as president of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, and on the Board of the Virginia Housing Coalition. 

Melissa has served on numerous local and regional budget, planning, transportation, community development and housing entities in Maryland, the District and in VA; she was a member of the Housing Affordability work group for the VA General Assembly, and sits on the Advisory Committee of Housing Virginia. She previously chaired the Arlington Advisory Commission on Housing, and sits on the board of the Arlington New Directions Coalition.

 

Ken Bowers returned from New York City to Raleigh, his home town, in July of 2006 to take a position as the City’s Deputy Planning Director. Starting in 2007, he served as the Department’s Project Direct for a far-reaching update to the City’s Comprehensive Plan, which was completed and unanimously adopted in 2009. He is currently overseeing implementation the 2030 Comprehensive Plan via a new Unified Development Ordinance and several area studies.

Prior to joining the Raleigh Department of City Planning, Mr. Bowers worked as a planning consultant and Principal with the firm of Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates in Manhattan, where he specialized in land use planning; economic development strategies for downtowns, neighborhoods, cities and regions; and market feasibility studies throughout the Tri-State region of New York/New Jersey/Connecticut and beyond.

Mr. Bowers has a Bachelors of Science in Physics from North Carolina State University and a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners and is also a licensed Professional Planner in the State of New Jersey.

 

Rob Brawner serves as Program Director for the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership.  The Atlanta BeltLine will improve the quality of life and spur new economic development in Atlanta by connecting diverse communities with new transit, trails, parks, public art, and affordable housing.  As Program Director, Rob guides the Partnership’s efforts to cultivate broad-based support for the Atlanta BeltLine, generate private sector investment in the project, and address the social and economic impacts resulting from its development.

Prior to joining the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership, Rob built his operations and management expertise during an eight year career at McMaster-Carr, which included roles as Director of Sales and Marketing and Director of Physical Distribution.  He graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1996 with a degree in Economics and received his MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in 2006.

 

A seasoned public relations practitioner, Angela Brown enjoys more than 12 years of management experience, including eight years as president of OmniMedia Consulting Group, an award-winning public relations firm she founded in 1999 that specialized in media relations, event planning and media training. 

Currently, Angela serves as the director of marketing & public affairs at NewCourtland, a Philadelphia-based non-profit healthcare provider operating with a mission to enhance the quality of life of Philadelphia seniors through community services, housing, nursing homes, education and workforce development. 

In her position, Angela acts as a spokesperson and is responsible for shaping and projecting the image of the organization and that of its affiliates to its external audiences through daily oversight of all media, government and community relations to fuel census of its business lines and garner support of the organization’s ongoing development goals.  She also provides counsel on consumer and B2B marketing and advertising strategies as well as crisis communications.

Since joining NewCourtland, Angela is credited with developing a strategic plan to leverage public relations and expand recognition of the NewCourtland brand as well as issues related to aging.  Highlights of her achievements include:

Angela has served on the PR task force of the National PACE Association (NPA) as well as NPA’s 2009 national conference planning committee, the “Enhancing the Quality of Life for Older Philadelphian's Task Force” and is a member of the City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Aging, Mt. Airy USA Neighborhood Advisory Board, the GenPhilly steering committee, a network of professionals who seek to groom the next generation of leaders in the long-term care industry while promoting Philadelphia as a community for all ages, and serves on the Board of Directors of Reed Street Presbyterian Apartments and the acclaimed PHILADANCO. 

Presentations to her credit include an address at the 2009 Bring Workers Home Regional Conference, the 2008 and 2009 American Association for Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) National Conference and the 2008 American Society on Aging East Coast Conference. 

Before joining NewCourtland, Angela served as president of OmniMedia Consulting, a major player in the greater Philadelphia region’s hospitality and tourism industry having serviced a variety of high-profile projects including Philadelphia 2000—Host Committee of the 2000 Republican National Convention, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the 2002 and 2003 and 2006 Sunoco Welcome America! Festivals, and the Two Cities-One Waterfront Tall Ships Challenge and Amistad Port Visit, events that combined attracted more than 200,000 visitors and garnered OmniMedia an award from the New Jersey Governor’s Office of Travel and Tourism in recognition of its public relations campaigns on behalf of the Camden Waterfront Marketing Bureau.

Prior to founding her own consulting practice, Angela represented several highly recognizable clients during her tenure as a media relations specialist at The MWW Group including McDonald’s New York Coop, Today’s Man, Bally Total Fitness and the late Dr. Atkins following a brief stint as associate director of public relations at the Manhattan-based Corcoran Group. 

 

Nick Brunick represents not-for-profit and for-profit developers, tax credit syndicators, and investors who are building or preserving affordable housing or developing commercial enterprises in low-income communities. He has experience with the full range of public and private financing sources used in the industry, including low-income housing tax credits, state tax credits, New Market Tax Credits (NMTC), HUD, USDA, and numerous city, state, and federal loan and grant programs.  He also provides consulting services to municipalities, states, and not-for-profit community organizations on a range of public policy issues, including affordable housing.

Nick’s previous experience includes serving as the Director of Affordable Housing for Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, one of the nation’s premier public-interest organizations.  His efforts there included legal, policy, and advocacy efforts to create and preserve affordable housing (especially near jobs and opportunity), to revitalize low-income communities, and to raise wages and incomes for working poor households.  He helped to pass the first statewide rental subsidy program in Illinois (the largest in the country at the time), to develop new local inclusionary and affordable housing programs in the Chicago region, and to pass statewide legislation to encourage local municipalities to plan for and create more affordable housing. While at BPI, he also served as plaintiff class counsel for the Gautreaux plaintiff class, worked extensively with public housing residents, and served on HOPE VI redevelopment working groups, dealing with relocation, habitability, and financing issues.

 

David Burnett is currently the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative Manager at Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco.  He is a former Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Miami and a graduate of Harvard University’s Master’s Degree program in Architecture.  His primary research and community service interests are in the design, construction and financing of affordable housing, the remediation of environmental health disparities with at-risk-communities, and green building technology.

 

Corey Carlisle is the Director of Federal Policy and Government Affairs for the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF). Mr. Carlisle joined LIIF in 2008 and is responsible for the organization’s efforts in advancing national legislation and programs in the field of poverty alleviation and community capital. Mr. Carlisle serves on the advisory boards of the National Housing Conference, the Opportunity Finance Network’s Policy Committee, the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition, chairs the Charter School Lenders’ Coalition, is a member of the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Production Committee. Prior to joining LIIF, he was the Associate Vice President of Governmental Affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mr. Carlisle began his career as the legislative assistant to Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) and went on to work for several large financial institutions and banks. Mr. Carlisle holds a Master’s of Science degree in Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Minnesota.

 

Planning Services Manager for the City of Dubuque since 1989, Laura Carstens is responsible for administration and enforcement of the City’s zoning, subdivision, floodplain, and historic preservation regulations, as well as long and short range planning efforts for the community, riverfront, downtown, trail system, annexation, and other special areas. She managed the Dubuque SDAT (Sustainable Design Assessment Team) project in 2007-2008. She oversaw of creation of the City’s award-winning Unified Development Code that incorporates sustainable design practices in 2006-2009. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and an M.A. in Environmental Planning from the University of Illinois - Springfield. She is a member of the American Planning Association (APA). Laura was a co-presenter at the 2009 National Preservation Conference on “Preservation Green Lab Pilot Cities” and at the 2010 National Planning Conference on “Sustainability in the Midwest. She contributed article on Sustainable Dubuque in the October 2010 “Sustainable Communities” edition of the National Civic Review.

 

In her position as vice president and Maryland market leader, Kelly Cartales oversees Enterprise’s initiatives in housing, greenbuilding, foreclosure response, school improvement, capacity building and policy in Baltimore and Maryland.  Ms. Cartales joined Enterprise in 1990 and has served as director for Enterprise’s Cleveland market and regional director for the Midwest and Southwest.  Upon joining the headquarters office in 2001, Ms. Cartales led field operations and program strategy nationally, provided broad oversight of the strategic alignment of resources to support local and national programs, created a grants department, lead several restructurings of program and field operations, and served as relationship manager for several national funders.  Ms. Cartales has direct experience in real estate underwriting, low-income housing tax credits, fundraising, advocacy and policy initiatives, and consulting to strengthen capacity of community based organizations.  Prior to joining Enterprise, Ms. Cartales worked as finance director and senior development officer for the city of Cleveland, Department of Economic Development, where she led a team of development officers packaging small business and real estate loans, tax abatements and tax increment financing, Enterprise Zone incentives, Urban Development Action Grants and other incentives for neighborhood and downtown development.

Ms. Cartales has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cleveland State University, where she graduated cum laude. She currently serves on the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission and the boards of several other Baltimore or statewide nonprofits.  Ms. Cartales lives in Howard County with her husband and three children.

 

Christopher A. Coes is the Managing Director for LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, the national network of real estate developers and investors who advocate for sustainable, walkable development.  As Managing Director, he is responsible of advancing LOCUS’ public policy agenda, as well as overseeing the development of new business opportunities and regional initiatives.

Prior to joining LOCUS, Christopher served as a Consultant for Government Affairs and Campaigns at M+R Strategic Services. As a consultant, Christopher worked with various clients including Transportation for America – a broad, diverse and unprecedented coalition advocating for a national vision for a 21st century transportation system. For nearly three years, Christopher served as Transportation for America’s Senior Campaign Advisor and Deputy Director, where he was responsible for the operations and advising the Campaign on its legislative and political strategic direction. In addition to his work on transportation issues, Christopher brings over five years of experience in government relations, political advocacy and electoral campaigns. Christopher received a BA/MA in Government and Politics from St. John’s University, specializing in Public Administration and International Relations. Christopher can be reached at ccoes [at] smartgrowthamerica [dot] org.

 

Rebecca Cohen is a senior research associate at the Center for Housing Policy, where she has assisted in the development of a series of resources for local practitioners and elected officials, including www.HousingPolicy.org, a one-stop shop for state and local housing policy information, and the interactive HousingPolicy.org Forum.  Prior to joining the Center in 2007, she worked as a policy analyst at the Minnesota Housing Partnership and served as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with the Common Cents for Kids program in Seattle, Washington.  Cohen is a graduate of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, where she received a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, and Washington University in St. Louis.

 

Rick Cohen is National Correspondent for The Nonprofit Quarterly. Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Cohen pursues investigative and analytical articles, advocates for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promotes increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

 

Cheryl Cort is Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) in the Washington, D.C. region. Cheryl develops policy initiatives in the areas of land use, transportation and housing, with a focus on equitable development. Prior to this, she led the Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities and managed urban projects for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She also worked for Maryland Governor Parris Glendening’s Smart Growth initiatives, and the World Resources Institute. She holds a master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley. 

 

Kent Colton is the president of The Colton Housing Group and a former Senior Scholar at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. He has more than 30 years of experience as a housing scholar and expert in the field of mortgage finance and housing policy. Prior to his work with the Joint Center, Kent was the Executive Vice President and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, a position he held from 1984 to 1999. Before that, he served as an executive vice president of Freddie Mac for policy, planning and economic research. He was a member of the Millennial Housing Commission, and staff director of the President's Commission on Housing. Colton previously was a professor of public management and finance at Brigham Young University's Graduate School of Management, and Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Urban Studies and Planning. A graduate of Utah State University, Colton received an M.P.A. from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. in Urban Studies from MIT.


David Cristeal has been Arlington County’s Housing Development Supervisor since 2004.  He came to Arlington from Wake County, North Carolina where he played a leadership role in developing and expanding their affordable housing programs for 12 years. In Wake County, David served first as housing planner and later as Director of Housing and Community Revitalization, leading their Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME-funded program efforts.  In 2001, he became the Housing Director with the Wake County Human Services Department where he managed 5 programs ranging from a 300-bed shelter for homeless men to loan programs for developers of affordable housing and first-time homebuyers. 

David ‘s primary responsibility is leading the County’s Affordable Housing Development Section.  In this role, David faces the challenges of pursuing affordable housing in a relatively dense and high cost area.   He has been instrumental in continuing the County’s efforts to continually blend and enhance its comprehensive set of housing tools – a trust fund and affordable housing ordinance - that enable the division to meet the County’s affordable housing goals and targets.

David received his Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina and a bachelors degree in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. 

 

Ketayoun Darvich-Kodjouri is a senior communications strategist who has orchestrated communications campaigns in collaboration with leading foundations, advocacy organizations, congressional offices, U.S. government agencies, and the United Nations. These campaigns have been on a range of topics including affordable housing, child health, food security, reproductive rights, women’s equality and foreign affairs.

At Spitfire, she is currently working with the Ford Foundation on an effort to help housing advocates better communicate about the need to support affordable home ownership in the wake of the financial crisis. She provides ongoing counsel for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation on their Population and Reproductive Health Program, supporting consistent and compelling communications around their theory of change. And, she serves on the faculty of the NOVO Foundation’s Move the End Violence Initiative, helping to develop communications training for leaders in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Prior to joining Spitfire, she served as the Director of Communications and Advocacy at the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), where she led the institution’s multi-country communications efforts in areas including girls’ education, reproductive health, women’s economic empowerment and good governance. Ketayoun relaunched CEDPA’s advocacy program with a special focus on bringing the priorities of women living in the Global South to U.S. decision makers during critical global health policy discussions. Previously, at the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC), Ketayoun managed high-impact media campaigns on a range of domestic and global topics. Her successes included stopping the rollback of U.S. commitments to a global women’s rights agreement through a media watchdog campaign with partners including Amnesty International and the Feminist Majority. Her work around the 2004 presidential election resulted in more than 100 print and broadcast stories nationwide that highlighted the critical issues at stake for women voters in that race. Before that, Ketayoun worked at the Population Reference Bureau, coordinating a collection of research to inform the U.S. government’s deliberations during the five-year review of the UN population conference held in Cairo. Ketayoun has also worked and volunteered for domestic violence and sexual assault agencies in New Mexico, Indiana and Washington, D.C.

Throughout her career, she has collaborated with leading advocacy organizations, bringing together disparate voices to maximize the impact of national and global communications efforts. Her campaign partners have included AARP, Aspen Institute, ACLU, CARE, Family Violence Prevention Fund, Feminist Majority, General Federation of Women’s Clubs, Global Health Council, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, InterAction, National Wildlife Federation, Population Action International, Save the Children, YWCA and many other leading institutions.

Ketayoun has a B.A. in political science from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. A resident of Washington, D.C., she looks forward to the day when her community will have full voting representation in the U.S. Congress.

 

Lisa Davis is a program officer at the Ford Foundation, where her work focuses on the foundation's investments in quality housing, and on planning and land use innovations in metropolitan regions across the country. Her grant making supports integrated regional strategies and capital tools for building more equitable, sustainable regions.

Lisa joined the Ford Foundation in 2009. Earlier, she worked for more than a decade in both nonprofit and private sector organizations to improve housing and economic conditions in low-income communities. She was vice president and project executive at the New Boston Fund, a private real estate investment management firm. There, Lisa built an innovative partnership among for-profits, nonprofits, financiers, public agencies and community groups to secure entitlements for various units of housing, developments and land purchases.

Before joining the New Boston Fund, Lisa was director of development for the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation and director of housing and development for the Asian Community Development Corporation, two large, nonprofit community development corporations in Boston. In both positions, Lisa oversaw real estate, lending and community development departments and organized coalitions of neighborhood residents to change public policy to become more responsive to community needs.

Lisa holds master's degrees in real estate development and city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at M.I.T., Lisa was selected as a Harry S. Truman Scholar and Graduate Writing Fellow. Her bachelor’s degree is from the University of Texas, Austin.

 

Vicki Davis is responsible for the acquisition, planning, design, and implementation of all Urban Atlantic real estate projects, as well as the asset management of properties that the company owns. Since co-founding the firm in 1998, she has overseen the development of over $1 billion in real estate projects in multiple East Coast markets. With over 25 years of experience in real estate development and finance, she formerly served as Deputy Director of the MD Housing Fund and Division of Credit Assurance, where she oversaw a loan portfolio that included $2 billion in single family residential loans and $800 million in multifamily loans. Her experience also includes portfolio management for MNC Financial-South Charles Realty and multifamily development for Trammell Crow Residential. Ms. Davis has an MBA in Finance from American University, an MS in Engineering & Construction Management from University of Texas and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland. She has served as the Chair of the Green Building Committee, Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association, as well as a faculty member for the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Masters of Real Estate program.

 

Karl Dean is the sixth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. He was elected on Sept. 11, 2007 and was re-elected on Aug. 4, 2011 to serve a second term. During his time in office, Dean has led Nashville through two big challenges – a deep national recession and a 1,000-year flood – and has still made progress on his priorities of education, public safety and economic development. He also works diligently on efforts to sustain and improve Nashville’s high quality of life.

Dean first held public office when he was elected as Nashville’s Public Defender in 1990, a post he was re-elected to in 1994 and 1998. Dean served as Metro Law Director from 1999 to January 2007, when he resigned to run for the office of mayor. Dean completed the program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1999. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Vanderbilt.

 

Holly Denniston, Senior Program Manager, Project Development & Finance, is responsible for researching and documenting financing trends and practices for the development of permanent supportive housing around the country.  Ms Denniston also provides technical assistance and training on various project development and finance issues to internal staff in CSH program sites around the country, as well as developers, government, and other CSH partners.  She joined CSH’s Project Development & Finance unit in July of 2007.  Prior to CSH, Ms Denniston worked as Senior Director of Real Estate Development at Bethel New Life, a not-for-profit community development organization on Chicago’s west side.  In that position, she directed the agency’s numerous commercial and housing development projects, administered Bethel’s New Market Tax Credit allocation, and researched options for including energy efficient, environmentally friendly features for all projects.  Ms Denniston also has experience in outreaching to a variety of Chicago, regional and national community leaders; managing operating budgets of about $500,000; and overseeing local hiring initiatives on public works projects.  Prior to her time in Chicago, Holly served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic.  She earned a masters degree in public administration from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in international development from Mount Holyoke College.

 

The Honorable Shaun Donovan was sworn in as the 15th United States Secretary for Housing and Urban Development on January 26, 2009.

He has devoted his career to ensuring access to safe, decent, and affordable housing, and has continued that effort in the Obama Administration. Secretary Donovan believes that America's homes are the foundation for family, safe neighborhoods, good schools, and job creation.

His tenure as HUD Secretary has reflected his commitment to making quality housing possible for every American. Sworn in at a time when the foreclosure crisis had devastated American families, under Secretary Donovan’s leadership HUD has helped stabilize the housing market and worked to keep responsible families in their homes. The agency has instituted reforms that have solidified the Federal Housing Administration’s financial position and protected the taxpayer against risk, while still preserving FHA’s mission of providing responsible access to homeownership.

Secretary Donovan has reaffirmed HUD’s commitment to building strong, sustainable, inclusive neighborhoods that are connected to education and jobs and provide access to opportunity for all Americans. He has launched new initiatives like Choice Neighborhoods, which will enable distressed communities to use proven mixed-use, mixed-finance tools to transform not just federally-assisted housing, but the neighborhoods around that housing. And through the new Sustainable Communities partnership with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, HUD is helping regions and communities develop comprehensive housing and transportation plans that create jobs and help American businesses out-innovate their global competitors.

Secretary Donovan has a long history of working to provide affordable housing to American families. He previously served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). He created and implemented HPD's New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 affordable homes, the largest municipal affordable housing plan in the nation's history.

His work at HPD included the New York City Acquisition Fund, an award-winning collaboration with foundations and banks to finance affordable housing; an innovative inclusionary zoning program; an ambitious supportive housing plan; and the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, one of the earliest responses to the foreclosure crisis. Before his service as HPD Commissioner, Secretary Donovan worked in the private sector on financing affordable housing, and was a visiting scholar at New York University, where he researched and wrote about the preservation of federally-assisted housing.

He was also a consultant to the Millennial Housing Commission on strategies for increasing the production of multifamily housing. The Commission was created by the United States Congress to recommend ways to expand housing opportunities across the nation. Secretary Donovan rejoins HUD after his previous service in the Clinton administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing, where he was the primary federal official responsible for privately-owned multifamily housing. At that time, he ran housing programs that helped 1.7 million families access affordable housing.

He also served as acting FHA Commissioner during the Clinton/Bush presidential transition. Prior to his first service at HUD, he worked at the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) in New York City, a non-profit lender and developer of affordable housing. He also researched and wrote about housing policy at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and worked as an architect. Secretary Donovan holds a B.A. and Masters degrees in Public Administration and Architecture from Harvard.

 

David Dixon, FAIA directs planning and urban design at Goody Clancy. He received the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2007 Thomas Jefferson Award for “a lifetime of … significant achievement in [creating]… livable neighborhoods, vibrant civic spaces, and vital downtowns ...” and his work, which has focused on creating new futures for downtowns and urban neighborhoods, has won national honor awards from the AIA, the American Planning Association, the Congress for the New Urbanism, the International Downtown Association, and other national organizations. As president of the Boston Society of Architects he organized The First National Conference on Density in 2003 and as chair of the AIA’s national Urban Design Committee he helped shape the AIA’s outreach to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. His current and recent work includes urban design plans for downtown Wichita and Asheville (NC); new urban neighborhoods in Norfolk (VA) and Baltimore; a new “high density, mixed-use, walkable” downtown for suburban Dublin (OH); and the post-Katrina Master Plan for New Orleans.  He has written extensively on post-industrial opportunities and challenges facing America’s cities, including Urban Design for an Urban Century, a book he co-authored for Wiley in 2009, and a 2009 article for Planning Magazine, “Wish Fulfillment” that describes a 50-year vision for America’s cities. David holds a BA form Wesleyan University, M Arch from the University of Pennsylvania, and M Urban Design from Harvard University. 

 

James H. Edmondson, Principal of E&G Group, has over thirty years experience in real estate development and finance.

Mr. Edmondson started his business career in 1972 in Washington, D.C. as a consultant at Touche Ross & Co., after serving as an officer in the U.S. Army. In 1975, Edmondson left Touche Ross to join a Columbus, Ohio-based firm, Realcon III. He and his partners developed condominiums, managed real estate, and worked out loans for banks. During this time, Edmondson served as a consultant on a number of long-term development projects.

In 1981 Edmondson persuaded a former colleague and then Touche Ross principal, Tom Gallagher, to join him in forming Edmondson & Gallagher with the purpose of acquiring and redeveloping post-war apartments in the D. C. area using the new financing tools and tax laws. The firm grew a portfolio of approximately 3,000 deed-restricted units and created a property management company that continues. E&G became expert in compliance issues and the rehabilitation of apartment buildings. The firm and its principals continue to develop, own and manage affordable apartments.

Edmondson is active in local affairs in Northern Virginia. He was a founding member of AHOME, an affordable housing advocacy group; he was vice chair of the Health Systems Agency of Northern Virginia for many years; he has served as an elder of Lewinsville Presbyterian Church; and he has held other positions of responsibility in community organizations. In 2009 Governor Kaine re-appointed him as a consumer representative to the Virginia Board of Health.

Edmondson has an A.B. in Economics from Princeton, where he is active in alumni affairs, and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia's Darden School. His wife is Jane Edmondson, and he is the father of four and grandfather of nine.

 

Mayor William D. Euille is the Founder/President and Chief Executive Officer of Wm. D. Euille & Associates, Inc., formed on April 9, 1987. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the firm, chartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mayor Euille began his business career as an accountant with an Alexandria construction company in 1972, and within eight years, he advanced to Vice President/Controller, ultimately having responsibility for all contracting, financial and administrative functions.

A native of Alexandria, Mayor Euille graduated from T.C. Williams High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut in 1972.

The Mayor is active in community affairs in Alexandria and Washington, DC. His dedicated involvement includes the William D. Euille Foundation, which he founded in 1994; the Alexandria Boys and Girls Club; the American Heart Association; 1998-2000 Chairman of the Alexandria United Way Campaign; INOVA Hospital Health System Board; Hopkins House Association; 2001 Chairman of the NOVA Urban League Board of Directors; Alexandria Community Trust; and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria. He is a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Alexandria.

He is also active in business and construction industry organizations such as the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce; the US Chamber of Commerce; National Association of Minority Contractors; Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc; and the NOVA Building Industry Association.

Mayor Euille has received many major awards and honors, such as the 1994 Entrepreneur of the Year from the Virginia NAACP (The Mayor was the inaugural winner of this award); Who’s Who in the East; Who’s Who in America; 1995 Community Service Award from the Hopkins House Association; Outstanding Young Men of America Award; 1996 Blue Chip Award from the US Chamber of Commerce; the 1996 Entrepreneur of the Year from the Washington Post and Ernst & Young, LLP; the 1996 Small Business Person of the Year from the US Small Business Administration; and community service awards from the Alexandria NAACP (1996), Northern Virginia Urban League, Inc. (1997), Alexandria Chamber of Commerce (1997), and the Alexandria Sportsman Club (1998); Philanthropist of the Year 2000 from the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce; SBA’s Graduate of the Year Award in 2000; Education Association of Alexandria’s “Whole Village Award” (2001); and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year (2001).

Mayor Euille was elected to a three-year term on the Alexandria City Council in May, 1994. He was re-elected in May, 1997 (Vice Mayor) and in May, 2000. He was elected the City’s first African-American Mayor in May, 2003 and was re-elected Mayor in May, 2006 and 2009. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority; the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA); the Alexandria Pension Study Committee; and the Local Emergency Planning Commission. He is Chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) and President of the Virginia Transit Authority (VTA). Additionally, he is Chairman of the Alexandria Youth Policy Commission and serves on the Governor’s Council on Virginia’s Future.

 

Reid Ewing, Ph.D., is a Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah, associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, columnist for Planning magazine, and Fellow of the Urban Land Institute. Earlier in his career, he was director of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University and research professor at the National Center for Smart Growth.  He served two terms in the Arizona legislature, and worked on urban policy issues at the Congressional Budget Office. He holds masters degrees in Engineering and City Planning from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Transportation Systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  His most recent books are Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, written for EPA and published by the Urban Land Institute, and U.S. Traffic Calming Manual, co-published by the American Planning Association and American Society of Civil Engineers.  He has two upcoming books, Pedestrian- and Transit-Oriented Design, for the American Planning Association, and Measuring Urban Design, for Island Press. 

 

Denise Fairchild is the inaugural President of Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC), a national non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. with affiliates in major urban centers across the United States.  Dr. Fairchild was recruited in 2010 to launch ECC, a coalition of labor, business and community-based organizations organized to accelerate the growth and distributive benefits of the emerging green economy. 

Dr. Fairchild has dedicated over 30 years to strengthening housing, jobs, businesses and economic opportunities for low-income residents and communities of color domestically and internationally. In 1995 she founded and directed the Community and Economic Development (CED) Department at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, as well as an affiliated non-profit community development research and technical assistance organization, CDTech. She helped launch the Regional Economic Development Institute (REDI), an initiative of Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to provide inner city residents with career and technical education for high growth/high demand jobs in the L.A. region, with a focus on the green economy.  From 1989-1994, Dr. Fairchild directed the L.A. office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and is credited with raising over $100 million in equity, grants, and loans for community-based housing and commercial development projects and, generally, with building the non-profit housing and community development industry in the L.A. region. 

Her civic and political appointments have included the California Commission on Regionalism, the California Economic Strategy Panel, the California Local Economic Development Association, the Urban Land Institute National Inner City Advisor, the Coalition for Women's Economic Development and the Los Angeles Environmental Quality Board. She also served as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's special advisor for South L.A. Investments.

 

Alisa Fine is a Community Planner with the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center). Ms. Fine has worked on projects for Federal and state agencies involving data collection and analysis, development and delivery of guidance and tools for transportation professionals, and design of outreach materials.

Ms. Fine supports the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Office of Planning to manage all aspects of its scenario planning program. She helped author the Scenario Planning Guidebook, FHWA’s first effort to produce step-by-step guidance for agencies interested in conducting scenario planning, and has assisted to deliver several scenario planning training workshops and webinars for agencies around the country. Ms. Fine also supports the FHWA Office of Planning, Environment and Realty to manage the FHWA Surface Transportation Environment and Planning Cooperative Research Program (STEP). In addition to this work, Ms. Fine has conducted research on transportation agencies’ use of geospatial technologies and has been involved in a number of freight transportation efforts. She was selected to attend the I-95 Corridor Coalition’s 2010 Freight Academy in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and has assisted the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Twin Cities (Minnesota) Metropolitan Council in crafting a comprehensive freight transportation strategy for the Twin Cities’ metropolitan area.

Ms. Fine joined the Volpe Center in 2007. She holds an M.A. in geography from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a B.A. in sociology from Vassar College.

 

Karen FitzGerald is a Senior Program Officer at the Meyer Foundation, where she specializes in grantmaking in the areas of housing and community development, homelessness, civic engagement, and early childhood education.  She also oversees the Meyer Foundation’s funding partnership with the Consumer Health Foundation.   Before joining the Meyer Foundation staff in 1998, she worked for the Enterprise Community Investment, which syndicates Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to finance affordable rental housing throughout the country.

Karen co-chairs the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers Program and Policy Coordinating Committee, and the Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s Early Childhood Education Funding Collaborative.  Through Washington Grantmakers’ Sustainable Communities Working Group, which she co-chaired from 2006 to 2008, she co-founded and currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Partnership for Prince George’s County, a funding collaborative that aims to build the nonprofit sector in Prince George’s County and strengthen the ability of nonprofits there to engage in advocacy.   Karen also serves on the steering committees of the Community Development Support Collaborative, which she co-chaired from 2004 through 2006,

In 2007, she joined the board of the Neighborhood Funders Group, the national affinity group of funders who support community-based efforts to improve low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities, and this year chairs NFG’s Audit Committee.

Karen earned her BA from Tufts University and an MBA from Yale University. 

 

Janne K. Flisrand, Minnesota Green Communities’ program coordinator, has worked in program management for ten years. Having worked in a variety of community-based settings, she is experienced in facilitating collaborations among diverse organizations.  Ms. Flisrand has a master’s degree in applied urban anthropology, and has worked in the field of affordable housing and community planning since 1999 in positions ranging from housing development intern to policy research.  In this work, she has often created a bridge to her personal interest in public transportation, community design, the health of the environment, and all aspects of environmentalism.  Ms. Flisrand joined the Minnesota Green Communities effort in March of 2005 to provide support for this initiative. Her publications include a policy evaluation of Affordable Housing Tax Credits for Housing Minnesota and LISC and a Development Handbook for Neighborhoods with the Center for Neighborhoods. She also served as the Director of Operations of the Hawthorne Area Community Council (HACC), a neighborhood revitalization program located in North Minneapolis. 

 

Sasha Forbes is a policy associate in ReconnectingAmerica’s Washington, DC office. She works on federal and local level transit-oriented development policies, particularly as it relates to affordable housing, mixed-income housing, equity, and sustainable communities. Projects include the Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Development Action Guide and a report on State and Local Level Policies that Fund Transit-Oriented Development. Sasha coordinates with national affordable housing groups in Washington, DC, to build and maintain partnerships and identify opportunities to further the preservation of affordable housing near transit. Sasha also helps to identify policy strategies particularly for reform in Congress and at Administration levels.

Previously, Sasha was an urban planner with a land use firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. There she worked on comprehensive plans, community visioning workshops, redevelopment plans, housing studies, and land use and zoning reviews. Sasha also worked with a local affordable housing department and implemented plans for disaster assistance. She is passionate about sustainable development and community outreach and advocacy in underserved communities. Sasha has a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florida.

 

Asa Foss works for the US Green Building Council (USGBC) as the LEED Homes manager of technical development, where he is responsible for the LEED Homes Rating Systems. Prior to his position at USGBC, he created and directed Maryland’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. Asa is currently doing a deep energy retrofit on his historic row house.

 

Madeline Fraser Cook, Program Director of the Green Development Center at LISC, is an urban planner with a strong commitment to mainstreaming green affordable housing and community economic development. Fluent in Spanish, Ms. Fraser Cook has worked extensively on housing and economic development projects with low-income Latino communities. Ms. Fraser Cook has a keen understanding and enthusiasm for economic development, community organizing and the importance of sustainable development for creating and maintaining vibrant urban centers. Her experience includes providing technical assistance on microenterprise development and real estate market analyses, organizing affordable housing tenants to address social services needs and security issues, and providing consultation for Hope VI projects. Prior to joining LISC, Ms. Fraser Cook was Vice President at New Ecology, Inc., a non-profit green building and sustainable development consulting firm. Through her role as director of the Green CDCs Initiative, she worked to educate community developers about green affordable housing and provide technical assistance to implement green strategies. As a HUD Community Development Fellow at M.I.T.’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), she worked extensively with Massachusetts community developers. Ms. Fraser Cook received her Masters of City Planning from DUSP and she holds undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Sciences from Swarthmore College.

 

John W. Frece is director of the Smart Growth Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a position he has held since March 2009. The program provides direct policy assistance to states, technical assistance to local governments, conducts research on smart growth policies and strategies, and oversees both the national Smart Growth Achievement Awards and the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference. The program has been the principal office representing EPA in its Partnership for Sustainable Communities with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Prior to joining the EPA, Mr. Frece was Associate Director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland in College Park. He has been a spokesman, policy adviser and writer on Smart Growth issues for the past 13 years.

Before moving to the University in June 2003, Mr. Frece served for seven years on the staff of former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening, six of them as the principal spokesman for Maryland’s Smart Growth initiative.

Prior to his state service, Mr. Frece enjoyed a long career in journalism, working first for the weekly Reston Times newspaper in Reston, Va., then for the wire service United Press International in both Richmond, Va., and Annapolis, Md., and for 11 years as the Maryland State House bureau chief for The Baltimore Sun. In all, he covered 17 sessions of the Maryland General Assembly and part or all of the terms of five Maryland governors.

He is author of Sprawl & Politics: The Inside Story of Smart Growth in Maryland (SUNY Press, July 2008) and co-author of My Unexpected Journey: The Autobiography of Governor Harry Roe Hughes (The History Press, 2006). He holds a B.A. in philosophy from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

He is married to children’s book author Priscilla Cummings. They have two college-age children and live in Annapolis, Maryland.

 

Thomas Gentry is a Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture and the Director of the Laboratory for Innovative Housing at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.  He is also a registered architect.  Prior to becoming an architect, Mr. Gentry worked as a general contractor and a carpenter on single and multi-family housing.  His personal housing experiences includes living in single-family housing in rural Wyoming, high-rise public housing in Harlem New York City, condo living in Hyde Park Chicago, and multiple types of historic housing. This diverse background gives him the insight and skill sets to bridge many of the discontinuities that exist between the design, production and utilization of housing in the United States.  Currently he is working with Professor Robert Cox Ph.D. (Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, UNCC) on a U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Innovation Pilot Program grant to research better methods for improving the energy efficiency of existing low-income single-family housing.  In service of the research, Professors Gentry and Cox are directing the weatherization of 800 low-income single-family houses throughout North Carolina.  

 

Cheryl Gladstone, Program Director for Senior Housing, oversees Enterprise’s senior housing work across the country. Cheryl is currently piloting an innovative package of components to help non-profit senior housing providers reposition their properties through green capital needs assessments, resident surveys, aging-in-place technology, and financial assessments. Prior to joining Enterprise, Cheryl was with Deutsche Bank’s Community Development Finance Group, and oversaw the Real Estate & Development Program for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Cheryl holds an MBA from Columbia Business School with concentrations in Real Estate Finance and Social Enterprise, and has an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies from Stanford University. She proudly lives in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

 

Robert Goldman has been President of Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP) for the past 10 years, and has also worked in housing policy on both the federal and local levels. MHP is a private, nonprofit housing developer that acquires, rehabilitates, builds and manages quality affordable housing in Montgomery County, Maryland, and revitalizes distressed neighborhoods.

Through its subsidiaries, MHP has developed more than 1,300 units of affordable rental housing around the county, including in transit-oriented neighborhoods in Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Rockville and Wheaton.

Prior to joining MHP in 2001, Goldman worked as a Senior Development Officer at the Enterprise Social Investment Corporation (ESIC) where he was involved in syndicating low-income housing tax credit projects. He received his Juris Doctorate from UCLA Law School, his Master’s degree in Real Estate from Johns Hopkins University, and his Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University.

 

Jeremie Greer is the Senior Policy Officer with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation in Washington, DC. LISC is the nation’s largest nonprofit investor in low-income community development, operating through 28 local urban offices and a national rural community program. His work at LISC focuses on federal policies pertinent to LISC’s mission of building sustainable communities, including housing, commercial revitalization, employment, green development, community service, smart growth, and community safety. Jeremie began his career in community development while working in the Columbia Heights and Shaw neighborhoods in the District of Columbia. While there he worked with small community-based organizations to help enhance their internal capacity to serve low and moderate income District residents. Jeremie also spent time at the United State Government Accountability Office (or GAO), where he provided non-partisan and fact-based federal policy analysis to the United States Congress in the areas of housing, community development, workforce, education, human services, and environmental protection. Jeremie has a Bachelors of Social Work from University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN and a Masters of Public Policy from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

 

Rob Grossinger serves as Vice-President of Enterprise Community Partner’s National Community Revitalization Initiative.  In this capacity, he oversees Enterprise’s HUD NSP Technical Assistance efforts and works with its national policy staff and field offices to develop innovative approaches to address neighborhood revitalization efforts.  Prior to joining Enterprise, Mr. Grossinger served as Senior Vice President in Community Affairs with Bank of America, overseeing the bank’s work with its external partners on issues of neighborhood stabilization, including the Bank’s REO sales process under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

 

Dan Guilbeault is a Policy Analyst for the Office of Policy and Sustainability with the District Department of the Environment (DDOE). At DDOE, he is responsible for examining and developing sustainability tools, programs, and initiatives. Currently, he is working on a sustainability dashboard, ICLEI’s STAR Beta Communities program, and the District’s new sustainability plan.

 

Dan received a Masters of Urban Planning at NYU Wagner School of Public Service, where he concentrated on affordable housing and sustainability. Previously, he was employed with Smart Growth America’s National Complete Streets Coalition, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and Congressman Ron Kind’s Washington, DC office. Dan is originally from Wisconsin, but is currently loving his walkable, bikeable, livable, adopted home of Washington, DC.

 

Anita Hairston, Senior Associate, based in Washington, D.C., works on transportation policy. She advances PolicyLink priorities that relate to promoting equitable and fair infrastructure investments, with a particular focus on surface transportation. Prior to joining PolicyLink, Anita spent six years with the Washington, DC Office of Planning, where she served first as a Community Planner, working on neighborhood and citywide plans and ultimately as the Chief of Staff, providing leadership to the agency’s media activities, legislative initiatives, and several of its major projects. She has also worked as a planning consultant on several projects, including a regional smart growth plan for the San Francisco Bay Area. Anita holds a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

 

John E. Hall is Director of the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, appointed by Mayor Vincent C. Gray. Hall began serving in his new capacity on April 25, 2011, and was confirmed in July 2011.

Previously, Hall served in The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as Field Office Director for the District of Columbia Field Office and later the Richmond Field Office.  In this capacity, Hall served as the senior leadership official responsible for establishing management priorities for front-office field operations, coordinating Presidential and Secretarial priorities and initiatives, managing and coordinating HUD’s field office response to disaster relief efforts and maintaining effective working relationships with local community/industry groups and local elected officials throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and previously Washington, DC metropolitan area. 

Hall has also performed duties as Financial Transaction Manager with HUD’s Office of Affordable Housing Preservation.  One of his key duties was to review multi-family projects participating in the Mark-to-Market Program and make recommendations for non-profit organizations to receive HUD-held debt pursuant to the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform Act of 1997 and Notice H 08-04.

Prior to joining HUD, John was employed by two community development corporations (CDC) in Texas.  At South Fair CDC in Dallas, Texas, he was deputy director for a community housing development organization that developed multi-family housing using tax credits and Section 202 programs.  He left there to start the North & East Lubbock CDC in Lubbock, Texas where he was executive director until leaving his post for HUD.  His accomplishments with this CDC included single-family housing development, housing counseling and economic development.

Hall has additional experience with Bank of America’s Real Estate Banking Group in Dallas and Houston.  He also served as Director of Non-Profit Development for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone in New York, New York.

His educational training knows no state boundary as well.  Having received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, he later received a Master of Public Administration from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, a college within Syracuse University.

Hall brings a wealth of knowledge of implementation strategies of public policies combined with practical experience in both the public and private sectors.  His professional experience in identifying and assessing needs, setting priorities, and achieving missions for organizations is unparalleled.

 

Ethan Handelman directs NHC's policy and advocacy agenda focused on stemming the foreclosure crisis, strengthening the nation's housing finance system, improving the coordination of housing, transportation and energy policy and assisting low- and moderate-income families through a stronger, balanced housing policy. Ethan joined NHC in March 2011 after leading the advisory practice at Recap Real Estate Advisors, assisting public- and private-sector clients to understand and shape the affordable housing financial and policy environment. While at Recap, Ethan authored Government Sponsored Enterprises and Multifamily Housing Finance: Refocusing on Core Functions, commissioned by NHC last year.  Other recent projects included redesign of LIHTC QAPs for multiple states, development of a rental subsidy and soft debt production program for the Republic of Ireland, and analysis and transaction work on hundreds of multifamily affordable properties nationwide. Ethan received his MA in International Relations from Harvard University and holds a BA in Political Science from University of Michigan.

 

Rodney Harrell, PhD is the Senior Strategic Policy Advisor for Housing and Livable Communities in AARP’s Public Policy Institute.  In his position, he is responsible for developing AARP’s policy on housing and livable communities issues, and he also manages the housing research agenda and conducts independent research.  Dr. Harrell has made numerous public appearances to discuss issues of housing, aging, and livable communities, and has been a featured speaker for audiences across the United States and in several other countries.  AARP’s housing philosophy and policy agenda is committed to creating a range of affordable, appropriate housing options that facilitate personal independence, allow residents to age in place, and engage them in the community’s civic, economic, and social life. 

Dr. Harrell is an author of several publications including “Preserving Affordability and Access in Livable Communities” and “State Housing Profiles 2011.” Prior to working at AARP, he worked as an independent research and evaluation consultant, a researcher and instructor in Urban Planning and Historic Preservation at the University of Maryland, a research fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and a Maryland Governor’s Fellow covering revitalization and housing issues in the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

Dr. Harrell was graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the honors program at Howard University, earned dual master’s degrees in Public Affairs and in Urban and Regional Planning from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and received a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Design from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was a Wylie Fellow and a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

 

Jason Hartke has been a voice in Washington, D.C. for clean energy and the environment for over a decade.  As Vice President of National Policy, Jason works to advance the U.S. Green Building Council’s national policy agenda and deliver the integrated environmental, economic and social benefits of green building policy solutions.  In addition, he helps establish and oversee USGBC advocacy programs in sustainable communities, green schools and affordable housing.  For the past five years, he has managed efforts that helped result in the passage of historic federal investment in green building and a tripling of green building policies at the state and local level.  He has also built innovative collaborations with other organizations, such as the Sierra Club, the Center for American Progress, and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability. 

Among his varied background, Jason served in the Clinton Administration, working in the West Wing of the White House in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, a policy and outreach team that serves as the president's liaison to state and local elected officials throughout the country.  While there, he promoted the president’s policy initiatives and worked closely with governors, mayors, state legislators and other state and local policymakers.  As a reporter with the Connection Newspapers, Jason covered state and local politics, real estate, land use, and community affairs, winning multiple awards. 

Last year Jason was appointed by Secretary Gary Locke to serve on the Commerce Department’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Council.  He also serves on the board of the Babylon Project, a small non-profit focused on spurring the uptake of municipal residential retrofitting programs modeled on the success of the seminal program developed in Babylon, NY. 

Jason received his Ph.D. in public policy from George Mason University.  He holds his master's degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Mell Henderson is the Director of Transportation for the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the bi-state Kansas City Region.  Since 1996, when Mell joined the agency, the emphasis of MARC’s transportation program has been:

Mell currently serves on the Transportation Committee of the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC), the NARC Reauthorization Task Force, the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) Oversight Board, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program’s 08-36 Project Panel (Quick Response Research for the AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning).  He is a member of the Kansas Executive Safety Council, and the Executive Committee of the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the University of Kansas Graduate Program in Urban Planning.

Prior to joining MARC, Mell was the Manager of Transportation Planning for the Indian Nations Council of Governments in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Earlier in his career he also served as a Transportation Planner for the Denver Regional Council of Governments and as the State Air Quality Plan Coordinator for the State of Colorado.

Mell studied at both Oklahoma State University and the University of Kansas, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning.

 

As Deputy Director of Green Communities, Yianice Hernandez oversees Enterprise’s comprehensive research and evaluation of the economic, environmental and health benefits of green affordable housing. Through this effort, Enterprise seeks to demonstrate that, by improving the performance of affordable housing developments through green methods and materials, it is possible to achieve lower operating costs due to energy and water conservation in addition to improvements in occupant health through the use of non-toxic materials and better ventilation.

In addition, Yianice manages the development of tools and resources that share best practices and directs the ongoing performance tracking of Green Communities developments. She administered the research for the 2009 Incremental Cost, Measurable Savings: Enterprise Green Communities Criteria report, the first-of-its-kind study showing the cost effectiveness of meeting the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria. She also speaks to national, regional and local audiences about the Green Communities program.

Prior to her time at Enterprise, she was a member of the construction project management team of Common Ground Community, one of the largest nonprofit supportive housing development organizations in New York City.

Yianice has a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Pace University and a master's degree in nonprofit administration from the University of Notre Dame.

 

Rebecca Hix has worked with Habitat since 2000.  She served as Church Relations Manager for the Central Atlanta Region of Habitat, Associate Director of US Church Relations, Director of Research and Development for the Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity Alliance and is currently NRI Director.  She has extensive experience in designing holistic community development programs including designing an $80M US house-building program, holistic community development projects in four communities:  Des Moines, IA, Milwaukee, WI, Mississippi Gulf Coast and Santa Ana, El Salvador.  In addition, Rebecca is active with her local affiliate, Durham HFH, as a house leader.

 

Linda E. Hollis, AICP, is a Senior Planner with the Fairfax County Department of Planning & Zoning in Fairfax, Virginia. There she worked on the recently adopted plan to “transform” Tysons Corner from a suburban office center to a livable urban center. She continues to work to help implement the plan, including its provisions regarding 20% affordable and workforce housing and nonresidential contribution to affordable housing.

Ms. Hollis has over 30 years of professional experience, including 14 years as a fiscal impact consultant to local governments throughout the U.S. She has also worked for the Urban Land Institute, Solimar Research Group, the Growth Management Institute, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and the American Farmland Trust, conducting research on growth management.

 

Patricia (Pat) Hu is the Director of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).  Prior to that appointment, she was the Director of the Center for Transportation Analysis at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  As BTS Director, she is focusing on enhancing the quality, timeliness, accessibility, and availability of transportation statistics to inform transportation decisions.

For the past two decades, Ms. Hu has led numerous research projects in the areas of travel behavior, traffic operations, transportation safety and security, data models, and visualization.  Pat Hu is an active member of the National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board (TRB).  She chaired TRB’s Standing Committee on National Data Requirements and Programs, and serves on many other committees and expert panels.  She served on the editorial advisory board of the international journal Accident Analysis & Prevention from 1996 to 1999, and on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Transportation and Statistics from 1998 to 2005.  Pat Hu received her B.S. in Statistics from the Chengchi University in Taiwan, and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Guelph at Canada.

 

Catherine M. Hudgins was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1999 and is now serving her third term.  She represents one of the largest Magisterial Districts in the County with a growing diverse population and changing land use development.  She serves as the Chair of the Board's Human Services and Housing and Community Development Committees.  Supervisor Hudgins finds her greatest satisfaction in assisting constituents obtain services critical to maintaining more sustainable lives.

The Virginia Transit Association presented Supervisor Hudgins with their Public Official of the Year Award (2011) for her role as a regional champion and advocate for transit.  The Coalition for Mentally Disabled Citizens of Northern Virginia honored Supervisor Hudgins with the Distinguished Leadership Award for "outstanding dedication and pioneering initiatives to foster and build inclusive, quality communities for all."  The Housing Association of Non-Profit Developers (HAND) recognized her outstanding commitment to affordable housing.

Supervisor Hudgins is a smart growth advocate and works to obtain mix use development that integrates the environment, transportation and housing with the goal of creating sustainable communities.

Supervisor Hudgins serves on several regional and state boards.  In 2010, she served as Chairman of Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) and Vice Chair of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board (WMATA/Metro).  She served as 2007 Chairman of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) and continues as a current member.  She is First Vice Chair of the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO).  Supervisor Hudgins also served two terms on the State Board of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) and was a member of the Commonwealth Commission on Mental Health Law Reform.  

Prior to joining the Fairfax County Board, Supervisor Hudgins served as Secretary of the Fairfax County Electoral Board from 1993-94.  She was chief of staff for Chairman Katherine (Kate) Hanley from 1995-1999.  Her professional career before elected office included mathematics teacher and computer programmer, instructor, analyst and consultant for AT&T for twelve years.  She was elected to two terms as Virginia National Committeewoman on the Democratic National Committee (1984-1992).  

Supervisor Hudgins holds a Masters of Public Administration from George Mason University and BS in mathematics education from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.  She and her husband, Willie Hudgins, have been residents and active community members of Reston, Virginia since 1969.  They are parents of two Fairfax County Public School graduates. 

 

Peter Hughes is the Sustainable Development & Green Programs Specialist in the Downtown & Community Services Division at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. His work with MSHDA focuses on program and policy development, particularly as it relates to incorporating sustainability principles into existing affordable housing and community development financing mechanisms including the Michigan QAP and bond financed direct lending programs. In addition, Mr. Hughes promotes the expansion of public/private partnerships and provides technical green building assistance to both project developers and municipalities. Mr. Hughes was previously a Housing Development Officer in MSHDA’s Rental Development Division where he focused on underwriting and project management in the Authority’s multifamily development portfolio. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and holds a master’s degree in Anthropology from Colorado State University in Fort Collins and a bachelor’s degree in Social Relations & Policy from the James Madison College at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

 

Mark James is a real estate development officer with Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC), based in Washington, DC. CPDC is the largest provider of affordable housing in the DC metropolitan area, with nearly 5,000 units of affordable housing within its portfolio. An accomplished real estate development professional, Mark brings over 14 years of affordable housing experience to CPDC with an emphasis on incorporating sustainable design and construction standards into his affordable housing projects. His professional background includes multi-layered housing finance, affordable housing preservation, urban neighborhood planning, and sustainable energy solutions.

Prior to joining CPDC, Mark resided in Pittsburgh, PA for 13 years; during this time his professional experience included operating a development consulting firm for affordable housing projects in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Mark was the Director of Acquisitions for Renewal Housing Associates, based in Portland, MA and was a vice president in the Community Investment Division with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh for five years.

In his first two years at CPDC, Mark has established himself as an innovator in the development of green affordable housing. He is currently the project manager for the Wheeler Terrace Apartments Redevelopment, located in Washington, DC. This 116-unit project-based Section 8 housing community will be the first affordable housing project in the nation’s capital to meet LEED certification (gold level) and will also meet Enterprise Community Partners’ Green Communities Criteria. The project has emphasized the use of a ground-source heat pump to reduce energy costs by 40% and will reach some of the highest indoor air quality standards ever achieved for affordable housing throughout the DC Metro region. An article in the January, 2009 issue ofAffordable Housing Finance Magazine features the Wheeler Terrace project.

Mark James is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), where he received his Master in Urban Planning. He received a B.A. from Hampton University and is a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Fellow of Princeton University. Mark is a native of the Washington, DC metropolitan area and recently relocated to Columbia, MD with his wife, Maria, and their four daughters. As a dedicated business and community leader, he believes in the power of everyday people to do great things.

 

Stephanie Jennings is the Grants Manager for the City of Eugene’s Community Development Division.  She has over a dozen years of experience managing affordable housing, community development, and human service programs and policy development.  As Grants Manager, she manages a staff team responsible for developing and rehabilitating affordable housing, funding human services, and advancing other community programs to create opportunities for low-income persons.  These programs are funded with a combination of federal and local funds including the Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnership Program, and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant.  Ms. Jennings staffs the Intergovernmental Housing Policy Board and Human Services Commission.  Much of her team’s work is completed in partnership with other jurisdictions and nonprofit housing development and social service providers.  Stephanie has been with the City of Eugene for over five years.

Previously, Ms. Jennings was a program officer at the Fannie Mae Foundation in Washington, DC, where she managed grants totaling over $10 million and worked with a wide array of affordable housing developers, policymakers, and scholars.  She specialized in grantmaking to advance linkages between affordable housing and regional planning, vacant and abandoned properties, and university-community partnerships.  She also served on the board of the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and as Associate Editor for two publications: Housing Policy Debate and Housing Facts & Findings.    Prior to joining the Foundation in 1999, she had work experiences with the State of North Carolina General Assembly, Corporation for Enterprise Development, and Self-Help.  Ms. Jennings received a Master of Regional Planning as well as Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

 

With a passion for alleviating substandard housing, Cassandra Johnson has researched and worked with a continuum of housing policies from homelessness to permanent, affordable housing. She serves as the resource development coordinator for Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County and manages the implementation of the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI), Habitat for Humanity’s three-year pilot program to expand housing services, create partnerships, and enhance the quality of life in neighborhoods across the country. She graduated from Seattle University with a double major in Strategic Communications and Public Affairs and a minor in Philosophy.

 

Russell D. Kaney is Director, Programs for the National Rural and Native American Initiative. He manages key developer relationships across the country on behalf of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a national not for profit dedicated to affordable housing. Mr. Kaney formerly served as a senior project manager for the Enterprise Community Investment syndication unit, specializing in transactions involving the low-income housing tax credit He joined Enterprise in 2005 as a director with their Multifamily Mortgage division. Prior to joining Enterprise in 2005, Mr. Kaney was an underwriter and low-income housing tax credit allocator for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) located in Madison, Wisconsin. Between 1994 and 2003, Mr Kaney was Director of Housing Investments for Heartland Properties, Inc., a real estate investment company specializing in affordable housing acquisitions and owned by Alliant Energy, a Wisconsin based public utility. Prior to moving back to Wisconsin in 1994, Mr. Kaney was an underwriter and asset manager for 12 years with Rural Development, a credit agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with office assignments in Homestead and West Palm Beach, Florida. He assisted in the massive effort to reconstruct the devastated housing areas of South Florida following the destruction left by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Mr. Kaney is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has continued his real estate education at the University of Illinois and the University of Maryland. Immediately after graduation and prior to beginning his real estate career, Mr. Kaney volunteered to serve 2 years through the U.S. Action/Peace Corps program in South America.

 

Beth Kanter is the Vice President of Spitfire Strategies. She brings extensive experience providing strategic communications and public affairs counsel to nonprofit organizations, government agencies, political campaigns and large corporations on a wide range of issues including health care, education, the environment, economic development, labor and transportation. She is particularly skilled at working with nonprofits to craft language and develop messages that resonate with their target audiences.

Prior to joining Spitfire, Beth was the senior vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Illinois where she oversaw the organization’s communications and marketing, public policy, development and community education departments and provided staff with strategic guidance and leadership to direct their efforts.

 

Rae Keasler is a Transportation Specialist for the Federal Highway Administration.  In this position, she works regularly on Scenario Planning, Safety Planning, and the TIGER planning programs.

She has worked in the transportation planning field for nearly 20 years, and during that time has also been employed by two State Departments of Transportation, two municipalities, and two consulting firms.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, with a major in Geography and minor in French.  She received her Master in Science degree in 1992 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and studied Urban and Regional Planning.

 

Judith Kende is the Managing Director for LIIF’s Eastern region.  She is responsible for lending and programs spanning from Boston to Washington D.C. for affordable housing, charter schools, supermarkets, health care centers and community facilities.  LIIF's East Coast office provides debt financing and has a robust presence in using New Markets Tax Credits.   Prior to joining LIIF, Ms. Kende  was the Vice President and Director of Nonprofit Finance at Citibank, managing the Bank's $350MM per year relationship with nonprofit organizations dedicated to community development and cultivating new relationships with mission-driven borrowers. Ms. Kende also spent six years in Citigroup's Corporate and Investment Bank.  Before Citibank, Ms. Kende was the Manager of Corporate and Foundation Relations for Cancer Care, Inc., a New York nonprofit dedicated to providing programs for cancer outreach and counseling. Ms. Kende is a board member of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. Ms. Kende graduated from Kenyon College with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and received her M.B.A. in Finance from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

 

Louis J. King, II is the President and CEO of Summit Academy OIC, a non-profit, educational and vocational training institute that empowers Twin Cities’ residents to become self-reliant, employed members of their community. Mr. King has over 20 years experience in education, youth development and workforce development. His current work focuses on stabilizing families by ensuring that parents earn the wages needed to adequately support their children.  He firmly believes that “the best social service program in the world is a job”.

Mr. King served on the Minneapolis School Board from 1996  to 2000 and has participated in two White House Conferences on Children and Families. He has held leadership positions in several community organizations such as the Bryant Neighborhood Organization and the Glenwood-Lyndale Community Center. He currently serves on the St. Thomas Academy Board and the Robins Kaplan Miller Ciresi Foundation Board. He chairs The Network for Better Futures Board of Directors and is the founder and co-chair of the HIRE Minnesota coalition. Louis is a graduate of Morehouse College with a B.A. in Political Science and served in the U.S. Army for 10 years, achieving the rank of Major.  He is married to Beverly and has three children Aja, Kamaria, and Lauryn.

 

Sarah Kline is the policy director for Reconnecting America, where she is responsible for the organization’s work on Capitol Hill fostering healthy and prosperous communities that serve people of all incomes. A lawyer by profession, Kline has worked as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Before joining Reconnecting America she was director of policy and government relations for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. She was a 2010 recipient of Mass Transit Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 Award for her outstanding achievements. Kline graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history from Harvard University and received her law degree from Stanford Law School.

 

Chuck Kooshian has more than twenty years experience in transportation and land use planning for regional and local government. At CCAP he evaluates transportation policy alternatives and their effects on GHG emissions, governmental planning processes and institutional coordination issues. He has analyzed the cost effectiveness of various land use and transportation measures to reduce GHG emissions and the data needs for monitoring and performance evaluation.  He led a study to examine barriers hindering state and local governments from implementing climate change mitigation projects. During the preparation of Growing Wealthier he became interested in measuring how urban form affects the economic and other benefits that a city provides to households, businesses and governments.

Before joining CCAP Chuck developed travel demand models for public and private use in California, Michigan, Florida and Texas. He also worked as a long range comprehensive land use planner in El Paso, Texas where he managed the Open Space and Green Infrastructure Planning process and facilitated the adoption of the Smart Code. As a land use planner he was particularly concerned with how the selection and planning of transportation projects has long term effects on land use. Chuck holds an MS in Urban and Environmental Systems from Florida International University and a BA in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in Washington, DC.

 

Caitlin Kovalkoski is the current President of NHC’s Young Leaders in Affordable Housing, which was established in September 2010.  Caitlin co-founded the Young Professionals in Affordable Housing in November 2008 with Lauren Eardensohn of NAHMA as an ad-hoc networking group before it was reestablished under NHC as a young professionals membership group.

Caitlin currently works as Policy Officer with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation in Washington, DC.  LISC is the nation’s largest nonprofit investor in low-income community development, operating through 28 local urban offices, several national programs and a national rural community program.  Her work at LISC focuses on federal policies to support LISC’s mission of Building Sustainable Communities, including federal program appropriations, early education facilities, and charter school facilities. 

Caitlin holds a masters degree in Public Policy from George Mason University and a bachelors degree in Mathematics and Policy Studies from Dickinson College.

 

Michelle Krocker is a community development and public policy consultant, assisting nonprofit organizations and local governments in addressing housing and land use policies.  Currently she serves as the Executive Director of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, a regional coalition that promotes policies and programs which address Northern Virginia’s unmet housing needs.

Prior to joining the Alliance, Michelle was Director of Housing and Community Development for Reston Interfaith, a human services agency serving low and moderate income families in northwestern Fairfax County.  In that capacity she led the department in securing financing for the acquisition of scattered-site rental housing for low-income families.

Currently, Michelle serves on several citizen advisory boards. She was a member of the Tysons Land Use Task Force, charged with planning the redevelopment of 1700 acres of Tysons Corner, and Chair of its Affordable Housing Committee. She is Chair of the Housing Advisory Board to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, and a member of the Executive and Leadership Committees in Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William Counties for the adoption and implementation of their Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness.  Michelle also sits on the Local Advisory Council to Enterprise Community Partners Washington, D.C. office, the United Way NCA Affordable Housing Initiative Advisory Board, the Fairfax County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and the Board of Directors for Housing Virginia, a statewide housing education and advocacy organization.

Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts from George Mason University in Political Science and a Master of Arts in Environmental and Urban Planning from the University of Virginia.

 

Matt Ladd, a senior planner for Fairfax County, Virginia, was the primary contributing author to the Comprehensive Plan for Tysons Corner.  This plan was awarded the American Planning Association’s 2011 Daniel Burnham Award for its bold vision to retrofit the car-dependent edge city with transit-oriented development principles.  A member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Matt holds a master's degree in urban planning from Harvard University.

 

The Honorable Ray LaHood became the 16th Secretary of Transportation on January 23, 2009.

In nominating him, President-elect Obama said, “Few understand our infrastructure challenge better than the outstanding public servant that I’m asking to lead the Department of Transportation.”

Secretary LaHood’s primary goals in implementing President Obama’s priorities for transportation include

safety across all modes, restoring economic health and creating jobs, sustainability – shaping the economy of the coming decades by building new transportation infrastructure, and assuring that transportation policies focus on people who use the transportation system and their communities.

As Secretary of Transportation, LaHood leads an agency with more than 55,000 employees and a $70 billion budget that oversees air, maritime and surface transportation missions.

Secretary LaHood said he would bring President-elect Obama’s priorities to the Department and see them effectively implemented with a commitment to fairness across regional and party lines and between people who come to the issues with different perspectives.

Before becoming Secretary of Transportation, LaHood served for 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 18th District of Illinois (from 1995-2009).  During that time he served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and, after that, on the House Appropriations Committee.  Prior to his election to the House, he served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Congressman Robert Michel, whom he succeeded in representing the 18th District, and as District Administrative Assistant to Congressman Thomas Railsback.  He also served in the Illinois State Legislature.

Before his career in government, Secretary LaHood was a junior high school teacher, having received his degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.  He was also director of the Rock Island County Youth Services Bureau and Chief planner for the Bi-States Metropolitan Planning Commission in Illinois.

LaHood and his wife, Kathy, have four children (Darin, Amy, Sam, and Sara) and nine grandchildren.

 

John Larson joined the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) as CEO in August, 2011. Having previously served as Executive Director of the Washington Association of Conservation Districts (WACD) since 2004, Larson has worked directly with conservation districts for more than 15 years, including several years as President of the Washington Association of District Employees (WADE).

Prior to his role with WACD, Larson served as manager of the Conservation Districts Partnership – a consortium of four central Washington conservation districts – and district manager for the Othello Conservation District. Prior to his work with districts, Larson ran his family’s irrigated farm in Royal City, Washington for six years.

Larson is a lifetime resident of Washington State and an alumnus of Washington State University, where he studied Agricultural Economics. He and his wife, Shanon, have two children, Tyler, 17 and Cassandra, 16.

 

R. Wayne Leftwich Jr., AICP, is a Community Planner for the City of Greenville, SC.  He is responsible for the planning and reporting of community development activities and performing environmental reviews on all Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funded projects.  He is also involved in the preparation and implementation of neighborhood and corridor master plans that serve areas of low-to-moderate income residents.  He is currently managing the $1.8 million Community Challenge/TIGER II grant project, Connections for Sustainability, a 3-year planning effort to make connections between affordable housing, transportation options, and economic development opportunities in the City of Greenville.  Wayne received a B.A. in Economics from Virginia Tech and a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Clemson University; he is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

 

Matthew Lister brings to his role in Jonathan Rose Companies’ Planning practice a wide range of experience in architectural design, urban design, planning, community development, and project management. Trained as an architect, Mr. Lister has experience in planning, design, entitlements, finance, and construction for a wide variety of architectural and urban design projects throughout the United States.

Jonathan Rose Companies’ planning practice provides public agencies, institutions, non-profits, and private sector clients with socially, environmentally and economically responsible strategies needed to fulfill their real estate development, land use, and climate change goals. Mr. Lister has contributed planning and project management skills to a number of the firm’s projects including: the Newark Riverfront Park, a collaborative community driven effort to develop a 6.5 acre waterfront park along the Passaic River in the Ironbound District of Newark, New Jersey; a redevelopment analysis and plan for the conversion of an underused 22 acre former beer brewery into a green jobs center for the Ironbound District; A faculty driven strategic visioning plan for new facilities for the Hunter College Master of Fine Arts program in New York City; the development of a user-friendly Smart Growth guidelines document in partnership with the US EPA and the Connecticut Capitol Region Council of Governments; and the development of financially feasible real estate strategies to leverage the arts and the creative sector to invigorate lower Manhattan.

Mr. Lister currently teaches graduate level planning at Pratt Institute in New York City and has taught both undergraduate and graduate level classes at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Mr. Lister has a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Master of Architecture and a Master of Suburb and Town Design from the University of Miami School of Architecture. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from the University of Colorado.

 

Kate S. Little currently chairs the BeltLine Affordable Housing Advisory Board  (BAHAB), created by the Atlanta City Council to work with Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., the agency charged with connecting Atlanta by creating greenspace, trails, transit, and new development along 22 miles of historic rail segments that encircle the city's urban core.  BAHAB, which includes local affordable housing experts, recommends policies and goals for the BeltLine Affordable Housing Trust Fund to best leverage the fund and ensure the creation of accessible and high quality affordable housing units

Ms. Little works for the Georgia State Trade Association of Nonprofit Developers, supporting nonprofit housing developers, providing technical assistance and training opportunities, and advocating at the state level for public policies that further development of affordable housing. Previously, she served on the staff of the Georgia Housing Finance Authority (now the Georgia Department of Community Affairs), and for eight years was Atlanta Director at The Enterprise Foundation, working with community development corporations to improve housing conditions and revitalize neighborhoods. She also directed a reinvestment program in Atlanta’s Westview neighborhood, after working for the Atlanta Housing Authority for five years.

Ms. Little received her B. A. degree from North Carolina Central University.  She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Studies from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Prior to joining USGBC, Jeff worked for a retail and commercial consulting company, where he was responsible for facilitating the site development and entitlement process for various clients across the United States. Jeff is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design (Planning).

 

Jill Locantore is a Senior Regional Planner at the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG).  She oversees a team of planners responsible for developing and implementing Metro Vision, DRCOG’s long-range plan for the sustainable growth and development of the Denver region. Her team facilitates collaboration among local governments and other stakeholders, to help them achieve Metro Vision goals. Prior to DRCOG she worked as a Transportation Planner for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and as a Communications Specialist for the National Academy of Sciences.  She holds a master’s degree in community planning from the University of Maryland with a specialization in land use and transportation, and a master’s degree in cognitive psychology from the University of Toronto.

 

Jeff Lovshin is a Neighborhood Development Associate at the U.S. Green Building Council, where he is primarily responsible for increasing the visibility and knowledge of the USGBC Neighborhood Development program through outreach and market engagement with developers, industry leaders, and local representatives.  In this capacity, Jeff helps to develop tools and resources to educate and increase awareness about the financial and environmental benefits of creating green, sustainable communities.  Jeff has also assisted with USGBC international outreach efforts on the LEED 2009 for Neighborhood Development rating system.

 

Jeffrey M. Lubell became executive director of the Center for Housing Policy in 2006 and is a recognized expert in housing and community development policy. Prior to becoming head of the Center, Lubell worked as an independent consultant specializing in analyzing and developing recommendations for strengthening national, state and local housing and community development policy. 

From 2000 to 2003, he served as director of the policy development division of the Office of Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also worked from 1998 to 2000 as a housing policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit organization that is one of the leading independent authorities on programs affecting low-income families. Lubell is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.

 

Jana Lynott, AICP is a Senior Strategic Policy Advisor on the Livable Communities Team in AARP’s Public Policy Institute. She focuses on a broad array of planning and policy issues including Complete Streets and the travel patterns of older adults. Prior to her employment with AARP she was the Director of Transportation Planning for the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission where she designed and managed a groundbreaking study on the linkage between land use and the mobility of older adults. As a public-sector land use planner she negotiated the details of Transit Oriented Development. Ms. Lynott now serves on the Transportation Commission for Arlington County, Virginia.

 

Patrick Maier is the Executive Director of the Innovative Housing Institute (IHI), a non-profit consulting organization that specializes in assisting community organizations, municipalities and developers with mixed income and inclusive housing strategies. IHI is a nationally recognized leader in the field of inclusionary housing. The Institute provides research, consultation, and information on best practices to local and state governments faced with housing affordability challenges. Under Mr. Maier’s direction, IHI is the lead partner of the National Inclusionary Housing Conference, a biannual conference that serves to provide the educational and inspirational leadership of the Inclusionary Housing Movement.

Prior to working with the Innovative Housing Institute, Mr. Maier was the Director of the Real Estate Division of the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, Maryland. HOC is the Housing Authority for Montgomery County, as well as a housing development and housing finance agency. Mr. Maier helped lead HOC’s metamorphosis from a typical public housing agency to a nationally recognized developer and lender for mixed income and affordable housing. In his role as Director of the Real Estate Division he directed the development of several transit oriented mixed income housing developments; the purchase and program assignment of Moderately Priced Dwelling units that were offered to the Housing Opportunities Commission; and the preservation of numerous affordable housing communities, both subsidized and unsubsidized.  Mr. Maier was also the Director of the Mortgage Finance Division at HOC, a housing finance agency.  In that role he was responsible for a lending and bond finance program with over $1 billion dollars in assets.  He also initiated a homeownership program that prepared residents of assisted housing for purchasing their first home.

 

Richard Manson serves as Program Vice President for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. He supervises its Northeast portfolio of sites that includes eight discrete geographic programs including Boston, MA to Greater Pittsburgh, PA. Among his responsibilities include senior credit decisions, strategic planning, communications, and public policy. He is a principal manager between the national organization and local corporate executives, public officials, and civic leaders responsible for shaping strategic direction of local programs.

Mr. Manson also serves as a senior credit officer for local programs and is a member of LISC’s national credit committee. The committee oversees the allocation of multi-million dollar annual loan and grant awards in diverse geographic regions throughout the country. He served as a member of LISC’s New market Support Corporation. NMSC allocates tax credits that LISC has been awarded under the federal New Markets Tax Credit program. He is also a member of the JP Morgan Chase Community Advisory Board.

Mr. Manson has been with LISC for over 25 years.

 

Barbara McCann, Executive Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition, coined the term ‘complete streets,’ organized the broad national Coalition, and has presided over its growth as policy adoption has accelerated across the country.  She is the primary author of the Complete Streets Best Practices Manual from the American Planning Association. She has authored and co-authored reports, books, and papers on creating a new transportation paradigm, including the books Sprawl Costs from Island Press and Growing Cooler from the Urban Land Institute.  As Director of the Quality of Life Campaign at the Surface Transportation Policy Project she authored a series of high-profile reports, including the first documentation of the relationship between sprawl and obesity, and the Mean Streets pedestrian safety series.  From 1986 to 1998 she worked at CNN as a senior writer and producer, including work on award-winning newsmagazines and documentaries. 

 

Megan McConville is a Policy and Planning Fellow in the U.S. EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities.  Her areas of focus include rural smart growth, equitable development, transportation, and the influence of federal policies and programs on land use patterns.  Prior to joining EPA, Mrs. McConville worked for the Sierra Club and the World Resources Institute and was a Fulbright Scholar in Lima, Peru.  She has a Masters in City & Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a BA from Dartmouth College.  

 

Kimberly McKay joined BRIDGE as Executive Vice President for Southern California in 2010. Previously, she was Senior Vice President for The Related Companies of California, where she managed all aspects of developing multifamily affordable housing projects on the West Coast with a focus on large public housing revitalization projects. Prior to that, she was Vice President for Related Capital Company, where her accomplishments included investing approximately $75 million of tax credit equity, closing 25 projects in 10 states and developing a market presence for the company in a new region. Ms. McKay previously served as a Senior Project Manager for Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition and worked as an architect and planning and development manager for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. She is a licensed architect and holds a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley and an M.S. in Real Estate Development from MIT.

 

Bradley Mills is the Executive Director of the Evansville Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Evansville – Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission. Mr. Mills has a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Arizona and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Indiana and Kentucky. Prior to working for local government, Mr. Mills worked for the following consulting firms; Harland Bartholomew and Associates, Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates, and Kimley-Horn and Associates. His experience ranges from transportation planning, traffic modeling, to site civil design for residential and commercial projects. The Evansville MPO received a HUD Sustainable Communities Planning Grant for 1.4 million dollars.

 

Sophie Mintier is a housing planner at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), where she provides research, analysis, and coordination for COG’s affordable housing, regional planning, foreclosure prevention and response, and homelessness programs. As a key component of the organization’s Region Forward Initiative, she is currently working with local housing agencies to develop a comprehensive inventory of publicly-subsidized affordable housing throughout the Washington Metropolitan Region to help guide the implementation of affordable housing preservation and development efforts. Previously, Sophie was a project manager for comprehensive planning and environmental review projects in cities and counties throughout California, and coordinated a regional sustainability initiative in the San Francisco Bay Area.    

 

Aaron Miripol has over 20 years of experience running community development and affordable housing companies. He has overseen more than $100 million in economic development, including 1,300 permanently affordable homes. Since 2007, Aaron has led the Urban Land Conservancy in the strategic acquisition of land and preservation of buildings to create sustainable benefits in underserved communities. To date ULC has partnered in 13 real estate investments totaling over $40,000,000 including vacant lots, nonprofit office space, affordable housing and properties acquired through Denver’s Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Fund. Over 8,000 people (more than 80% are low income households) have been served by ULC’s acquisitions and 380 jobs are supported by its real estate.

Prior to his work at ULC, Aaron was the Executive Director of Thistle Community Housing, providing oversight on one of the fastest growing non-profit housing providers in Colorado. In his nine years at Thistle, the organization’s affordable housing production increased over nine times, going from 100 plus homes to 1,000 rental and ownership homes valued at over $70 million. Thistle grew from serving 250 people a year to over 3,000 people annually in need of affordable housing.

Before moving to Colorado, Aaron worked in Baltimore running two inner city non-profit community development corporations. He was a Goldsmith Scholar in International Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has his BA in History & International Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, and a Masters in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

 

Rebecca Morley is the executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH), where she leads a multi-disciplinary staff of 18 in creating healthy and safe housing for children. Ms. Morley led the development of the National Healthy Homes Training Center now active in 40 states and spearheaded NCHH's work in the Gulf Coast region following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She launched and is the Chair of the National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition—a multidisciplinary collaborative of non-profits advocating for better quality housing and neighborhoods for the nation’s families. She is also a consultant to the New York State Governor’s Task Force on the Prevention of Childhood Lead Poisoning.

Before joining NCHH in 2002, Ms. Morley was a senior associate with ICF Consulting in Washington, DC, where she advised clients, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on the development of lead poisoning prevention and healthy homes programs.

Ms. Morley worked with HUD in a variety of posts, including the Offices of the Secretary, Public Affairs, General Counsel, and Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control. During her tenure at HUD, she was responsible for developing lead paint regulations and developing and overseeing children's environmental health projects. She served on the President's Task Force for Children's Environmental Health Safety and contributed to HUD's preliminary Healthy Homes Initiative plan and Strategic Plan to Eliminate Childhood Lead Poisoning by 2010.

Ms. Morley also served as a legislative fellow to U.S. Senator Jack Reed, where she authored key components of the Kennedy Health Bill related to childhood lead poisoning and helped to establish a national childhood lead poisoning prevention week through a Senate resolution.

She serves on the Board of Healthy Housing Solutions, Inc., the National Disease Clusters Alliance and on the Howard County Environmental and Sustainability Commission. She has authored numerous articles and publications on the topic of housing-related health hazards, including a book entitled “Healthy and Safe Homes: Research, Policy and Practice,” which goes to print in November 2010. Ms. Morley holds a bachelor's degree in environmental science from Nazareth College of Rochester and a master's degree in public policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was born and raised in Rochester, New York.

 

John Morrill is responsible for building and managing ECC’s local partnership sites and providing technical support in a range of sustainable development and building retrofit services. He will oversee ECC’s overall program plan implementing ECC’s vision for strong sustainable economies throughout the United States metropolitan regions, using ECC’s high road strategies.

John brings to ECC over 25 years of professional experience in the energy sector. Most recently he was the Energy Manager for Arlington County (Virginia) where, for 11 years, he led clean energy investments and programs. John was coordinator of the Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), a local climate action campaign with 8 staff.  He was instrumental in the creation of a community energy plan for Arlington in 2010-2011, and he directed the County’s U.S. DOE EECBG projects. John received a U.S. EPA 2008 Climate Protection Award in recognition of his work on AIRE and outreach to other jurisdictions. Prior to his public service experience, John held a variety of research and management positions for over 17 years at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) in Washington DC. Morrill is a Certified Energy Manager and a member of ASHRAE. He holds degrees from Clark University and the University of Virginia. 

 

Beth Osborne is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at USDOT where she is currently working on the surface transportation reauthorization, the Secretary’s livability initiative as well as safety and environment issues.  Beth comes to USDOT from the office of Sen. Tom Carper (DE), where she was his legislative assistant for transportation, trade and labor policy.  Previously, Beth worked as the legislative director for environmental policy at the Southern Governors’ Association and as policy director for Smart Growth America.  She began her career in Washington, DC, in the House of Representatives working as a legislative assistant for Rep. Ron Klink (PA-04) and as legislative director for Rep. Brian Baird (WA-03).  Beth grew up in New Orleans and graduated with a B.A. and J.D. from Louisiana State University.

She is married with two children (a daughter and son), and resides in Washington, D.C.

 

Dave Palmer is the Executive Director of the Center for Working Families. From 1997-2003, Dave worked as organizer and lobbyist for NYPIRG, focusing on higher education, government reform and environmental justice issues. At NYPIRG, Dave led the campaign to pass the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act in the New York City Council. Later he served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Staff Attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, where he represented community based organizations working to address contaminated school sites; he successfully sued the City of New York to strengthen the school-site review process. Most recently, Dave led the Center’s effort to pass the Green Jobs – Green New York Act and companion utility bill financing legislation. He holds a JD from the City University of New York School of Law.

 

Lisa Patt-McDaniel joined Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH) in 2011 as Director of Community Development. In this capacity, she is responsible for growing a set of relations and products related to community development, including working with cities and in rural areas around housing issues such as vacant housing, leveraging local community development resources, and convening community development officials around common issues. She is also responsible for helping to raise equity with corporations in Ohio. Prior to joining OCCH, Ms. Patt-McDaniel spent over 20 years at the Ohio Department of Development working in the areas of community, economic and workforce development, ending her career there as the Director of the Department and a member of the Governor’s Cabinet. Ms. Patt-McDaniel is a Certified Economic Development Professional (EDP) through the National Development Council. She holds a Bachelors degree in Public Administration from Miami University and a Masters of Public Administration from the John Glenn School of Public Policy at the Ohio State University.

 

Andrea Peet is a Program Officer for ICLEI USA’s STAR Community Index., primarily working with Planning & Design and Health & Safety Technical Advisory Committees (TACs).  In this capacity, she collaborates with volunteer professional experts to develop the goals and performance standards that will make STAR a unique national framework and roadmap for local government sustainability.

Prior to joining ICLEI, Andrea was an urban planner for the National Capital Planning Commission where she worked to strengthen coordination between the federal government and local jurisdictions in the Washington, DC region.  She also worked as a planner for local communities through the Western Piedmont Council of Governments, the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech, the City of Decatur (GA), the City of Charlotte (NC) Department of Transportation, and the Town of Davidson (NC).

Andrea holds a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech and an undergraduate degree from Davidson College, where she graduated with honors.  She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and the inaugural class of the Urban Land Institute-Washington’s Regional Land Use Leadership Institute.

 

Stephanie Pollack is Associate Director of the Kitty & Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, overseeing the Center's research agenda as well as conducting her own research projects in the areas of transportation policy, transit-oriented development, sustainability and equitable development. Pollack is also on the core faculty for the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, teaching courses to graduate students in the Law, Policy and Society program and teaching and supervising internships for the Master of Urban and Regional Policy program. Her courses include Strategizing Public Policy, Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning, Housing Policy and Transportation Policy.

Pollack is active in public policy issues affecting transportation, sustainable development and the environment in Massachusetts. She co-chaired Governor Deval Patrick's 2006 transition working group on transportation and served on Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's Climate Action Leadership Committee in 2009-2010. She currently serves on the boards of Boston Society of Architects, Charles River Watershed Association, Health Resources in Action and MoveMass.

Before coming to Northeastern in 2004, Pollack was a senior executive and attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, New England's leading environmental advocacy organization. During her two-decade career at CLF, Pollack worked on issues including transportation and transit policy, smart growth and sustainable development and childhood lead poisoning. From 2004 through 2010 she was also a partner in the strategic environmental consulting firm BlueWave Strategies LLC, where she advised clients on smart growth, transit-oriented development and other "green" real estate projects.

 

Ilana Preuss is the Chief of Staff of Smart Growth America.  In this role, Ilana manages the communications strategy of the organization and works with staff across projects to promote SGA’s work to influence federal and state policies on smart growth issues. She also leads SGA’s efforts on financing smart growth development.  Previously, Ilana served for two years as the Outreach Director for the Transportation for America Campaign, a project of SGA in partnership with Reconnecting America.   In this role, Ilana directed engagement and recruitment of businesses, elected officials and organizations from across the country to reform national transportation policy.

Ilana joined the Transportation for America Campaign after seven years in the smart growth division at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, most recently as manager of the technical assistance program. In that position, she worked with local officials, development and design practitioners and many others to assist communities in transportation planning, transit-oriented development, downtown and suburban redevelopment, zoning reform and other efforts. As a key player in the division, she co-authored publications such as Density in Your Community, and many strategies for local engagement on smart growth.  Throughout her years at EPA, she contributed to numerous publications and events designed to build the knowledge base for smart growth.

 

Robert Puentes is a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program where he also directs the Program's Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative. The Initiative was established to address the pressing transportation and infrastructure challenges facing cities and suburbs in the United States and abroad.

Puentes’ work focuses on the broad array of policies and issues related to metropolitan growth and development. He is an expert on transportation and infrastructure, urban planning, growth management, suburban issues and housing.

Prior to joining Brookings, Puentes was the director of infrastructure programs at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Virginia where he served on the Alumni Advisory Board, and is an affiliated professor with Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute.

He serves on a variety of boards and committees including, most recently, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, the Tysons Corner Tomorrow Advisory Task Force, and the Falls Church, Virginia Planning Commission where he lives with his wife and three sons.

Puentes is a frequent speaker to a variety of groups, a regular contributor in newspapers and other media, and has testified before Congressional committees.

 

Jennifer Raitt serves as Chief Housing Planner at MAPC, where she provides direct housing and planning technical assistance to municipalities, engages in regional and statewide housing policy initiatives, and coordinates 20 urban communities in the Inner Core subregion. Ms. Raitt has done planning for municipal, nonprofit and regional Boards and organizations. Ms. Raitt also teaches in the Boston University City Planning program. Her leadership appointments include serving as a board member of Citizens' Housing and Planning Association and the North Shore Community Development Coalition. She recently served as co-Chair of the American Planning Association Local Host Committee for the Boston 2011 National Planning Conference. Her awards include the 2010 Regional Spirit Award from MetroWest Collaborative, an award for her outstanding leadership and dedication to Housing and Community Development from the APA, a City of Salem Massachusetts Citation for Dedicated Service to Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board of Trustees (2009), MA Governor's Award for Smart Growth Leadership and Implementation (2004) and U.S. Conference of Mayors CDBG Best Practices Citation (1999). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Planning and Documentary Studies from University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from the New School.

 

Noni Ramos is Vice President Chief Lending Officer for the Enterprise Community Loan Fund. She is currently responsible for managing new product development, marketing of the Loan Fund’s financial products and managing loan production activities. Ms. Ramos manages a team of lenders across the country in delivering financing for affordable housing and other community development needs. She works across various Enterprise subsidiaries and affiliates to develop and launch new financial products and initiatives.

Prior to joining Enterprise, she was the Chief Credit Officer for the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) and was responsible for directing all (housing, child care, education, community facilities) lending and portfolio management functions for LIIF’s nearly $93 million held portfolio and approximate $110 million serviced portfolio. In addition to serving as LIIF’s Chief Credit Officer, Ms. Ramos held various lending and programmatic positions of progressive leadership during her 14 year tenure.

She began her professional career with Citibank including participating in Citibank’s Management Associate Program. She received a B.S. from the Walter Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley and has a M.P.A. from the California State University, East Bay. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the YWCA at Berkeley/Oakland and served as board president for two terms. She is a past board member of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation and chaired the Housing Development Committee for most of her board tenure.

 

Lori Reed has worked with Habitat for Humanity for 12 years and is currently serving as executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. 

While at Habitat for Humanity of Evansville, Reed has garnered broad based support for comprehensive community development and led the successful launch of two holistic neighborhood initiatives.  While leading these two neighborhood initiatives Reed has successfully advocated for Habitat’s role as lead convener, Habitat’s product line expansion and instituted a comprehensive evaluation process. Reed’s advocacy has resulted in roughly $25 million in program and capital investments to improve the neighborhoods.  Reed is also working with the church community to foster a paradigm shift in how people of faith approach neighborhoods. 

Prior to her work in Evansville, Reed spent 7 years with Habitat for Humanity International working in the US Field Office serving affiliates in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

 

Art Rodgers, Senior Housing Planner: has over 15 years of experience in housing finance, community development and urban planning. At the Office of Planning, Mr. Rodgers works on major housing policy initiatives such as the design and introduction of Inclusionary Zoning; Commercial Linkage; the Live Near Your Work Employer Assisted Housing Pilot and others.  For the office, he also conducts real estate economics and market analysis, long-range population forecasting, and track real estate development. Prior to joining the Office of Planning, he worked in the private sector as a planning consultant and as an Investment Officer for the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust. Before doing his graduate work at Cornell University’s Department of City & Regional Planning, he worked in community development at a Neighborhood Housing Services in Buffalo, NY. He received a BA in Environment Design from the State University of New York at Buffalo. 

 

Kalima Rose, Senior Director and Director of Center for Infrastructure Equity at PolicyLink, manages local and statewide housing initiatives and has expertise in helping communities pass policies that finance affordable housing; change land use policy to better support mixed-income housing development; and advance fair housing practices. Rose also coordinates the organization’s Louisiana recovery work, collaborating with state officials, community organizations, and national institutions. Her previous experience includes many years of work with rural indigenous communities on economic development and cultural continuity, as well as over a decade of expertise in social change philanthropy, supporting economic justice, community organizing and civil rights. She has fostered community-labor partnerships through philanthropy, and has broad experience in organizational development and journalism. Rose is also a community leader in the Bay Area on educational equity issues. 

 

Rick Rybeck is an attorney with a master’s degree in real estate and urban development.  He has worked on issues related to state and local government for 30 years.  He recently created Just Economics, LLC.  This firm assists clients in restructuring taxes and fees so that embedded economic incentives are more harmonious with public policy objectives to create jobs, affordable housing, transportation efficiencies and sustainable economic development.

Prior to creating Just Economics, Rybeck spent 12 years as the Deputy Associate Director for Transportation Policy & Planning at the District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT).  In this capacity he:

In 1982, Rybeck authored “Meeting America’s Housing Needs,” a 1982 report by the Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies.

 

Robert 'Bob' Sahadi, Director of Energy Efficiency Finance Policy, leads the Institute for Market Transformation’s (IMF) work to develop and expand energy efficiency financing solutions for homes and commercial buildings. This includes legislative initiatives such as the SAVE Act, a new proposal co-developed by IMT to factor energy cost savings into residential underwriting standards and home appraisal practices.  

Bob was previously managing principal of GreenSpace Investment, a green residential financial advisory service. He has held key positions at Fannie Mae, where he was vice president of product development and vice president of mortgage backed securities. While at Fannie Mae, he oversaw the development of the corporation's energy-efficient mortgages and green innovations including Smart Commute for location efficiency, HomeStyle for renovation lending, and a patented protocol to measure residential energy efficiency. He also managed the Home Counselor Online business platform, which served more than 2,000 housing counseling agencies nationwide. He has held multiple positions in the Federal government with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Executive Office of the President, and as chief economist of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Mr. Sahadi holds an MBA in finance and an MA in economics from the University of Cincinnati

 

Emily Salomon is a research associate at the Center for Housing Policy.  She has worked on a range of research projects focused on the connections between housing, land use, and transportation policy, including a series of analyses on the combined housing and transportation costs for households in three metropolitan areas.  She has developed toolkits for HousingPolicy.org, an online guide to state and local housing policy, on the housing needs of older adults, and improving residential energy efficiency.  Emily has also been involved in planning conferences, symposia, and regional forums to help elevate the Center’s presence on affordable housing issues.  Prior to joining the Center for Housing Policy, Emily was an assistant project manager at ICMA where she conducted research to identify best practices and innovative local government policies related land-use planning, community health, and aging-in-place.   She holds a master’s degree in Community Development and Planning and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Clark University, Worcester, MA. 

 

Marlie Sanderson has worked at the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council for 34 years, the last 27 years as the Director of Transportation Planning.  In 1977, he graduated with a Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University.  Since 1984, Mr. Sanderson has been the Staff Director for the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization.  He is a member of the American Planning Association, American Institute of Certified Planners and the Rural Planning Organization America National Council of Peers. 

 

Rachel Scheu is Research Director at CNT Energy, the energy division of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT); a Chicago based non-profit sustainability organization. Her recent work as a Program Manager focused on post-occupancy energy performance of both residential and commercial buildings. She joined CNT Energy in 2005 and has worked on climate and regional energy planning, web-based energy data visualization, and dynamic electricity rate programs for residential customers. Prior to CNT, Ms. Scheu worked for several design-build, architecture and environmental graphics firms. She is an active member of the USGBC Illinois Chapter and a LEED Accredited Professional. Rachel holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelors in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

Andy Schneggenburger is the Executive Director of the Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-based Developers, where he manages the collective voice of the non-profit affordable housing development community in Atlanta by providing the platform for policy advocacy, collaborative communications, and best-practices support. AHAND’s membership is composed of community development corporations and non-profit affordable housing developers engaged in the revitalization of disinvested neighborhoods and affordable housing provision across the Atlanta area.

After an undergraduate education at the University of Michigan and a Masters in Architecture at Georgia Tech, Mr. Schneggenburger began his career in architectural practice. In 2001, he was awarded a Rose Architectural Fellowship by the Enterprise Foundation, during which he worked as an architect, developer and community advocate with the Historic District Development Corporation, a non-profit community development corporation revitalizing the historic M.L. King, Jr. District in Atlanta. He then worked with the Community Housing Resource Center as a design/build project manager and program manager, before joining AHAND in 2006.

Mr. Schneggenburger is a member of the BeltLine Affordable Housing Advisory Board, a civic body which makes affordable housing recommendations to Atlanta’s $2.8 billion BeltLine transit and redevelopment project. He is also the Advisory Committee Chair for the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s Neighborhood Fund, and a Board Member of both the Atlanta Micro Fund and Neighborhood Nexus, a public resource for quality of life data indicators.

 

Stewart Schwartz is the Executive Director and a founder of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which he built into the leading smart growth organization in the Washington, D.C., region, addressing the interconnected issues of land use, transportation, urban design, housing, and energy. He leads the Reconnecting Virginia transportation reform project and serves on the board of the Virginia Conservation Network. He is also a founder and board member of the Richmond Area Partnership for Smarter Growth. The Coalition has been recognized for the second time in five years by the Catalogue for Philanthropy as one of the best small charities in the Washington, D.C. region.

An attorney with experience in land use, transportation and the environment, Mr. Schwartz has worked for the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, the Land Trust Alliance, the Southern Environmental Law Center, and has volunteered for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the Coalition, whose Blueprint for a Better Region makes the case for urban revitalization, transit and transit-oriented development, affordable housing, and more walkable communities.

A retired Navy Captain with 24 years of active and reserve service, Mr. Schwartz earned a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia and an M.A. from Georgetown University. The Washington Business Journal recognized him as a Business Person of the Year in 2002 and a finalist for their Green Business Visionary Award in 2009. He is a member of the Virginia Bar Association.

 

Barry Seymour serves as Executive Director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), one of the nation’s largest and most respected Metropolitan Planning Organizations.  DVRPC is the regional planning forum for the Greater Philadelphia region, with a focus on transportation, land use, the environment and economic growth.  In his time at DVRPC, Mr. Seymour instituted the first municipal grant program for revitalization of urban neighborhoods and older suburban communities, spearheaded the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Smart Transportation initiative, and is leading a regional planning program to address climate change. He is a recipient of the 2008 Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Local Government Excellence.

Mr. Seymour is active on a wide variety of public and civic endeavors in the Philadelphia region, including the Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance, the Central Delaware River Advisory Group, the Montgomery County Greenhouse Gas Reduction Task Force, and formerly served on the Narberth Borough Planning Commission. He previously was Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning for the New York City Department of City Planning, and an Environmental Planner with the Long Island Regional Planning Board. He is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

 

Jeremy Sigmon has been working with USGBC and its community of advocates on advancing green building policy at the state and local levels since early 2007.  In that time he has invested much of his time elevating USGBC’s focus and profile on greening the building codes.  In his work with building science and regulatory experts across the country, Jeremy has worked strategically on green building code development, adoption and implementation in local, state and national forums.  His work was critical to the landmark partnership between a host of building industry organizations on the International Green Construction Code and Standard 189.1.  Jeremy works closely with many well-established building energy code organizations, continually advancing a more integrated approach to sustainability through building regulatory reform.  He has charted USGBC’s work on greening the building codes, was a key contributor to EPA’s Sustainable Design and Green Building Toolkit, is an active contributor to the USGBC blog, and is published in Living Architecture Monitor and the ASHRAE Journal.

Jeremy manages USGBC’s grassroots advocacy network across all 50 states and nearly 80 chapter organizations to advance USGBC’s mission of green buildings for all within a generation.  In his work in state capitals and countless local jurisdictions, Jeremy makes connections where they matter most – between lawmakers and green building experts in their communities.

Prior to joining USGBC, Jeremy was a project manager for altPOWER, Inc., a renewable energy contracting firm in New York City, where he interfaced with developers, contractors, building officials and inspectors, building owners, and oversaw the installation of over 1.5 MW of photovoltaic projects.  He also taught English in French Guiana, and French at his alma mater in St. Louis.  Jeremy earned his bachelor of arts in political science and French from Washington University in St. Louis.

 

John Robert Smith is the former Mayor of Meridian, Mis­sissippi, and a long-time leader on behalf of passenger rail. He is co-chairman of Transportation for America, a former Chairman of Amtrak’s board, and a former mem­ber of the transportation committees of the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, as well as former co-chairman of the National Forum on the Future of Passenger Rail. He is a veteran of the station-centered community development movement, and led the drive to renovate the City of Meridian’s Union Station, a $7 million historic restoration project that created a new multimodal transpor­tation center, dramatically increased use of the station, raised prop­erty values and city tax receipts, and lowered crime in the station’s neighborhood. He served on Reconnecting America’s board for five years, and was a founding partner and board member of Reconnect­ing America’s predecessor organization, the Great American Station Foundation.

 

Robin Snyderman is a native of the Chicago area and became housing director at Metropolitan Planning Council in 1998, intensifying the Council’s ability to increase the number of informed stakeholders committed to a range of quality housing options near jobs and transit throughout the region, as well as to successful public housing reform.

Currently its vice president of community development, Robin has helped MPC launch several nationally recognized regional efforts, including the Regional Employer-Assisted Collaboration for Housing, landmark Regional Rental Market Analysis, a partnership with the Housing Committee  of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, Building Successful Mixed Income Communities Forums, Regional Housing Initiative and, most recently, its interjurisdictional responses  to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. In 2002, Robin staffed the Gubernatorial Housing Transition Team Committee and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Governor’s Housing Task Force. In 2011, she also co-chaired the State's Linkage Working Group.

MPC’s housing and community development work has been featured at dozens of forums throughout the country, and in various articles for Shelterforce, Urban Land Institute Magazine, Policylink, the Brooking institution and other media, industry and academic publications.

Prior to her work at MPC, Robin worked for 10 years with San Francisco’s Mission Housing Development Corporation, developing and providing supportive housing for formerly homeless adults.

In addition to her work at MPC, Robin is a board member of the Illinois Housing Council, Heartland Housing, and Facing Forward to End Homeless, and a trustee of the National Housing Conference. Robin recently completed two terms as chair of the City of Evanston’s Housing Commission and as an affordable housing committee advisor for the Federal Homeloan Bank. She was a 2002 fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and, in 2006, completed Harvard University’s Executive Education Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government, which is part of the John F. Kennedy School of Government.  In 2010, Robin taught within Northwestern University’s Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration Program.

 

Wilf Sommerkorn has been Salt Lake City Planning Director since August 2008.  Prior to that, he was Director of the Davis County Community & Economic Development Department for 14 years.  He has been a planner in various positions with that Department since 1981.  Wilf has also served as the Community Development Director for Centerville City and Clearfield City.  He is currently an adjunct professor of urban planning at the University of Utah, where he teaches on Planning & Politics.  Wilf has served as Legislative Chair for the Utah Chapter of the American Planning Association since 1990, where he has had a role in writing the state codes regarding land use.  He was President of the APA Utah Chapter from 1986 to 1988.  Wilf holds a BS in Physical Geography and Geology from the University of Utah, and an MS in Urban Planning from the University of Tennessee.

 

Rollin Stanley, AICP is currently the planning director for Montgomery County MD.  In his three years the staff have developed sustainable strategies for the transformation of one of the regions premier shopping districts into an evolving new mixed use centre with over 9,000 housing units, including over 1,000 affordable units and millions of square feet of commercial space.  He is also guiding the development of plans for the proposed Purple Line light rail route, as well as the Centre Cities Transit way and a county wide bus rapid transit plan.

Prior to this position he was the planning director for the City of St. Louis for six years and a planner in Toronto for 21 years.  He has consulted around the world and is currently working with the national Planning Association for a growth strategy for a city in China.

 

Julia Stasch is Vice President of US Programs of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  She is responsible for the Foundation’s major grantmaking areas in the U.S., including strategies related to justice, housing, education, community and economic development, and social and economic policy.

Prior to joining the Foundation, she worked for the City of Chicago, first as Commissioner of the city's Department of Housing and most recently as Chief of Staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley.  As Commissioner she led a process resulting in the city's commitment to a $1.3 billion five-year plan for affordable housing.  As Chief of Staff, one of her significant accomplishments was the design and negotiation of the $1.5 billion plan for transformation of public housing in Chicago. 

From 1996 to 1997 she was President and Chief Executive Officer of Shorebank Chicago Companies where she was responsible for Chicago operations of Shorebank, including South Shore Bank, the nation's first community development bank.  In 1977 Stasch was one of the first four employees of the Chicago-based real estate development firm Stein & Company.  When she left in 1996 as President and Chief Operating Officer, the staff numbered 220 and projects included the Metcalfe Federal Building, Chicago 's United Center, and expansion of McCormick Place.  While at Stein and Company, she became known nationally for her work to include women and minorities in the construction industry.

During the first Clinton Administration, Stasch served as Deputy Administrator of the General Services Administration in Washington, a 20,000-person agency responsible for management of government-wide building construction, leasing, and management.  Earlier in her career, she was a Vista volunteer and a teacher in the Chicago public school system.

Stasch was the founding President of the Board of the Women’s Issues Network, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Business Development Center and Leadership Greater Chicago.  She is a member of the Economic Club, the Executives Club, and The Chicago Network and serves on the Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors as well as the board of directors of the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  She also served as the chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Closing the Digital Divide.  Stasch is a summa cum laude graduate of Loyola University, and has a master's degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

 

William G. (Bill) Taft has served as the Indianapolis Executive Director for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) since June of 2005.  LISC Indianapolis has invested more than $100 Million into projects developed by neighborhood-based community development corporations and other non-profits.  These investments in comprehensive community development include affordable housing, small businesses, community facilities, charter schools, commercial corridor revitalization, and green spaces.  This holistic approach was developed through the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative, resulting in six neighborhood revitalization efforts including the Near East Super Bowl Legacy Initiative. 

Bill served as the president of Southeast Neighborhood Development, Inc. (SEND) from1991-2005.  Under Bill’s leadership SEND invested over $30 Million into dramatically revitalizing the Greater Fountain Square Area of Indianapolis, renovating more than 150 affordable apartments, developing and selling 120 homes to first-time home owners, making emergency repairs to more than 600 homes, helping 30 neighborhood businesses to expand, and teaching work and life ethics to more than 200 neighborhood youth.

Before coming to SEND, Bill was the Executive Director of Main Street Richmond, and he also served in positions with the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, the office of Senator Richard Lugar, and the Historic American Buildings Survey.   

Bill is a director of the Institute for Comprehensive Community Development, the Indianapolis Private Industry Council, Super Bowl Legacy Leadership Committee, the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, Southeast Neighborhood School of Excellence, the Indianapolis Housing Trust Fund, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. 

Bill holds an undergraduate degree from Cedarville University, and a Masters Degree from the Ball State University College of Architecture and Planning.  Bill lives in downtown Indianapolis with his wife Joanna and three children.

 

Dianne E. Taylor brings a wealth of experience in the field of community and economic development to her role as the Executive Director of the Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA).  COSCDA is a national membership organization comprised of state government executive branch agencies that administer federally supported community, economic development, housing and human service programs.   COSCDA Supports the common interest and goals of states, with a major emphasis on community and economic development, affordable housing and state and local relations

Ms. Taylor has overall management responsibility for the operation of the organization, to include fiscal, staffing and operational.  She is responsible for membership services, internal management, external representation, including serving as an advocate and liaison between Congress, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and related federal agencies on a host of programmatic and regulatory issues of importance to the COSCDA members. Dianne is also the primary liaison to the COSCDA Board of Directors, the governing body of the organization. Ms. Taylor provides leadership in the development of legislative and regulatory strategies relative to community development and affordable housing, as well on implementation and programmatic issues. 

Prior to joining COSCDA in July 2000, she also served as the Executive Director of the National Community Development Association (NCDA) a position that gave her policy, planning and budget responsibility for a national not for profit organization.  She also served as community development consultant, providing grantee training on the CDBG program.  Ms. Taylor was the Planning Director for the Town of Warrenton, Virginia from 1989 to 1993.

Before moving to the Washington Metropolitan area, Ms. Taylor served for five years with the City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning in the Community Development Division and started off her career as the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance, a city wide coalition of neighborhood organizations concerned with coordination of neighborhood advocacy and community development issues.

Ms. Taylor was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA where she received her BA in Urban Planning from the University of Pittsburgh and her MS in Community/Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University.  She recently received her Maters in Biblical and Theological Studies from Bethel Seminary. 

Dianne is also active in her community and her church, the First Baptist Church of Glen Arden and is an avid reader.  She is married to Victor Taylor, retired US Army intelligence officer and they have one son, Victor, a naval officer, daughter in law Maria and two grandchildren, Rachel and Victor Isaiah. 

 

Jim Thorne, P.E., is a member of the Planning Technical Service Team at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Resource Center.  The Planning Team provides technical assistance and training on a wide range of planning topics. Recent projects for Jim are related to integration of land use and transportation, scenario planning, climate change, livability, transportation safety planning and a number of other diverse topics that show up in the wonderfully exciting world of transportation planning.

Prior to joining FHWA, Jim worked with two Metropolitan Planning Organizations as a planner, modeler, and transportation planning director.  He also worked with the American Public Works Association as Research Associate and Director of Research and produced a number of technical publications.

 

Adie Tomer is a Senior Research Analyst at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.  His work primarily focuses on metropolitan transportation and infrastructure issues. Working under the Metro Program’s Infrastructure Initiative, Adie’s detailed work includes multimodal travel trends and spatial analyses. His work in the field has been cited in national publications and local papers in over 100 metropolitan areas.  He also blogs regularly at the New Republic. 

Prior to work at Brookings, Adie was a Senior Analyst at the New York County District Attorney’s Office where he advised Senior Executives on policy-relevant matters and operational business decisions.

He holds a Master’s in Public Policy from American University and a B.A. from the University of Florida.  His sporting allegiance remains with the Gators.

 

Stephanie D. Vance, author of Government by the People: How to Communicate with Congress, the fabjob.com guide, Get a Job on Capitol Hill, Citizens in Action: A Guide to Influencing Government and The Advocacy Manual has more than 20 years of experience in Congressional affairs. She has worked in a prominent DC law firm, lobbied for National Public Radio and worked in various Congressional offices, holding positions as Legislative Director and Staff Director. Her work on congressional communications stems from a deep and abiding belief that government isn’t broken.  She currently travels the country presenting entertaining and informative speeches and workshops to help advocates learn how to work the system and beat the odds.

 

Hilari Varnadore is the Program Director for the STAR Community Index, where she manages the development and implementation of a national, voluntary, consensus-based framework for improving the livability and sustainability of U.S. communities. STAR is a collaborative initiative between ICLEI, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Center for American Progress.

Prior to joining ICLEI, Hilari was the Sustainability Director for Frederick County, Maryland. Hilari was responsible for advancing sustainability within government operations and decision-making processes as well as designing and implementing innovative community initiatives. She developed an internal Sustainable Action Team and planning process, established an appointed Sustainability Commission, and raised more than $2 million to support and sustain the office. Hilari has been an active member of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network and a volunteer on the Planning & Design Technical Advisory Committee within the STAR Community Index program. She is an advisory board member to the Maryland Clean Energy Center and a strong advocate for developing local government networks around sustainability in both MD and the DC Metro area. Hilari ran a MD nonprofit focused on sustainability and Chesapeake Bay protection during the 2000s. Her academic background is in community resiliency, planning and environmental policy.

 

Vivian Vasallo, Vice President, Housing Impact Area at AARP Foundation, leads a multi-faceted effort to develop and implement high impact solutions to housing problems facing the low income 50+ population. Vivian has almost 20 years of leadership experience in management and business development in private, public and non-profit sectors. Most recently she has managed the Foundation’s regional presence working closely with state operations to align strategies and program implementation and developed innovative, asset-building initiatives. Prior to joining the AARP Foundation, she served as Vice President, Strategic Markets at First American, a Fortune 500® company, spearheading business development and strategic direction within new customer segments. As a senior manager for the Fannie Mae Foundation she managed the Washington, DC Housing and Community Development portfolio. She has established strategic alliances with community development corporations, local housing and governmental agencies, and key real estate and lender associations that provided increased affordable and accessible housing opportunities to underserved communities.

Vivian serves on the Board of Directors of the Latino Economic Development Corporation. She co-founded the Washington, DC chapter of Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) and sits on HIP’s national Aging Program Advisory Council. She is also the recipient of the Embassy of Spain’s Young Hispanic Leader Award and the Hispanic Association of Corporate Responsibility Young Hispanic Corporate Achiever Award. Vivian has a BA in International Affairs from American University, and an MA in International Business and Latin American Studies from the University of Miami.

 

Justin M. Walker joined Rainbow’s leadership team in 2011 as the Director of Business Development & Media, bringing over 10 years expertise to the organization. Mr. Walker has spent his career working in the public relations arena and executing growth strategies for Fortune 500 companies. Most recently as a Senior Product Manager he was the central resource for setting the business direction, managing P&L, and expanding a web services product into seven countries. His experience also ranges from being a radio personality in Denver, producing injection-molded plastics for AOL and working for several elected officials.

As Director, he is responsible for growing Rainbow’s resident service offerings through exposure of their “service-enriched housing model”. He is leading the charge on a massive growth campaign that will extend the business into other regions throughout the U.S. To emphasize the organization’s growth he is also spearheading a branding campaign, highlighting Rainbow’s mission through conferences, policy testimony, partner events, print and broadcast media.

 

Kevin D. Walsh is Fair Share Housing Center’s Associate Director. In 2000, he joined FSHC following a clerkship in the New Jersey Supreme Court. Walsh, a graduate of The Catholic University of America and Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, is responsible for the administration of FSHC and focuses his practice on regulatory challenges and litigation involving high-growth municipalities. He has also had major success in getting affordable housing included in key transit-oriented development plans. 

 

Keith Wardrip joined the Center for Housing Policy as a senior research associate in 2009.  Since joining the Center, Keith has focused primarily on housing and transportation analyses, housing issues faced by older adults, and quantitative analyses tracking national, state, and local housing affordability trends.  Before joining the Center, Keith spent four years as the senior research analyst with the National Low Income Housing Coalition. He earned his M.A. in geography at the University of Colorado, with an emphasis in urban studies and affordable housing.  During his graduate studies, Keith worked at the CDBG and Affordable Housing Office in Longmont, CO. Keith also holds a B.A. in geography from the University of Kentucky.

 

Eric Werling is the new coordinator of DOE’s Building America research program in DOE’s Building Technologies Program. He was recently National Coordinator for EPA’s Indoor airPLUS home labeling program, which he launched in 2009. Eric also developed EPA’s Healthy Indoor Environment Protocols for Home Energy Upgrades completed in 2011 and initiated similar draft guidance for schools and commercial building renovations. He also oversaw the EPA-funded ASHRAE IAQ Guide published in 2010. Eric represented EPA on the Federal Healthy Homes Work Group and the White House Recovery Through Retrofit Work Group, and he has served on ASHRAE’s Standard 62.2 and Environmental Health Committees. Prior to Eric’s 7 years with EPA, he worked 10 years for ICF Consulting where he helped build the successful ENERGY STAR for New Homes programs for EPA, New York state, and Texas utilities. He also served on the Boards of Affordable Comfort, Inc. and RESNET. He holds a MS in Architectural Engineering and a MBA from Penn State University, and a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy. 

 

Michael Wiencek has a passion for making change in people’s lives. He founded Wiencek + Associates on that very principle, along with a mission to create an environment in which other architects could be both nurtured and challenged. 

Michael’s enthusiasm for transforming lives has made Wiencek + Associates the premier architecture firm in community revitalization and socially-conscious design. His designs focus on the greater community, and he is always mindful of the needs of the people his firm serves.

Today, Michael works diligently to maintain the quality of the firm’s work in an effort to ensure that Wiencek + Associates lives up to its reputation. While he maintains a strict focus on the firm’s design deliverables, he also works hard to ensure that his employees take ownership of their work and remain creatively fulfilled.

Prior to founding Wiencek + Associates, Michael worked at Harry Weiss & Associates, as well as at Grimm + Parker Architects. At Harry Weiss, Michael was responsible for the Chicago Light Rail and the Federal Triangle project (which became The Ronald Regan Building). While at Grimm Parker, Michael specialized in the renovation and reconstruction of multifamily housing projects in Maryland and Virginia.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in urban design and a Bachelor of Architecture, both from the University of Maryland.

 

Bethany Wilcoxon is the project manager of The Tomorrow Plan, the greater Des Moines region's Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program project, funded through the federal Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities and aimed at making the region more livable. Ms. Wilcoxon also works on environmental planning, public engagement, and geographic information systems issues at the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

 

Stockton Williams is Senior Advisor for Urban Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he is responsible for strengthening partnerships between the agency and metropolitan areas to expand financing and drive demand for clean energy at the local level. He also represents DOE in the Obama Administration’s urban and metropolitan policy activities. Stockton has served in the Administration since 2009, initially as Senior Advisor for clean energy and sustainable housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he developed new initiatives to expand energy efficiency and renewable energy in the residential sector. Prior to joining HUD, Stockton was Senior Advisor and Director of Green Economy Initiatives for Living Cities, where he managed philanthropic investments in sustainable development activities in 17 cities.  He was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Enterprise Community Partners, where he led government affairs, innovation, fundraising and communications, and had executive responsibility for the Green Communities initiative.

 

Jay Wilson is a LEED Accredited Professional and Director of Sustainable Design at Wiencek + Associates with over seven years of experience.  He leads Wiencek + Associates’ green design practice efforts which focus on designing buildings to meet green objectives such as protecting occupant health, improving occupant productivity, using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently, and reducing the overall impact to the environment.  He serves as a Project Manager for many of the firm’s green projects, including the Wheeler Terrace Apartments.  Jay was Chair of the AIA|DC Committee on the Environment (CoTE DC) in both 2009 and 2010 and served on the District of Columbia Green Building Task Force which advised the City Council on the Green Building Act. He is a registered Charrette Facilitator for the Enterprise Foundation’s Green Communities program and directs the firm's efforts as a Technical Assistance Provider for the program. For his numerous efforts and accomplishments in the design community, Jay was recognized as the AIA|DC Emerging Architect of the Year in 2009.

 

Michelle Winters is the Senior Manager for Green Strategies at NeighborWorks America, where she supports the community development industry and the NeighborWorks network in undertaking comprehensive green initiatives, and also coordinates NeighborWorks’ internal sustainability activities. NeighborWorks America’s mission is to create opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities. It provides grants, programmatic support, training and technical assistance to a national network of 235 community-based nonprofit organizations working in over 4,500 communities nationwide. NeighborWorks America’s training program provides professionals from public and private sector organizations across the country with a full array of courses from management and leadership to construction and finance, including courses on green building and sustainable community development strategies.

Prior to joining NeighborWorks, Michelle was the Program Director for Affordable Housing Preservation at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. She coordinated LISC’s green preservation activities, including the publication of the guide Getting Started with Green Preservation. She also previously worked for nine years at Fannie Mae and the Fannie Mae Foundation on affordable housing finance and policy issues. Earlier in her career she was a Research Assistant at the Urban Institute and the MIT Center for Real Estate, where she worked on program evaluation and data analysis for several affordable housing and community development initiatives. Michelle served as a member (2007-2011) and past chairman (2008) of the Arlington County Housing Commission. She is a graduate of Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies and holds a Master in City Planning from MIT with a specialization in Housing, Community and Economic Development.

 

Sam Yoon arrived in Washington to take on the role of Executive Director at the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations (NACEDA) in the fall of 2010, relocating from Boston. There he had served on the Boston City Council as an At-Large member for four years, and ran for Mayor in 2009. 

His path to politics was by way of community development. Prior to his run for Council, he led an organizing campaign with Asian Community Development Corporation to reclaim a piece of land in Boston’s Chinatown which historically belonged to that community. He has also developed affordable housing with The Community Builders, a national affordable housing non-profit, as well as “grandfamilies” housing with Boston Aging Concerns. Through these experiences, he understood the connections between community development, policy, and politics. 

He has degrees from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Princeton. He has been married for 16 years and has two energetic children, Nathan, 9, and Naomi, 6. They live in Northern Virginia, just outside of DC. 

 

County Board Chairman Christopher Zimmerman has been a resident of Arlington County since 1979.  He was first elected to the Arlington County Board in 1996 and re-elected in 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010.  He served as Vice Chairman in 1997, 2001, 2005, and 2010.  He also served as Chairman in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

A former civic association president and planning commissioner, Mr. Zimmerman has been an advocate of the County’s legacy of transit-oriented development and managed growth, and a proponent of the principles of the New Urbanism.  During his tenure on the Board, he has emphasized traffic calming and neighborhood conservation, transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, schools and programs for youth, economic development, public safety, protecting open space, and enhancing recreational facilities.  He has worked to improve transit service and to make Arlington more pedestrian-friendly.  He has devoted much of his effort to ensuring the availability of affordable housing in the County.  Regionally, Mr. Zimmerman has worked to promote the concept of “smart growth” as the Washington area seeks to cope with the problems of traffic congestion and environmental pollution. 

Mr. Zimmerman has represented Arlington on many regional transportation bodies.  He has represented Arlington on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority from its inception in 2002 and as Chairman in 2008.  In 2004, he was Chairman of the Transportation Planning Board for the National Capital Region, which he has served on since 1999.  In 2009 he served as Chairman to both the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, which he has served on since 1998 and the Virginia Railway Express Operations Board, where he has been a member since 2000.  From 2004 to 2006 Mr. Zimmerman served as President of the Virginia Transit Association.  Mr. Zimmerman represented Arlington as one of Virginia’s two members on the Board of Directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority from 1998 – 2010, serving as Chairman in 2002 and 2008. 

In 2004 Mr. Zimmerman became the first recipient of the Livable Communities Leadership Award from the Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities.  He has also been honored by the Virginia Transit Association for Outstanding Contribution by a Public Official (2003), and by the Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation as a Champion of Sensible Transportation (2001).

Prior to his service on the Arlington County Board, Mr. Zimmerman was Chief Economist and Committee Director for Federal Budget and Taxation at the National Conference of State Legislatures.  He holds a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Economics from The American University.

Mr. Zimmerman and his wife Mary Beth live in the Douglas Park neighborhood of south Arlington where they have raised three children, all graduates of Arlington Public Schools. 

 

Mariia V. Zimmerman is the Deputy Director for Sustainable Communities at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. In this role she is part of the leadership team at HUD’s new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities. Her portfolio includes helping to manage HUD’s sustainable communities grant programs to support innovative local and regional planning efforts. Her office plays a leading role in the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The Partnership, which includes HUD, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is committed to supporting collaboration and coordination of Federal programs to foster job creation, create more transportation choices, expand housing options for people of all ages and income levels, and to conserve our natural environment and resources for future generations. Mariia also serves as HUD’s liaison with USDA to support sustainability efforts underway in small town and rural communities.

Prior to joining HUD, Mariia served as Policy Director for Reconnecting America where she spearheaded the organization’s work on mixed-income transit-oriented development. She was a founding member of Transportation for America, a national coalition calling for reform of federal transportation policy. Mariia has an extensive career in transportation and land use policy, community development, and innovative infrastructure finance.  She has co-authored a number of reports and publications on mixed-income transit-oriented development, urban planning, housing and transportation affordability, and transportation finance. Mariia worked for six years as Chief of Staff in the Washington, DC office of Congressman Earl Blumenauer (Portland, Oregon). During her time on Capitol Hill she helped to advance legislation on transportation security, urban planning, transit and streetcars, and livable communities. 

Mariia also spent time at the Federal Transit Administration in the Planning and Policy offices, working on transit New Starts and federal surface transportation reauthorization. She was recognized for her work with DOT’s modal administrations to implement the newly created Transportation and Community and System Preservation (TCSP) program, and served on the President’s Council for Sustainable Development and the White House Climate Change Task Force.  Originally from Minnesota, Mariia has advanced degrees in Urban Planning from the University of Minnesota and in Geography from PennState, and an undergraduate degree from Macalester College. In 2009, Mariia was named the WTS Woman Of The Year by the Washington, D.C., Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar. 

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