TERNER - Key Persons
Adam Briones leads Greenlining's banking, housing, and economic development work. Prior to joining Greenlining, Adam was most recently a Vice President of Real Estate Development at the Genesis Companies in New York, one of the city's most active African American-owned affordable housing developers. While there, Adam led the acquisition, financing, rehabilitation, and management of 52 affordable rental and homeownership buildings.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder of Landed
Alex Lofton is co-founder of Landed, a mission-driven company working to increase access to homeownership by implementing shared appreciation down payment programs for a variety of organizations. Alex got his start in real estate at developer Forest City and previously served in leadership roles at numerous social enterprises and technology startups in D.C., London and San Francisco. He also helped lead then-Senator Barack Obama's successful campaign for President and served as a founding regional director of Organizing for America at the Democratic National Committee. Alex holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the Housing Lab
- Lead Housing Lab Graduate Student Fellow
Alex Weinberg is a Graduate Student Fellow at the Housing Lab focusing on ventures that are pioneering innovative real estate development models. Alex is currently pursuing his MBA at the Haas School of Business, where he is studying Real Estate and Finance with an emphasis on socially responsible urban development. Prior to that, he worked as a Consultant at Bain & Co. where he partnered with clients across industries to solve an array of business and organizational challenges. He holds a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.
Job Titles:
- Data Solutions Lab Director
- Director for the Data Solutions Lab
Alexander Casey is the Director for the Data Solutions Lab, the Terner Labs program to create analytical tools and datasets to inform more data-based government decisions. He brings public-facing and managerial experience in housing policy research and real estate economics. Prior to joining the Terner team, Alexander worked as a senior manager and policy advisor on Zillow Group's Economic Research team, analyzing housing data to provide insights and expertise to government, non-profit, and media organizations. Before that, he worked on consumer protection issues for the Minnesota Attorney General's Office. Alexander holds an MPA from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington, and a BA in Sociology from the University of Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Los Angeles Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
- General Manager of the City of Los Angeles' Housing
- General Manager, Housing & Community Investment Department, City of Los Angeles
Ann Sewill is the General Manager of the City of Los Angeles' Housing + Community Investment Department, responsible for direction and oversight of the City's programs for housing preservation development, accessible housing production, community investment, rent stabilization, and code compliance. Prior to joining HCIDLA in July 2020, Ms. Sewill was the Vice President, Health & Housing, at the California Community Foundation, overseeing grant making, lending, public policy and advocacy portfolios, working to develop affordable housing to stabilize communities and end homelessness, and to address root causes affecting the health of Angelenos.
Before joining the foundation in June 2006, Sewill was Vice President and California Director of Enterprise Community Partners; Assistant General Manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department; CEO of the Los Angeles Community Design Center (now Abode Communities), and Housing Director for the City of Santa Monica. She also worked with the Los Angeles offices of the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In the past Sewill has served as a director of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Affordable Housing Advisory Council of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, the Loan and Grant Committee of the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing, and of Mercy Housing California. She currently serves on the boards of the California Housing Consortium and the Los Angeles Development Fund.
Art Fatum retired several years ago following a long career combining for-profit and non-profit experiences. Since retiring, Art consults with a number of organizations, particularly those involved in affordable housing development and community financing. As a consultant, he also spent a year as Interim Chief Financial Officer for Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF). Art retired as CFO of MidPen Housing Corporation, one of the nation's leading providers and managers of affordable housing. Prior to MidPen, Art spent seven years as CFO of LIIF, one of the nation's foremost community development finance institutions (CDFI). His career began at GE culminating as co-Managing Director of GE Capital's European leveraged buy-out business. He then served as CFO of Dun & Bradstreet's business information group, then President of AT&T Capital's $1B European equipment leasing business. Subsequently, he was CFO of two public companies in manufacturing and internet media, President of CNET International and then COO and CFO of a San Francisco-based media company. He then shifted his focus to the nonprofit sector at LIIF and MidPen Housing. Art has served on several non-profit and for-profit boards of directors.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Managing Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation
Ben Metcalf is the Managing Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley where he leads the expansion and deepening of Terner Center's work addressing housing affordability challenges through rigorous research and policy analysis. In addition, he holds an appointment as adjunct professor with UC Berkeley's Department of City and Regional Planning. And he serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Terner Housing Innovation Labs, Inc., a nonprofit organization formed to advance the applied innovation work of the Terner Center.
In 2015, Ben was appointed by former Governor Jerry Brown to lead California's Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), a role he held until 2019. During his tenure at the State, Ben played an instrumental role in the passage and implementation of the 2017 Housing Package and oversaw the Department during a period of significant expansion of the state's financial and regulatory reach into housing and land use matters. In addition, he served on the board of directors of the California Housing Partnership Corporation, the California Housing Finance Agency, and was the founding chair of the State of California's Homelessness Coordinating and Finance Council. Prior to joining HCD, Ben worked in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C., including as an appointee of President Obama in the role of Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing HUD's Office of Multifamily Housing Programs. His responsibilities included oversight of the Federal Housing Administration multifamily guaranteed loan portfolio and a subsidized affordable housing portfolio representing 30,000 multifamily properties across the U.S. As senior advisor to the FHA Commissioner on multifamily housing, he developed key Administration priorities related to energy efficiency, housing for the elderly, disabled and formerly homeless, and comprehensive neighborhood revitalization. Before that, he developed mixed-income and mixed-use communities with California-based BRIDGE Housing Corporation. As a senior project manager at BRIDGE, he sourced affordable housing opportunities and had day-to-day responsibility for a portfolio of major projects from initial due diligence and site acquisition through approvals, design and construction, bringing forward $125 million in development activity. He played key roles in implementing community engagement strategy and successfully securing environmental and land use approvals for four major Bay Area land opportunities representing $1.5 billion of new development.
He has a Masters in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College.
Job Titles:
- Builders Lab Director
- Director of the Builders Lab
Ben White is the Director of the Builders Lab, the Terner Labs program designed to support construction innovations that facilitate timely and cost-effective delivery of affordable housing. A lifelong urbanist, Ben's career has spanned the public and private sectors and includes roles at Blackstone's ShopCore Properties, where he was chief of staff; WeWork, where he managed operations for the global real estate team; New York City Economic Development Corporation, where he project managed affordable housing and other urban development projects; and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he supported the firm's relationships with institutional investors. Ben holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an MSc from the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and a BA from Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Retired EVP Wells Fargo, Home Ownership Strategy & Groth
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- I. Donald Terner Distinguished Professor
Carol Galante is the I. Donald Terner Distinguished Professor in Affordable Housing and Urban Policy and the Faculty Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation. As Faculty Director, Galante leads the strategic direction of the Center's activities. The Terner Center pursues ambitious projects that combine research, policy, and private sector innovation in order to further housing affordability, racial and economic inclusion, and sustainability in California and nationally. She is also a founder of The Housing Lab, an accelerator for early-stage ventures with the potential to fundamentally improve the housing market and make it more affordable and fair.
Galante served in the Obama Administration for over five years as the Assistant Secretary for Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing programs.
Galante provided key leadership in the housing sector during the recession of 2009, including strengthening FHA's infrastructure and policies while providing access to credit that helped stabilize the housing market She also developed signature initiatives that provided better opportunities to low-income families including Choice Neighborhoods and the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program.
Prior to her appointment at HUD, Galante was President and Chief Executive of BRIDGE Housing Corporation, the largest non-profit developer of affordable, mixed-income and mixed-use developments in California. Early in her career Galante also worked for local government in city planning and community economic development.
Galante serves on the non-profit Board of Directors of The Community Builders. She is also an advisor to Factory_OS, an innovative new company changing how we build. She holds a Master of City Planning from UC Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder and Executive Director of TechEquity Collaborative
Catherine Bracy is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of TechEquity Collaborative. Before founding TEC, she was Code for America's Senior Director of Partnerships and Ecosystem where she grew Code for America's Brigade program into a network of over 50,000 civic tech volunteers in 80+ cities across the US. During her tenure, Code for America's Brigade was responsible for 64% of the total growth in the civic tech community in the country.
Cris Martinez is the Operations Manager at Terner Labs. Cris leads operational functions including finance, human resources, and administration and supports programmatic operations for the Housing Lab and the Housing Affordability Data Lab. Prior to Terner Labs, he worked as an Operations Manager for a local commercial real estate company. Cris holds a BA in Business Administration from CalState East Bay.
Darrell Owens is a Data Analyst at Terner Labs. He works on the Data Solutions Lab team to build data tools for policymakers and other partners to make informed housing policy decisions. Dedicated to de-mystifying housing costs, displacement, and demographic change from an empirical and objective standpoint, he specializes in spatial analysis and geographic software analysis and development.
Darrell has held data analysis roles at California YIMBY, where he created mapping software for stakeholders and state legislators to illustrate the impacts of proposed legislation and existing laws and at Resources for Community Development, where he wrote scripts to analyze subsidized housing waitlists. He has also worked as an analytical contractor and GIS programmer for news outlets to create interactive mapping tools.
As a 4th generation resident of Berkeley and Oakland, most of his work has been historically focused on the pressing challenges in the East Bay area. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Job Titles:
- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Avanath Capital Management, LLC
- Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Avanath Capital Management
Daryl J. Carter is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Avanath Capital Management, LLC, a California-based investment firm that acquires, renovates, and operates apartment properties, with an emphasis on affordable and workforce communities. Carter directs the overall
Carter is a Past Chairman of the National Multifamily Housing Council. Previously, Carter served as an independent director on the boards of the following companies: Catellus Development Corporation (CDX), Silver Bay Realty Trust (SBY), and Whitestone REIT (WSR).
Job Titles:
- CEO, Levine Family Ventures
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the Housing Lab
- Housing Lab Graduate Student Fellow
Emily Ramirez is a Graduate Student Fellow at the Housing Lab focusing on ventures that are developing innovative technology to increase people's access to affordable housing. As someone who experienced housing instability herself, Emily is guided by the principle that universally affordable housing in the U.S. is not only possible, but necessary for the collective wellbeing of all people and for the attainment of justice for historically marginalized Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. At Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, Emily is learning to leverage economics, legislative analyses, political processes, worker unions, and urban planning as tools toward justice.
Geraldine Slevin is the Communications Manager for Terner Labs. Before joining Terner Labs, Geraldine worked as a writer and communications consultant supporting projects like the For Native Lives campaign, addressing opioid addiction stigma in tribal communities, and FORWARD Magazine, writing about public art and social change. Previously, Geraldine worked in internal communications at Clif Bar, 2K, and Equinix, and as a communications consultant for organizations supporting queer & trans communities. Geraldine graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in English and a minor in Public Policy.
Job Titles:
- Director of the California Department of Housing
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the Housing Lab
Job Titles:
- Director, California Department of Housing & Community Development
In May of 2020, Gustavo Velasquez was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. In this leadership role, Velasquez leads California's housing policy agenda and administers a wide range of programs that produce, preserve, and protect affordable housing and communities of opportunity across the state.
Velasquez was a senior director at the Urban Institute, a renowned national research organization working to provide data analysis and insights to policymakers and practitioners in ways both relevant and actionable. Velasquez served for nearly three years as assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He served on behalf of the president as the strategic lead of the fair housing and inclusive community agenda for the Obama administration. During his tenure, HUD achieved groundbreaking enforcement victories in fair lending and in major housing discrimination cases. Velasquez led efforts to promulgate the landmark Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, a key tool for cities, states, and other HUD funding recipients to reduce inequality and disparities in access to opportunity.
Job Titles:
- Data Lab Graduate Student Fellow
- Data Scientist
Haley Tiu is a data scientist-turned policy wonk specializing in housing policy and economics. Haley studied statistics and Chinese at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate student, then went on to work as a data scientist for five years--first at Beghou Consulting and then at McKinsey & Co. Haley is currently a student at the Goldman School of Public Policy, where she has turned her focus to policy issues related to housing and climate change, aiming to analyze these issues from an economic and quantitative perspective.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Project Management, UC Berkeley
Iris D. Tommelein is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Project Management in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and she directs the Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL) at the University of California, Berkeley. Iris has been studying, developing, and applying principles and methods of project-based production management for the architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry, what is called Lean Construction.. In this effort, she has published nearly 400 refereed articles, books, and book chapters, and given numerous keynote lectures on her research. And to ensure her Lean Construction research findings get applied in practice to drive innovation and advance our industry, she has led many industry workshops, hosted conferences, and is actively engaged in consulting work with practitioners.
Iris' education in civil engineering, architecture, and construction engineering and management - including her use of computer science and artificial intelligence in project management - reflects the interdisciplinarity of industrialized construction innovations. She served four years on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology (TCCIT) and held professional membership on TCCIT's Database and Information Management Committee. She was a co-founder of the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) in 1997 and was recognized by the LCI with the Lean Pioneer Award 2015. She is the recipient of the prestigious 2022 Project Production Institute (PPI) Technical Achievement Award, recognizing significant contributions and thought leadership in the area of Project Production Management. Tommelein was inducted into the National Academy of Construction (NAC) in 2019.
As an extension of her lifelong effort to improve the AEC industry, Iris has advised the Builders Lab program design since its inception. Her technical expertise in areas such as lean design and process management ensures our curriculum accommodates ventures attempting to align their production practices with their new product development, design, customer and market fit, and other dimensions.
Job Titles:
- Vice President Climate Aligned Philanthropy & Partnerships Lead, Wells Fargo
Job Titles:
- Founder of Catalyst Housing Group
Jordan is the founder of Catalyst Housing Group, where he obsesses daily over the firm's growth, strategy, impact, innovation, and capital formation. He has spent the past two decades actively engaged in the investment, acquisition, development, financing, and management of more than $4 billion of institutional multifamily transactions. Jordan graduated from the University of California, Davis with a degree in Economics, and was a member of the men's basketball team.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Housing Venture Lab
- Housing Venture Lab Director
Kara Murray-Badal is the Director of the Housing Venture Lab. She brings a wealth of managerial and project management experience from both the private and non-profit sectors. Before joining the Terner team she was a Crisis Project Manager at Bayer Healthcare as well as Deputy Director at The Mosaic Project, a non-profit focused on communication across cultures and backgrounds. She's also an Oakland native with a background in community activism and politics, having consulted on policy for several cities and done communications and field leadership for electoral campaigns. Kara holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Psychology from Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the Housing Lab
- Housing Lab Graduate Student Fellow
Kyler Blodgett is a Graduate Student Fellow at the Housing Lab working primarily with ventures innovating in affordable consumer financial solutions for homeowners and renters. Kyler is pursuing his Master of City Planning at UC Berkeley, focusing jointly on housing affordability and safe mobility. He has worked at various non-profits building opportunity at the community level in active transportation, equitable small business development, and K-12 education, and has volunteered with several housing services providers. Kyler earned his BA in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- President
- Chief Executive Officer for MacFarlane Partners' Investment Management Group
- Co - Founder, Legacy First
As chief executive officer for MacFarlane Partners' Investment Management Group, Landon Taylor is chiefly responsible for the overall direction and growth of the firm's investment management companies. He chairs the firm's senior management committee and serves on the investment committee.
Landon is a seasoned CEO, operator and corporate strategist, with more than 30 years of experience in creating new markets, increasing earnings, and strengthening the brand reputation of both emerging growth and large, complex businesses. Landon's unique combination of experiences also includes serving as a longstanding champion for ESG-related strategies that have a positive impact on urban communities. He has a strong background in board governance practices through his extensive service as an independent director on non-profit and corporate boards and as an executive leader.
Landon has served as president and CEO for a diverse set of businesses in the real estate, technology and financial services industries, including four ventures he led at First American Financial Corporation (NYSE: FAF), an $8 billion multi-national FORTUNE 500 real estate information services company. His senior management roles included president & CEO of First American VMS, a SaaS vendor management platform company; founding president of First American New Market Ventures; and president of the strategic markets division of First American Title Insurance Company, where he drove an increase of 32% in market share in the company's targeted emerging market segments. As co-founder of Legacy First Partners, Landon advised, raised capital, and built strategic partnerships for technology-driven impact companies and real estate developments, including Freedom West 2.0, a $2 billion mixed-use property redevelopment in the Fillmore district of San Francisco.
Leslye began her work in housing as a student lobbyist, providing her with the passion and drive to create and implement solutions to the state's housing crisis. While still at UC Davis, she joined the California Department of Housing and Community Development where she had the opportunity to work with some of the first State grant and lending programs. From there she moved on to the City of San Jose Housing Department where she spent 24 years, including 14 years as Director. Upon leaving the City, she co-founded SV@Home, a housing policy and advocacy nonprofit working in the high-cost Silicon Valley. She now works as a consultant and is happy to be working with the Terner Center and the Terner Housing Labs on a number of exciting projects.
Leslye has served on a number of federal, State, and regional housing boards and was the Co-Chair of CASA-the Committee to House the Bay Area, a nine-county regional effort to respond to the Bay Area's housing crisis. She is on the Board of the Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative (BAWSI) and the San Jose Earthquakes Foundation and is a member of the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Conference
- President & Chief Executive Officer, National Fair Housing Alliance
- President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance
Lisa Rice is the President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), the nation's only national civil rights agency solely dedicated to eliminating all forms of housing discrimination. NFHA is also the trade association for over 200 member organizations across the country that work to eliminate barriers in the housing markets and expand equal housing and lending opportunities. NFHA provides a range of programs to affirmatively further fair housing including community development, neighborhood stabilization, training, education, outreach, advocacy, consulting, and enforcement initiatives.
Rice is a member of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Board of Directors, Center for Responsible Lending Board of Directors, JPMorgan Chase Consumer Advisory Council, Mortgage Bankers Association's Consumer Advisory Council, Freddie Mac Affordable Housing Advisory Council, Quicken Loans Advisory Forum, Bipartisan Policy Center's Housing Advisory Council, and FinRegLab's Machine Learning Advisory Board.
Job Titles:
- Chief Real Estate Officer, Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul
Lydia Tan is a real estate professional with 4 decades of experience in the industry, with leadership roles at for-profit, non-profit and institutional platforms. Her project experience has been focused on the development of and investment in high impact development and public- private partnerships, involving more than $6 billion in mixed income, mixed-use and affordable communities.
Currently, Ms. Tan is consulting on a variety of assignments, including transformational urban redevelopment efforts, entitlement strategy, affordable housing and infrastructure finance, and housing for at-risk college students. In addition, she serves as the Chief Real Estate Officer for the Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul, a purpose-based professional soccer club. Before opening her advisory practice, she was Managing Director of Real Estate for the Oakland A's, where she led efforts to create a new ballpark district at Howard Terminal and redevelopment of the Oakland Coliseum. Prior to this she was SVP, Head of U.S. Development at Bentall Kennedy, overseeing real estate development investment activity for the company. Other experience includes EVP, Director of Northern California Operations at Related California where Ms. Tan launched the company's Northern California office and spearheaded the development of a portfolio of mixed income, mixed use projects.
Prior to that, she was EVP in charge of Real Estate Development and Finance at BRIDGE Housing Corporation, where she oversaw the production of several affordable and mixed income communities, participated as part of the executive management team, and co-led an investment partnership with CalPERS. Lydia holds an AB Architecture degree from University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University, and is a registered Architect in California. She is lecturer at UC Berkeley, a member of the Stanford Real Estate Council and ULI, and serves on the board of directors of Thoits Brothers Inc., San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund and the S.H. Cowell Foundation. She also serves as a Resident Fellow at Stanford University, fostering learning and community at a 250-student dorm complex on campus.
Job Titles:
- Chief Economist of Moody's
- Chief Economist, Moody 's Analytics
Mark M. Zandi is chief economist of Moody's Analytics, where he directs economic research. Moody's Analytics, a subsidiary of Moody's Corp., is a leading provider of economic research, data, and analytical tools. Dr. Zandi is a co-founder of Economy.com, which Moody's purchased in 2005.
Dr. Zandi is on the board of directors of MGIC, the nation's largest private mortgage insurance company, and is the lead director of Reinvestment Fund, one of the nation's largest community development financial institutions, which makes investments in underserved communities.
He is a trusted adviser to policymakers and an influential source of economic analysis for businesses, journalists, and the public. Dr. Zandi frequently testifies before Congress and conducts regular briefings on the economy for corporate boards, trade associations, and policymakers at all levels. He is often quoted in national and global publications and interviewed by major news media outlets, and is a frequent guest on CNBC, NPR, Meet the Press, CNN, and various other national networks and news programs.
Dr. Zandi is the author of Paying the Price: Ending the Great Recession and Beginning a New American Century, which provides an assessment of the monetary and fiscal policy response to the Great Recession. His other book, Financial Shock: A 360ยบ Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis, is described by the New York Times as the "clearest guide" to the financial crisis.
Dr. Zandi earned his BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Sociology at Princeton University
Job Titles:
- Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow. He is the author of four books, including Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. The principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, Desmond's research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. A Contributing Writer for the New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, as one of "fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate."
Michelle leads strategic planning, new program development, and fundraising at Terner Labs. Michelle joined Terner Center in 2018 to lead the design and launch of the Housing Venture Lab as a program of the Terner Center. She then helped create Terner Labs as a founding staff member, building a new home for the Housing Venture Lab and the foundation for future initiatives.
Michelle brings a decade of experience in community and startup finance, organizational strategy and design, and urban policy research. Prior to joining the Terner team, Michelle worked as a strategy consultant for the Bridgespan Group, collaborating with nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and foundation leaders across issues of community development, housing, and education. She also worked with housing social impact startup, Landed, developing the organization's impact metrics and fundraising strategy.
Michelle holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Real Estate from UC Berkeley, and a BA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. Michelle also serves as an advisor to various coalitions dedicated to housing innovation and impact investing.
Job Titles:
- Expert
- Lecturer, Haas School of Business
Molly Turner is a leading expert on technology startups and cities. She has been on the professional faculty at the Berkeley Haas School of Business for eight years, where she teaches graduate MBAs and undergraduate business students about tech startups, cities, and public policy. Turner also works as an advisor to early-stage urban tech startups and to city leaders looking to harness new technology. She is deeply engaged in contemporary tech and urban policy issues as the co-host of the Technopolis podcast, and through her service on the boards of urban policy think tank SPUR, and non-profit affordable housing developer BRIDGE Housing.
Before teaching at Haas, Turner was an early employee of Airbnb, where she established the company's public policy team in 2011 and directed its groundbreaking regulatory collaboration with cities. She later served as the company's Global Head of Civic Partnerships, where she directed Airbnb's partnerships with governments, including its international disaster response program, which has housed hundreds of thousands of displaced people and refugees. Before Airbnb, Turner worked for the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Economic Development, the UNESCO World Heritage Cities Program, and an urban planning consulting firm. Turner holds a Master in Urban Planning from Harvard University and a BA from Dartmouth College.
Job Titles:
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Senior Executive Consultant With InclusionINC
Ophelia Basgal is a senior executive consultant with InclusionINC, a leading global consulting and learning organization specializing in inclusion and diversity solutions. Prior to her current position, she was the regional administrator of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Region IX (Pacific/Hawaii), a position she held from May 2010 to March 2016 and where she was recognized as a national expert on housing and community development issues. Before joining HUD, she was vice president of community relations at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. She managed the company's $20 million charitable contributions program and oversaw the company's community engagement programs, partnerships with community-based organizations, and employee volunteerism program for 20,000 employees.
Since early 2018 Priya Jayachandran has led National Housing Trust (NHT). NHT is committed to the preservation of home, opportunity and dignity through affordable housing. In her role as CEO, Priya leads NHT's engagement in public policy, lending and energy sustainability.
Priya previously led Housing Development at Volunteers of America (VOA). In her role, she managed the strategic direction, acquisition and development of rental housing for VOA. Priya served in the Obama Administration at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 until 2017, as Senior Policy Advisor, Director of the front office of Multifamily Housing and ultimately as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs.
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the Housing Lab
- Housing Lab Graduate Student Fellow
Revati Rajwade is a Graduate Student Fellow at the Housing Lab focusing on ventures that are pioneering innovative solutions in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) space. Revati is currently pursuing her Master of Real Estate Development + Design (MRED+D) at the College of Engineering and Design at UC Berkeley. She is studying real estate finance, land use laws, affordable housing and market analysis. Prior to the program, Revati has managed a diverse portfolio of residential, commercial and mixed use projects at one of India's leading real estate developers. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the Indian Education Society's College of Architecture.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute
- Distinguished Fellow, Economic Policy Institute
Richard Rothstein is a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He is the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, which recovers a forgotten history of how federal, state, and local policy explicitly segregated metropolitan areas nationwide, creating racially homogenous neighborhoods in patterns that violate the Constitution and require remediation. He is also the author of many other articles and books on race and education, which can be found on his web page at the Economic Policy Institute: http://www.epi.org/people/rich.... Previous influential books include Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap and Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right. He welcomes questions and comments at riroth@epi.org.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO of the Housing Partnership Network
- President and CEO, Housing Partnership Network
From an early childhood living in public housing to her years studying at the University of Southern California (USC) to decades of work on the ground in communities, Robin has developed a keen understanding of the need for equity and opportunity throughout the country-one that has motivated her lifelong work to improve housing conditions for tens of thousands of people.
"I have fond memories of growing up in a close-knit community of friends and families," she recalls of her days in South Los Angeles "But I also remember deplorable housing and economic conditions, how nothing seemed to ever change, how no one seemed to be listening. When I got to USC, I knew that I wanted to build a career that brought opportunities and investment for people like me in the communities where I grew up. That's how I ended up in the housing and community development field."
Since 2022, Robin has served as president and CEO of the Housing Partnership Network (HPN), a national collaborative of the nation's top mission-driven, nonprofit housing developers, community lenders, and advocates. She helps fuel the work of more than 100 urban and rural housing and community development organizations, nine HPN-supported social enterprises, practitioner-led learning and data-sharing strategies, and critical advocacy on state and federal policy priorities to drive systems change.
Prior to taking the helm at HPN, Robin spent 26 years as president and CEO of Abode Communities, growing the organization into one of the top nonprofit developers in the country and premier provider of environmentally sustainable affordable housing in California. Earlier, she worked in the housing finance sector at The Richman Group and Citi, deploying capital to high-value housing development efforts and in local government for the County of Los Angeles Community Development Commission and the City of Los Angeles Mayor Office of Economic Development.
Over the years, Robin has shared her expertise on a variety of boards, task forces and advisory bodies, including six years as HPN board chair before taking over as CEO. She currently serves on the boards of the Justice Climate Fund, Community Development Trust (CDT), and the California Community Reinvestment Corporation - all significant investors in affordable housing and other community-focused assets and programs - and on the advisory bodies for Morgan Stanley, National Housing Conference, and UCLA Ziman Center.
Robin earned her master's and bachelor's degrees in public administration from the University of Southern California and certification from the executive program in Achieving Excellence in Community Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. She can be reached at hughes@housingpartnershipnetwork.net.
Job Titles:
- President and Chief Community Officer, Community Solutions
- President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Solutions
Rosanne Haggerty is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Solutions. She is an internationally recognized leader in developing innovative strategies to end homelessness and strengthen communities. Community Solutions assists communities throughout the U.S and internationally in solving the complex housing problems facing their most vulnerable residents. Their large-scale change initiatives include the 100,000 Homes and Built for Zero Campaigns to end chronic and veteran homelessness, and neighborhood partnerships that bring together local residents and institutions to change the conditions that produce homelessness. Earlier, she founded Common Ground Community, a pioneer in the design and development of supportive housing and research-based practices that end homelessness.
Ms. Haggerty was a Japan Society Public Policy Fellow, and is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Ashoka Senior Fellow, Hunt Alternative Fund Prime Mover and the recipient of honors including the Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism from the Rockefeller Foundation, Social Entrepreneur of the year from the Schwab Foundation, Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian Design Museum's National Design Award and Independent Sector's John W. Gardner Leadership Award. She is a graduate of Amherst College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Job Titles:
- Director, Housing Affordability, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
- Vice President and Head of Community at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Ruby Bolaria Shifrin is Vice President and Head of Community at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), prior to her role leading Community Initiative, Ruby served as the Head of Housing Affordability at CZI.
The CZI Community team works to build an equitable, inclusive, and just California full of opportunity and is dedicated to finding solutions so that everyone can not just survive but thrive. The focus areas include Housing Affordability, Economic Inclusion and Mobility, & Local Impact. Ruby also oversees CZI's DEI grantmaking across CZI which includes investments in promoting greater equity in the Science and Education Initiatives.
Before her career at CZI, Ruby worked in real estate development as a project manager for multifamily mixed income projects in San Francisco and has experience in commercial real estate at JLL. She also has international housing experience from her time managing an in-situ upgrading pilot in Johannesburg, South Africa
Ruby started her career as an organizer for environmental and social justice organizations like Earthjustice and Corporate Accountability International. Ruby has a strong commitment to equity and social justice and brings her unique mix of advocacy and technical experience to CZI's housing work. She holds a BA in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Job Titles:
- Director of Federal Policy at Rewiring America
Sage Briscoe is the Director of Federal Policy at Rewiring America, where she strategizes ways to optimize the development and implementation of federal policy to maximize electrification. Sage joins Rewiring after developing energy and climate policy as a Legislative Fellow on Senator Amy Klobuchar's staff. Prior to her time on the Hill, she spent the first half of her career as a federal employee, including three years in England as a Senior Technical Liaison to the UK. Sage holds a bachelors in mathematics from Tulane University and a masters in mathematics from University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Housing and Community Development at the National Fair Housing Alliance
- Vice President of Housing and Community Development, National Fair Housing Alliance
Shanti Abedin is the Vice President of Housing and Community Development at the National Fair Housing Alliance. In this role, Shanti is responsible for providing strategic direction, thought leadership, and programmatic planning and management for NFHA's Housing and Community Development division, including the Inclusive Communities and Keys Unlock Dreams Initiatives. She oversees NFHA's investments and work in communities throughout the nation to increase affordable housing, reduce barriers to equitable housing opportunities, increase quality amenities and services in communities of color, and broaden the network of organizations working to advance fair housing goals.
Job Titles:
- Senior Commercial Building Energy Researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Shanti is a senior commercial building energy researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). His research focuses broadly on the adoption of net-zero energy and low-carbon design and operational practices in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. He also pursues opportunities to ensure his applied research has tangible impact through innovative demonstrations, Cleantech Group startup technical guidance, academic engagements, high-impact publications, and informed industry outreach. Shanti's active research projects include integrating net-zero carbon strategies into the emerging industrialized and off-site construction sector for affordable housing, following up on several pioneering reports on the topic. He also focuses on supporting innovative development approaches to zero energy, including district-scale energy planning and providing how-to resources for emerging developers. Shanti is active in the green building design and construction industry and is a frequent speaker at industry events. He is also an adjunct lecturer at the University of Colorado, teaching classes on sustainable construction and real estate.
Job Titles:
- Director, Housing & Community Development, City of Oakland
Shola Olatoye (o-LAH-twoh-yay) is a Terner Center Fellow and on the Terner Advisory Board. She is an experienced real estate and management executive with more than 20 years of experience launching and managing public-private partnerships. She served as Vice President of Business Development for Suffolk Construction, a national construction management firm. Prior to joining Suffolk, Shola served as Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the largest public housing authority in the nation. As a Mayoral appointee, Shola launched NextGeneration NYCHA, the agency's 10-year turnaround plan. She led her team to balance the $3.1 billion operating budget for three consecutive years, launched a major real estate development program, and founded a social impact nonprofit, the Fund for Public Housing.
Olatoye graduated with a BA with honors in history and African American studies from Wesleyan University. She also earned a Master of Public Administration from NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where she currently serves as a Visiting Scholar teaching in the Masters of Urban Planning program on management and leadership.
Job Titles:
- Head of Housing Access & Affordability, Wells Fargo Foundation
Job Titles:
- Founder and CEO of TSmalls Solutions
Terrence Smalls is the founder and CEO of TSmalls Solutions, a real estate investment and advisory firm focused on creating positive economic and social impact in built environments around the globe. Confident that profit and purpose can co-exist, Terrence encourages all businesses to embrace a triple bottom line framework that prioritizes people and planet, as much as profits. Prior to establishing a career in real estate, Terrence led business development for multiple technology startups after beginning his career as a personal assistant in the entertainment industry. Terrence is a graduate of Morehouse College, London School of Economics' Negotiations Program, and University of Southern California's Ross Program In Real Estate. He has also participated in startup accelerator programs such as TechStars, SAP.io, and Elemental Excelerator.
Job Titles:
- Senior Real Estate Executive
Toni Steele is a Senior Real Estate Executive serving as Google Real Estate Portfolio Lead based in Silicon Valley. Her role ensures Google's workplace and related business supply/demand needs are met through direct holdings, new development, and market transactions (acquisitions and leasing). Steele is also Co-Lead of Google's $1 billion Affordable Housing Fund.
Steele is an engaged, innovative, and versatile leader with a collaborative commercial approach, cultural embodiment, technical acumen, and a leading execution track record on multiple investment and product types (domestic & abroad) valued in excess of $50 billion.
She has extensive capital markets & asset management experience from over 22 years with Goldman Sachs (International Country Lead for Italy & Germany | US Vice President) on large holding acquisitions, direct and NPL real estate portfolios, and country platforms. Her key focus areas include progressive office, life science, redevelopment, urban campuses, and film studios. While JLL Executive VP of Southern California Capital Markets, she co-lead the Netflix purchase of the Albuquerque Studios.
She holds a Master of Business Administration, summa cum laude, from the International University of Monaco and a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude from Pepperdine University. She also attended UCLA her freshman year and later for real estate studies.
Tyler advises the program design and impending launch of the Builders Lab program, which will help companies pursuing innovative and industrialized construction methods refine and scale up their work. He has a background in research and practice across numerous fields in the built environment industry. These include civil and environmental engineering, construction management, energy efficient architectural design and analysis, urban planning and data science, climate change impact modeling, and housing development and policy. He also conducts research at the Terner Center. His research includes work both in the U.S. and abroad, particularly on the topic of industrialized construction as a means of expanding and improving housing production. This interdisciplinary experience and curiosity are critical in his research, which hopes to align policies and industry towards critical housing, environmental, and social goals.
Yumna is the Communications Fellow for Terner Labs. As a current undergraduate student at UC Berkeley double majoring in Urban Studies and Legal Studies, she has been exploring housing innovation and affordable housing through past planning internships and her current position with Terner Labs. Yumna is working to create social media content for Terner Labs and enhance Terner Labs' online presence.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director of Acquisitions & Development, California, Jonathan Rose Companies