Organizations

Enterprise Community Partners announced in August that it had selected its inaugural slate of organizational fellows, following the establishment of three new fellowships earlier this year to offer civic-minded graduates and early-career professionals leadership opportunities within Enterprise. The three fellowships call for applicants dedicated to community service and will be based in Washington, D.C. and Columbia, Md. The fellows will work with Enterprise staff in most of the 22 cities where Enterprise has a presence. The Bart Harvey Enterprise Fellowship was awarded to My Trinh, who holds a JD from UCLA’s School of Law. The Terwilliger Enterprise Fellowship was awarded to Matt Hoffman, who holds a master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The Freddie Mac Enterprise Fellowship was given to Phillip Bush, who holds a master’s in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

People

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has named Anika Goss-Foster to serve as its vice president of Sustainable Communities. Goss-Foster, most recently head of the Next Detroit Neighborhood Initiative (NDNI) and former director of philanthropic affairs for the city of Detroit, will serve as a resource to LISC field offices as they implement the organization’s Building Sustainable Communities program, a comprehensive approach to transforming distressed communities into good places to live, work, do business, and raise families. Prior to her work with NDNI, Goss-Foster served as senior program director at the Detroit LISC program. She was also previously director the Neighborhood Partnership Academy (NPA) in Detroit, which provides technical assistance and training resources to community groups in the Detroit Empowerment Zone.

Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray was selected by NeighborWorks¨ America as the national recipient of the State Government Service Award for achievement in establishing community-strengthening programs and sustaining homeownership. The award recognizes Cordray’s efforts throughout Ohio to create Save Our Homes taskforces, which are local coalitions of public, nonprofit, and private-sector leaders that work to stem the tide of home foreclosures in their communities. NeighborWorks also acknowledged Cordray’s development of “Rebuild Your Credit” workshops, which offer guidance to Ohioans on how to improve their credit scores, in working with other state and local leaders to create a new foreclosure mediation program in Ohio’s court system, which is the first of its kind in the nation. Recipients of the NeighborWorks awards are recognized for making significant contributions to improve the lives of people in their communities through their support for affordable housing and community development. The other 2008 honorees include U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, who received the Federal Government Service Award; Raleigh, NC Mayor Charles Meeker, who received the Local Government Service Award; and U.S. Rep. James Walsh, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., the Housing Partnership Network, Local Initiatives Support Corporation and NeighborWorks¨ America—the sponsor organizations working to form the National Community Stabilization Trust—announced in August that Craig Nickerson has been hired as the lead consultant and project director to complete the final business planning and formation of the Trust. Nickerson will provide direct services and also coordinate the activities of the current consultants and staff of the sponsors engaged in this important effort. With support from the Ford and MacArthur Foundations, the sponsors have worked to create a national vehicle that will assist local communities to acquire distressed Real Estate Owned (REO) properties from national servicers and investors and to finance and rehabilitate them in a way that promotes community stabilization and affordable housing. The sponsors expect to form the trust in the early fall and begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2008. Nickerson worked most recently at Freddie Mac. Prior to that, he served as executive director of the National Homeownership Strategy for the Clinton administration.

In August, Leslie Wise was named the new director of Planning & Public Policy at Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). Wise previously served for two years as Homelessness Policy Coordinator under Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, advising him on local, state, and federal policy issues concerning homelessness. Wise will manage LAHSA’s Policy & Planning Department, and will serve as a key member of the agency’s management team.