People

Clara Miller has been named president of the F. B. Heron Foundation, succeeding interim president Bill McCalpin. Miller comes to Heron after nearly 30 years as president and CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund. Miller is a member of Bank of America’s National Community Advisory Council, the Nonprofit Advisory Council of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and Independent Sector’s Nonprofit Programs and Practice Committee.

Barbara Sard has returned to her post as director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities after serving as senior advisor for rental assistance for HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Sard led the Center’s housing portfolio for 12 years prior to her departure in 2009 to join the Obama administration.

Gordon Walker, director of the Utah Division of Housing and Community Development, has been named president of the Council of State Community Development Agencies, succeeding Rick Ballard, director of the Office of Community Development at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

Mary Tingerthal, president of capital markets companies for the Housing Partnership Network, has been chosen by Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton to lead the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency. Tingerthal joined the Housing Partnership Network in 2007. She has held senior management positions with the National Equity Fund, GMAC Residential Funding, and the Community Reinvestment Fund.

Leila Finucane Edmonds has joined NeighborWorks America as its new director of national initiatives. Finucane Edmonds was previously director of the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development. She succeeds Nelson Merced, who retired from NeighborWorks and now heads up the consulting firm Merced & Associates Community Development Strategies.

The Calvert Foundation has appointed Lisa Hall as its new president and CEO. Hall has held multiple policy and financial posts at the Enterprise Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Travelers Insurance, Fannie Mae, and the Clinton administration. She succeeds former president and CEO Shari Berenbach, who led the Calvert Foundation from 1997 to 2010.

Alazne (Ali) Solis, senior vice president of public policy and corporate affairs for Enterprise Community Partners, has joined the National Advisory Board of the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing.

Raphael Cestero has left his post as commissioner of NYC’s department of Housing Preservation and Development just over two years after succeeding nowÐHUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. In a statement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg credited Cestero for keeping the administration’s New Housing Marketplace Plan on track and for launching the city’s $750 million stabilization effort for multifamily properties. According to a report in City Limits, Cestero will join L+M Development as managing director.

Betsy Crum is the new executive director of the Connecticut Housing Coalition, succeeding outgoing director Jeff Freiser, following his 21-year tenure. Prior to joining CHC, Crum led the Connecticut office of the Women’s Institute for Housing & Economic Development, was associate director of the Corporation for Supportive Housing, and served as executive director of Co-op Initiatives.

Organizations

The MetLife Foundation has awarded $500,000, in grants of up to $50,000 each, to 12 nonprofit community development groups as part of its 2010 Community Development Initiative. The organizations are being recognized for excellence in increasing access and opportunity in diverse lower-income neighborhoods. Recipients include Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation in the Bronx (see A Sense of Place, SF Fall/Winter 2009), Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation in Dorchester, Mass., for its transit-oriented development work (see Getting from Here to There, SF Fall/Winter 2009), and the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn, N.Y. (see What Kind of Community Organizations and for What Purpose? SF Spring 2010). View a complete list of recipients..

Stops For Us (see Organizing for Inclusive TOD, SF Winter 2010), a grass-roots campaign that successfully reincorporated three “missing stations” in low-income neighborhoods into the plans for the Twin Cities’ Central Corridor Light Rail Transit, won a 2010 National Achievements in Environmental Justice Award from the Enivronmental Protection Agency. The award was announced in December at the first-ever White House Environmental Justice Forum. The award program is designed to bring attention to multi-stakeholder partnerships that address significant environmental justice concerns.

A Native Community Development Financial Institutions Network has been formed to address a rapid expansion of Native American CDFIs in Indian Country. The Native CDFI network was created with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The National Center for Healthy Housing has been awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation. With the funding, NCHH will extend its healthy housing advocacy and engagement to the community and neighborhood levels with the creation of the Grassroots Advocacy Network for Healthy Housing.