People

Darren Walker has been promoted to vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation in 2002 as director of its Working Communities program, he served as chief operating officer of the Abyssinian Development Corporation in Harlem. He began his career working in law and finance and was a full-time volunteer at the Children’s Storefront School in Harlem.

Women in Housing and Finance named Alazne (Ali) Solis as its new president for 2006-2007. Solis is vice president and director of public policy of Enterprise Community Partners. In her more than 10 years of public policy and private sector experience, she has collaborated with policymakers and community development organizations to advance community development priorities at the federal, state and local levels.

Robin Snyderman, housing director for the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) in Chicago, is a 2006 Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow. Fellows are recognized for their commitment to and accomplishments in the field of affordable housing. Under Snyderman’s leadership, MPC’s housing program has launched several nationally recognized efforts, including the Regional Employer-Assisted Collaboration for Housing and the Regional Housing Initiative.

Ted Houghton succeeds Maureen Friar as executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York. During her 13-year tenure, Friar helped build the organization to one representing over 210 providers and partners with over 34,000 units of housing statewide. For the past decade Houghton has worked as a writer and policy adviser to government, foundations and nonprofit organizations. He was the lead consultant to the successful affordable housing campaign, Housing First!

The NonProfit Times recognized Rick Cohen, David Jones and Gary Bass as being among the top 50 most powerful and influential leaders in the nonprofit sector. Cohen, former executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, has a long history in community development, having worked with Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Enterprise Foundation and the Trust for Public Land in New York City. Jones’ work as president and chief executive officer of the Community Service Society of New York has been instrumental in advocating for and serving low-income New Yorkers. Bass is the founder and executive director of OMB Watch, where he has been researching and monitoring federal budget, taxation and government procedures for over 20 years.

Helena R. Cunningham joined The NHP Foundation as senior vice president and managing director of affordable housing programs in the Gulf Coast Region. She will assist in the rehabilitation of 1,000 units and the development of 2,000 new units of multifamily affordable housing in the region at an estimated cost of $200 million. Cunningham is the former president of the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency.

Miriam Axel-Lute, Shelterforce contributor and former managing editor, received an AltWeekly Award, sponsored by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. She took first place for Column Writing with three articles that were published in Metroland, an alternative newsweekly in Albany, NY. The articles will be included in Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2006.

Louis Winnick, an economist who played a major role in guiding the investments of the Ford Foundation in housing, community renewal and minority enterprise for over two decades, died in July. First as head of the urban and metropolitan affairs program and then as deputy vice president in the national affairs division, Winnick helped lead the Ford Foundation’s efforts to channel major resources into urban projects from 1962 to 1986. He was credited with persuading the Ford Foundation to do “program-related investment,” a policy the foundation used to make both equity investments and low-interest loans to schools, hospitals, housing organizations and small businesses in low-income urban areas. Winnick also promoted the idea of homeownership by low-income households and was instrumental in creating the Fund for the City of New York, which designs and puts innovative approaches to urban problems into effect.

Organizations & Initiatives

Chicago Rehab Network and the North Lawndale Employment Network were among the nine winners of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation first annual MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. To qualify, organizations must demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness, have budgets of less than $2.5 million a year, show strong leadership and stable financial management and have previously received MacArthur Foundation support. www.macfound.org

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has joined Living Cities, a national coalition of investment partners, including foundations, financial institutions and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to renew urban neighborhoods.
www.blankfoundation.org/news/newsrelease34.html

The State of Connecticut’s Supportive Housing Pilots Initiative won the Fannie Mae Foundation Innovations in American Government Award in Affordable Housing. The initiative has created housing with services for more than 400 formerly homeless households in 25 communities throughout the state. It will receive a $100,000 grant to foster replication of its model.
www.fanniemaefoundation.org

The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s inaugural Cushing Niles Dolbeare Media Awards will recognize print journalists who do an exemplary job of covering the U.S. affordable housing crisis in articles published between January 1 and December 31, 2006. The submission deadline is January 15, 2007. nlihc.org/CNDMA