Staff

Daniel T. Kildee

President
dkildee@communityprogress.net
877-542-4842 x181

Daniel T. Kildee is Co-Founder and President of the Center for Community Progress. Prior to founding the Center, Kildee served as Genesee County Treasurer from 1997-2009. Before his election as Treasurer, Dan served for 12 years as a Genesee County Commissioner, including five years as Chairman of the Board of Commissioners.

Dan also has served as President of the Genesee Institute, a research and training institute focusing on Smart Growth, urban land reform, and land banking. Dan was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Vacant Properties Campaign; the Center for Community Progress is the successor to the Genesee Institute and the National Vacant Properties Campaign. Dan initiated the use of Michigan’s new tax foreclosure law as a tool for community development and neighborhood stabilization. He founded the Genesee Land Bank – Michigan’s first land bank, and a model for others around the nation – and serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 2007, Dan’s Land Bank program was named winner of the Harvard University/Fannie Mae Foundation Innovations in American Government Award for Affordable Housing. In 2009, Dan was named one of the “GOOD 100″ by the Los Angeles-based GOOD Magazine, recognizing him as one of the “the most important, exciting, and innovative people, ideas, and projects making our world better.”

Dan grew up in Flint, and was educated at the University of Michigan-Flint, Central Michigan University; he was a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard University in 2005. Dan and Jennifer Kildee have been married for 22 years and have three children: Ryan, Kenneth, and Katy.

Amy Hovey

Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Capacity Building
ahovey@communityprogress.net
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Amy Hovey is the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Capacity Building for the Center for Community Progress. Prior to helping launch the organization, Amy founded The Protogenia Group LLC in 2002, after working with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for six years. At the consulting firm, Amy provided technical assistance in several areas including organizational development, leadership development, board governance, administrative management, and program and real estate development. She also provided support to Genesee County in the creation of the Genesee County Land Bank Authority. In addition to technical assistance, Amy has extensive training and meeting facilitation experience including an annual fifteen-day training program on comprehensive real estate development.

Prior to Protogenia, Amy was a Program Director with the Michigan State office of the Local Initiative Support Corporation. During her time with LISC, Amy worked with local community development corporations, government agencies, and for profit business, promoting collaboration among community organizations, to revitalize urban neighborhoods. Amy worked closely with several non-profits engaged in commercial corridor revitalization utilizing the Main Street approach. She completed analysis of organizations requesting loans, grants and training. Amy created and facilitated several group trainings to build capacity of non-profit staff and boards. In addition, she provided technical assistance to non-profits on a variety of topics.

Amy joined LISC after four years in private business, working in management, finance and community relations with First of America Bank.

Frank S. Alexander

General Counsel and Director of Policy & Research
frank.alexander@emory.edu
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Frank S. Alexander is Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law, where he serves as Director of the Project on Affordable Housing and Community Development. He also serves as General Counsel and Director of Policy and Research for the Center for Community Progress. He is the author or editor of eight books and over forty articles in real estate finance, law and theology, and community redevelopment, including GEORGIA REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND FORECLOSURE LAW 2009-2010 (5th ed., 2009) and LAND BANK AUTHORITIES (2005).

Professor Alexander’s work has focused on homelessness and affordable housing, serving as a Fellow of the Carter Center of Emory University (1993-96), and as a Commissioner of the State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless (1994-1998). He has served as Interim Dean of Emory University School of Law (2005-2006), as Visiting Fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University (Fall Semester, 2007), and has testified before Congress concerning the mortgage foreclosure crisis (May, 2008, November, 2009). Professor Alexander received both a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 1978, and holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina.

Jennifer R. Leonard

Vice President and Director of Advocacy & Outreach
jleonard@communityprogress.net
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Jennifer R. Leonard is the Vice President and Director of Advocacy & Outreach for the Center for Community Progress. Prior to helping launch the organization, Jennifer was the Director of the National Vacant Properties Campaign at Smart Growth America, where she helped reframe the way the way the public viewed the revitalization potential of vacant and abandoned properties. Jennifer spearheaded the Campaign’s activities including expanding a national network of practitioners and experts, developing and participating in the capacity building and technical assistance efforts, disseminating model practices and strategies for reclamation, and advocating for federal policies to support vacant property reclamation. Jennifer has worked in numerous communities around the country.

Prior to joining the Campaign, Jennifer spent four years as the project manager for a community development corporation in Baltimore, where she became an expert at building private and public partnerships for using the property reclamation tools and revitalizing her East Baltimore neighborhood. She also managed the corporation’s grant and loan efforts, raising several million dollars for the CDC’s programs. With her leadership the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation designated a new historic district within this neighborhood; after decades of disinvestment, the private market is starting to return. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arizona and a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nicole Heyman, JD, LLM

New Orleans Vacant Properties Initiative Director
nheyman@communityprogress.net
504-236-8333

Nicole has worked for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation as the Director of the New Orleans Vacant Property Initiative (NOVPI) since January 2009. The NOVPI launched in 2008 as a partnership between LISC and the National Vacant Properties Campaign. She has resided in New Orleans for 15 years and most recently was an Adjunct Professor at the Tulane University School of Architecture, following six years of legal practice with local firms in environmental litigation. In 2008 she obtained her Master of Laws degree in environmental and energy law at Tulane University School of Law, where she studied legal issues related to vacant property reclamation in New Orleans. Nicole has also provided advice and pro-bono support to some of the Initiative’s key partners at the City over the past year. In addition to an LLM degree, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University and a Law degree from Loyola University School of Law where she was a member of the Loyola Law Review.

Michael Freeman

Program Director—Capacity Building
mfreeman@communityprogress.net
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Michael Freeman is Program Director of Capacity Building at the Center for Community Progress. Michael, a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, began his career as a community organizer with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation/AmeriCorps program in 1994, where he worked to facilitate dialogue/consensus among community stakeholders, neighborhood planning, and community advocacy in Flint, Michigan. He later consulted directly with LISC in Michigan, administering HUD-supported technical assistance and training programs for community housing development organizations across the state.

In 2000, Michael became the Coordinator for Training and Technical Assistance at the Michigan Community Service Commission where he provided assistance to Michigan’s national service programs. Technical assistance included strategic planning, financial/grant management, facilitative leadership, fund development, program reporting, media planning, logic model, and other organizational development training. He went on to become the Program Officer for Michigan’s AmeriCorps program, responsible for a portfolio of 26 programs, 1,000 AmeriCorps members and $7 million of federal funds each year.

In 2004, Michael returned to LISC as Senior Program Officer of the Flint Office of Michigan Statewide, where he provided technical assistance on real estate development projects/programs, economic initiatives, and capacity building activities for governmental entities, nonprofit, and community-based organizations. He was responsible for the investment of over $19 million in LISC investments in the City of Flint, which has leveraged over $65 million in private, tax credit and other funding for real estate development.

Courtney Knox

Program Officer- Capacity Building
cknox@communityprogress.net
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Courtney Knox is Program Officer of Capacity Building at the Center for Community Progress. Courtney, a graduate of Michigan State University, has worked in the land banking and tax foreclosure industry for the past 5 years. She began her career as a financial consultant for the Genesee County Land Bank in 2005, providing financial support to the organization’s Chief Financial Officer. In 2007, she became part of the Genesee County Land Bank Staff. In addition to the financial aspect of the Genesee County Land Bank, her work involved the day-to-day operations of land bank functions. She also participated in the acquisition and disposition of property, initial property inspections, tracking of over 6,000 tax foreclosed properties, rental management, deed and land contract preparation, quiet title, and eviction and forfeiture processes. Through her capacity building work, Ms. Knox provides expertise to local governments throughout the State of Michigan who are involved in the early stages of land bank formation. Her involvement includes focus group discussions, mission statement creation, and policy and procedure development.

Ryan Justin Fox

Communications and Outreach Associate
rfox@communityprogress.net
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Ryan Fox serves as the Communications and Outreach Associate. Ryan studied print journalism at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and has worked for The (Annapolis) Capital, Dayton (OH) Daily News, and for news organizations in Washington, D.C. and Daytona Beach, Fla. Throughout his journalistic career, Ryan has reported on issues of homelessness, government and politics, crime, and social justice. His reports on gangs in Dayton and a string of home invasions led to increased enforcement by local police.

While working in Dayton, much of his reporting focused on development and community revitalization projects, such as his stories on the redevelopment of the former Salem Mall and Kon Tiki theater properties in the inner-tier suburb of Trotwood. He has also interned for the Enterprise Foundation in Columbia, Md., Stateline.org, and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.

Ryan is an active member of his church in Silver Spring, Md. and volunteers for several organizations in Annapolis, Md.

Leslie Powell

Law and Policy Fellow
lpowell@communityprogress.net
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Leslie joined the Center for Community Progress in March 2010. She is Community Progress’s first Law and Policy Fellow. She received her J.D. from Emory University School of Law. While at Emory, Leslie served as the Executive Articles Editor for the Emory International Law Review. The Emory International Law Review published her student comment titled, “User Fee or Tax: Does Diplomatic Immunity From Taxation Extend to New York City’s Proposed Congestion Charge?”

Leslie worked in the Credentials Department of the Democratic National Convention Committee in the 2004 and 2008 Conventions. Prior to law school she was the Deputy Press Secretary and the Central Florida Finance Director for a gubernatorial campaign in Florida. She graduated from the University of Florida, cum laude, with a B.S. in Psychology.

Amanda Vankuren

Business Manager
avankuren@communityprogress.net
877-542-4842 x22

Matteo Passalacqua

AmeriCorp Intern
mpassalacqua@communityprogress.net
877-542-4842

Matteo R. Passalacqua is an AmeriCorps member currently serving a one-year internship with the Center for Community Progress office in Flint, MI. Born in Detroit, Mich., Matteo grew up with a natural fascination with urban environments and what lead to their creation, facilitation and eventual disinvestment. In 2001, Matteo started his undergraduate degree in Psychological Neuroscience at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich. Upon completing his degree from GVSU, Matteo sought to continue his educational career and was accepted to the Wayne State University Department of Urban Studies and Planning Masters Program in 2007.

Upon graduating from WSU, Matteo moved to Flint to work with the Center for Community Progress where his current role is to aid in the program development and capacity building departments. Projects to be completed within his year commitment include: constructing a state (and if possible, national) Land Bank Database to increase communication between the Center and Land Banks, research and compile information on specific land bank geographies, demographics, case studies, budgets and best practices, and to construct a evaluation tool that will allow the Center to standardize its critique of Land Bank procedures.

John Kromer

Senior Fellow
jkromer@communityprogress.net
877-542-4842

John Kromer is a development consultant who specializes in strategic planning and policy development for disinvested metropolitan-area communities. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Community Progress and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, where he teaches a course on “The Politics of Housing and Urban Development.”

As the City of Philadelphia’s Director of Housing from 1992 to 2001, Kromer organized and implemented a program for the rebuilding of Lower North Philadelphia, where major development activity had not occurred since the 1960s. He also supervised the creation of a citywide network of nonprofit housing counseling agencies and financed innovative homeless and special-needs housing ventures.

As a consultant, Kromer has participated in the design and implementation of revitalization plans for the cities of Allentown, Reading, and York, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey. In 2007, at the request of then-Governor Jon Corzine’s administration, he supervised the Camden Redevelopment Agency for a year as part of a state-mandated municipal reform program for the City of Camden. During Kromer’s tenure in Camden, municipal government agencies made significant progress in advancing new neighborhood redevelopment plans, based on a commitment to avoid or minimize displacement and to link real estate development plans with human capital development initiatives.

These and other experiences are described and evaluated in Kromer’s most recent book, Fixing Broken Cities: The Implementation of Urban Development Strategies.

Through his current association with the Center for Community Progress, Kromer is assisting in the design and implementation of new federal assistance programs for communities that the Center and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have identified as priorities.

Paul C. Brophy

Senior Advisor
pbrophy@communityprogress.net

Paul C. Brophy is a principal with Brophy & Reilly LLC, a consulting firm specializing in economic development, community development, and the management of complex urban redevelopment projects. One of Mr. Brophy’s specialties is the improvement of older industrial cities and neighborhoods within them. His recent work includes the use of anchor institutions as economic engines in older industrial cities Mr. Brophy is also a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Community Progress.

Mr. Brophy holds degrees from LaSalle University and the University of Pennsylvania, where he was trained as a city planner.

Alan Mallach

Senior Fellow
amallach@communityprogress.net

Alan Mallach is a senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress, a non-resident senior fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program of The Brookings Institution in Washington DC and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He has been engaged in housing, planning, and community and economic development as a public and private sector practitioner, advocate and scholar for over forty years. He has taught at Rutgers University, Pratt Institute, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and elsewhere, and is serving as a Brookings Scholar at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for the 2010-2011 academic year. His most recent book is A Decent Home: Planning, Building and Preserving Affordable Housing (2009) published by Planners Press, while a revised and expanded edition of his 2006 book Bringing Buildings Back: From Vacant Properties to Community Assets (2006), will appear in the fall of 2010.

He is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and received his B.A. degree from Yale University.

Joseph Schilling

Senior Advisor
jms33@vt.edu

Professor Schilling leads the Metropolitan Institute’s Sustainable Communities Initiative that investigates innovative ways of creating eco-sustainable neighborhoods and regions through better design, planning, and collaboration (www.mi.vt.edu). As a founding member of the National Vacant Properties Campaign, Schilling led the Campaign’s assessment studies in Cleveland (2004), Dayton (2004), Buffalo (2006), Toledo (2008) and Youngstown/Mahoning County (2009).

Schilling research and technical assistance field work has led to several articles about how sustainability can facilitate the regeneration of older industrial communities. In Greening the Rust Belt for the 2008 Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) Schilling and Logan set forth a new planning model for reconfiguring cities confronting the challenges of urban decay and disinvestment. Schilling’s chapter on the Living Laboratory of Revitalization in Cleveland’s Urban Design Collaborative Cities Growing Smaller provided a holistic framework for federal and state urban policy that served as the foundation for the Community Regeneration Sustainability and Innovations Act of 2009.

In August 2010 Schilling received a two year grant from the Ford Foundation to develop a trans-disciplinary research and policy agenda on vacant property reclamation and urban regeneration to support the policy and technical assistance work of practitioners, policymakers and organizations such as the new Center for Community Progress. Part of this grant will involve convening research policy roundtables, establishing a virtual network for policymakers and research, and writing a Planners Advisory Service report on cities in transition in collaboration with APA.