- Owner — Foster Solutions (2000-present), Consulting services specializing in web programming, GIS/market research, automated software systems and city planning.
- Director of Housing and Community Development for Hudson River Housing, Inc (Mar 2007 to Jul 2007) — Managed an eleven person team in time of transition. Director of Housing Development, Homeownership, Asset Management and Community Development divisions.
- Oversaw 7 ongoing development projects to help manage through all phases from predevelopment, acquisition, permitting, grant writing, and construction.
- Closed on Historic Tax Credit project, increasing credit investment by 10% from original budget
- Created project management system to track development projects.
- Senior Homeownership Specialist for Neighborworks America (2004-2006) — Project manager and research specialist in major national initiative for homeownership for low- and moderate-income families. Also managed all data, reporting and mapping systems for the Division.
- Focused on building four initiatives:
- Housing Rehab
- Developed $4.1 million budget for storm resistant housing rehab project with partner State Farm.
- Designed and wrote budget for rehab as a new initiative, including $500,000 grant round.
- Assembled a cross-functional team to oversee business re-engineering.
- Manufactured Housing
- Wrote budget for manufactured housing as a new initiative, including an innovations grant round.
- Member of Investment Committee of CFED administering $1.2mm/year in grant funds.
- Managed $250K grant cycle for innovations in manufactured housing.
- Shared Equity Homeownership/3rd Sector Housing
- Conducted research and co-wrote paper on the impact of housing affordability to low- and moderate-income families and how it relates to homeownership programs.
- Developed strategy to expand homeownership to include land trusts and limited equity cooperatives.
- Green Building
- Coordinated green building work. Lobbied for national symposium on green building.
- Presenter at Housing Assistance Council (HAC) national conference on green building.
- Housing Rehab
- Managed data and GIS system within Division.
- Built database system to track organizational production, and automated reports to monitor impacts of homeownership production.
- Developed GIS database for 250 organization service areas and interactive web site.
- Developed geo-database to track impact of community building and rehab pilot in target neighborhoods in eight different markets for Safeco Insurance partner.
- Part of organizational assessment team to assess 30 network organizations for annual grant cycle
- Designed and taught GIS class at NeighborWorks National Training Institute.
- Revamped and managed quarterly newsletter on homeownership (18,000 customers).
- Focused on building four initiatives:
- Planning Systems Manager for the City of Ithaca (1990-2000) — Project manager for Planning & Development department and founder/manager of City’s Geographic Information System (GIS).
- Designed, developed and managed the City’s GIS.
- Originated concept and built a five organization partnership to create a highly accurate (1-2 inches) base map for the entire county. Final product was 10 times more accurate and one quarter of cost than City’s original proposal to do it alone, a $90,000 savings.
- Proposed and successfully procured funding for the City’s share of the $600,000 project. This included low altitude color aerials, building a ground control system and map rectification.
- Worked with many departments to build GIS data layers such as buildings, utilities and street trees.
- Developed the first municipal interactive mapping web site with access to property information.
- Managed many large projects developing or preserving land.
- Lead staff for ten year project to remove state and federally protected park status from downtown park. Managed $550,000 capital project to appraise, survey, conduct environmental audits and acquire 15 properties as substitute park, including a five year negotiation to buy Ithaca Falls from Cornell University.
- Managed $250,000 capital project to acquire property in watershed corridor for land protection. Lead staff on planning and mapping corridor and defining target properties.
- Lead staff to lease industrial park. Created business plan, pro forma, marketing materials, etc.
- Designed and created many technical products
- Initiated City web page project. Originated concept, designed process, sold idea, provided funding, and participated as part of the core team. Designed and created department site.
- Designed and developed department’s project management software.
- Developed automated access and retrieval system for Planning, Engineering & Building departments’ paper maps. Originated concept, designed database and categorized over 1,000 maps.
- Developed automated online application for site plan review and environmental review (long and short)
- Managed consulting project to develop Building Department custom project management software application.
- Designed, developed and managed the City’s GIS.
Service
- Nyack Park Conservancy — Worked with the Nyack Conservancy Board to develop the Park Plan.
- Member of Mayor’s Task force on the Superblock redevelopment
- Member of the Chamber of Commerce Parking Garage Task Force
- Chair of the Administrative Board of St. Paul’s Methodist Church of Ithaca
- Board President of Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County
- Habitat for Humanity worker
Education/Affiliations
- American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and American Planning Association member
- Member, Chamber of Commerce of the Nyacks
- NeighborWorks Courses: Non-Profit Mortgage Brokers; Building Healthy Homes; Housing Rehab Management;
- Master of Regional Planning, Cornell University (1991)
- BA: Political Science, Amherst College (1986)