Peter Kimm, Chairman of the Board, International Housing Coalition
Kimm is the Chairman of the Board of the International Housing Coalition, a non-profit organization sponsored by Habitat for Humanity, the U.S. National Association of Realtors and the Canadian Real Estate Association with the goal of advocating for Housing for All as an essential element to ending poverty worldwide. He is widely recognized expert and a consultant on housing, urban programs and the environment in developing countries.
He is a senior advisor to the consulting firm PADCO and to the USAID Development Credit Program. His clients have included USAID, the United Nations, the World Bank, Habitat for Humanity, the Cities Alliance, JICA and Harvard University. Kimm was Director of Housing and Urban Programs for most of the 36 years he worked for USAID, where he ran the U.S. government's worldwide housing and urban program activities including the US$2.6 billion housing guaranty program. He has practical, hands-on experience throughout the developing world and has written and lectured widely about housing policy and housing finance.
He is a graduate of the Cooper Union in New York City and received his professional engineering license from New York State. He has received numerous awards in recognition of his professional achievements.
George McCarthy, Senior Program Officer in Development Finance and Economic Security, Ford Foundation
Dr. George McCarthy is a Senior Program Officer in Development Finance and Economic Security at the Ford Foundation. Dr. McCarthy administers a program that focuses on using homeownership to build assets for low-income families and their communities. This work centers on improving housing and housing finance markets to increase the chances that existing low-income homeowners succeed in building wealth.
Before joining Ford, Dr. McCarthy worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. McCarthy has worked as Assistant Professor of Economics at Bard College, Resident Scholar at the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Visiting Scholar and Member of the High Table at King's College of Cambridge University, Visiting Scholar at the University of Naples, and Research Associate at the Centre for Social Research in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. McCarthy received a BA in Economics and Mathematics at the University of Montana; an MA in Economics at Duke University; and, a Ph. D. in Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Erika Poethig, Program Officer in the Program on Human & Community Development, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Poethig is a Program Officer in the Program on Human & Community Development. Her primary focus is on regional policy and practice, housing policy and research, and on the special initiative for the preservation of affordable rental housing.
Before coming to the Foundation in 2001, Poethig was most recently Assistant Commissioner for Policy, Resource and Program Development at the City of Chicago's Department of Housing, where she directed the department's city, state and federal policy agendas. Poethig oversaw staff with responsibilities for policy and research, program evaluation and program development. She developed the Mayor's campaign to prevent foreclosures and stabilize communities and city support for a state-issued tax credit for donations to not-for-profit organizations developing affordable housing. Previously, she was Associate Project Director of the Metropolis Project, which resulted in the creation of the Chicago Metropolis 2020 agenda for regional leadership around the major issues faced by the metropolitan Chicago area.
Poethig was a Phi Beta Kappa from the College of Wooster, a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Vienna, and received her master's in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, with concentrated coursework in Urban Poverty and Inequality.
Jeff Schaffer, Assistant Vice President - Grant Programs, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Schaffer is responsible for the Hilton Foundation's major initiatives supporting housing for the mentally ill homeless and potable water projects in Africa and Mexico. Before joining the Foundation in 1999, Mr. Schaffer worked for 10 years developing homeless services and affordable housing in Los Angeles and providing related training nationwide. Mr. Schaffer completed his undergraduate studies in political science and Spanish literature at U.C. Berkeley and holds a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Southern California, where he is a clinical assistant professor at the School of Policy, Planning, & Development. He also was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Micronesia. Mr. Schaffer serves on the Council on Foundations International Committee and on the boards of the Hollywood Schoolhouse and Temple Beth Emet in Burbank, CA.
Steven M. Weir, Habitat for Humanity International Vice President, Asia and the Pacific
Weir serves as a Vice President for Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) in Bangkok Thailand, responsible for supporting affordable housing programs in more than 25 countries throughout Asia and the South Pacific. He began with HFHI as a founding board member for a local HFH Affiliate in California in 1986, joining HFHI staff full time in 1993 as an international representative facilitating program start-up in Sri Lanka.
Weir is a registered architect and prior to his work with HFHI, he spent 16 years in private practice working the majority of that time for a San Francisco based architecture and real estate development firm on projects throughout the Pacific rim. Projects included office, retail, hotel, private and institutional multi-family residential up to US$100 million. His citizen sector experience also includes managing public private venture partnerships and facilitating community based design workshops. Prior to working in San Francisco, he worked with a construction management company and held a research internship, working on solar energy assisted mechanical systems. He holds degrees in architecture and engineering and is married with two children.
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