Affordable Housing Institute: Board of Advisors
Phyllis Caldwell
US: Washington, D.C.
Phyllis Caldwell is the President of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. She has been involved in community development banking for the last 10 years, most recently holding the position of President of Community Development Banking at Bank of America, where she was responsible for executing community development lending and investment strategies, particularly integrated financial solutions for affordable housing, economic development, and urban redevelopment projects throughout the Bank of America 29-state franchise.
Ms. Caldwell joined Bank of America in 1997 as a Community Development lending executive in Washington, D.C for the East and Mid-West regions. She was later appointed Equity executive for Community Development Banking where she was responsible for the placement of equity and tax credit investments in community development, historic preservation and affordable housing throughout the Bank of America franchise. She has been in her current role since 2004.
Before joining the bank, Ms. Caldwell was commercial real estate relationship manager with Citicorp, now Citigroup. She served as a trustee for the National Community Investment Fund, an independent trust that provides equity investments in community development and minority-owned banks
Ms. Caldwell graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park where she majored in sociology and urban planning. She also earned a master’s degree in business with a concentration in finance from the University of Maryland.
Ms. Caldwell serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) dedicated to creating pathways of opportunity for low income people and communities and serves on the Board of Directors for National Equity Fund, Inc. (NEF, Inc.), a tax credit syndicator and investor in affordable housing throughout the United States.
Peter Kimm
US: Washington, D.C .
Peter Kimm is the Chairman of the Board of the International Housing Coalition. He is a widely recognized advisor on housing and urban programs in developing countries. His clients have included USAID, the United Nations, the World Bank, Habitat for Humanity, the Cities Alliance, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and Harvard University.
Mr. 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. He has practical, hands-on experience throughout the developing world and has written and lectured widely about housing policy and housing finance.
Mr. Kimm is a graduate of the Cooper Union in New York City and received his professional engineering license from New York State. His contribution to housing, housing finance and in particular in assisting the poor achieve decent shelter has been acknowledged by multiple awards, including the United Nations Habitat Scroll of Honor in 1966, the Distinguished Alumni Citation from his alma mater (1998), the USAID award for Distinguished Career Service (2002) and similar recognition from both U.S. organizations and other nations.
Nicolas Retsinas
USA: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nicolas P. Retsinas was appointed Director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in 1998. The Joint Center is a collaborative venture of the Graduate School of Design and the Kennedy School of Government. The Center conducts research to examine and address the most critical housing and community development issues in America. Mr. Retsinas is a Lecturer in Housing Studies at the Graduate School of Design and the Kennedy School of Government, and is also a Lecturer in Real Estate at the Harvard Business School.
Prior to his Harvard appointment, Retsinas served as Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and as Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision. Mr. Retsinas also served on the Board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Board and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. Retsinas received a Meritorious Service Award from the US Treasury Department in 1997. He also received the Excellence in Public Service Award from the Rental Housing Association in 1998 and the Housing Leadership Award from the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 2001. Retsinas is in the National Housing Hall of Fame and was named one of the most influential people in real estate by the National Association of Realtors, in home building by Builder Magazine, and in multifamily housing by Multi-Housing News.
Mr. Retsinas also served the State of Rhode Island as the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation from 1987 to 1993. He received his master’s degree in city planning from Harvard University and his AB in economics from New York University.
Mr. Retsinas currently chairs Habitat for Humanity International and serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Housing Endowment and Enterprise Community Partners, and is on the Board of Directors of ShoreBank, Community Development Trust, Inc., and the National Housing Conference.
Mr. Retsinas has lectured and written extensively on housing, community development and banking issues. He has co-edited Low-Income Homeownership: Examining the Unexamined Goal (2002) and Building Assets, Building Credit: Creating Wealth in Low-Income Communities (2005). He has also co-authored Opportunity and Progress: A Bipartisan Platform for National Housing Policy (2004). He is a Fellow at the National Academy for Public Administration and the Urban Land Institute.