President Biden’s administration is taking shape, including filling out the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Rep. Marcia Fudge had a nomination hearing for HUD Secretary and they announced other leadership at HUD.

Representative Marcia Fudge Nominated for HUD Secretary: At her nomination hearing, Rep. Fudge laid out her housing priorities such as addressing the immediate impacts of COVID-19, increasing resources for federal housing assistance, building 1.5 million new affordable homes and confronting discriminatory housing practices. 

New HUD Leadership Appointees Announced: HUD Chief of Staff Jenn Jones recently announced the new leadership appointees. The leadership team has a wide range of experience in the public and private sectors. See below for a list of the new staff with short bios where available.

Office of the Secretary

Chief of Staff: Jenn Jones. Jones served the National Community Reinvestment Coalition as Chief of Policy and Membership for four years. Prior to this, Jones served as a Senior Policy Advisor to HUD Secretary Julian Castro in the Obama administration where she focused on affirmatively-furthering fair housing, neighborhood and community revitalization, rental assistance transformation, criminal justice reform and socio-economic mobility.

White House Liaison: Analysse Escobar. Escobar served as the Colorado Political Director for Biden’s presidential campaign and prior to that served as the Deputy Community Engagement Director for Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

Senior Advisor: Rental Assistance: Peggy Bailey. Bailey was previously the Vice President for housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities where she worked to expand access to affordable housing for low income individuals. Prior to this, she served as the Director of Health Systems Integration for the Corporation for Supportive Housing.

Senior Advisor: Budget, Policy and Programs: Joe Carlile. Carlile previously worked for Chairman David Price (D-NC) on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD).

Senior Advisor – Housing Finance: Alanna McCargo. McCargo previously served as the Vice President for Housing Finance Policy at the Urban Institute. Prior to this, she was head of CoreLogic Government Solutions, a firm that delivered data and technology solutions to support housing and consumer research.

Senior Advisor – Housing and Services: Richard Cho. Dr. Cho most recently served as the CEO for the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. He has also served as the Deputy Director at the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and held several positions at the Corporation for Supportive Housing.

Executive Assistant to the Secretary: Imani Edwards

Office of General Counsel (OGC)

Principal Deputy General Counsel: Damon Smith. Smith previously served as Director of Advocacy and Counsel for the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). Damon also served as the Acting General Counsel for HUD in the Obama administration. 

Deputy General Counsel for Enforcement: Sasha Samberg-Champion. Samberg-Champion is a civil rights lawyer who previously practiced at Relman, Dane and Colfax and served as a senior attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. He previously sued HUD on behalf of the National Fair Housing Alliance and housing groups in Texas for failing to enforce the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing mandate.

Senior Counsel: Elly Kugler

Office of Public Affairs (OPA)

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs: Michael Burns. Burns held several roles in the House of Representatives, most recently serving at the Deputy Communications Director for the House Appropriations Committee.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Engagement: Anne Brewer

Press Secretary: Meaghan Lynch. Lynch previously served as Deputy Communications Director for then Senator Kamala Harris.

Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations (CIR)

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations: Sarah Brundage. Brundage previously served as Senior Director of Public Policy for Enterprise Community Partners

Congressional Relations Specialist: Sahian Valladares

Office of Administration (OA)

Director of Advance: Ronald Carson

Office of Policy, Development and Research (PD&R)

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development: Ben Winter. Winter previously served as Senior Program Officer at California Community Foundation. Prior to that he was Chief Housing Officer for the Mayor of Los Angeles and was a policy analyst at HUD under the Obama administration.

Special Advisor to Assistant Secretary: Aaron Shroyer. Shroyer served as Policy Associate at the Urban Institute.

Federal Housing Administration/Office of Housing (FHA/Housing)

Special Assistant: Will Innes. Innes was most recently a Strategic Initiatives Fellow at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods (CNYCN).

Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH)

Special Assistant: Stephen Lucas. Lucas previously served as Health Research and Policy Manager at Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA).

Office of Community, Planning and Development (CPD)

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary: Arthur Jemison. Jemison previously served as Detroit’s top planning executive.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs: Kevin Bush. Bush most recently served as Washington DC’s Chief Resiliency Officer. He also held several roles at HUD under the Obama administration focusing on resiliency and climate change initiatives.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development: Robin Keegan. Keegan most recently founded and led consulting firm Spring Industries. She also served as Executive Director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO)

Special Policy Advisor: Chang Chiu. Chiu previously served as Senior Policy Advisor to a judge in Harris County, Texas and co-founded Chinese American Progressive Action.