2007 - Jeannette Walls, MSNBC
Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, and spent her childhood in Arizona, California and Nevada. When she was 10 her family moved to a coal mining town in West Virginia where they lived in an unheated shack. At the age of 17, with less than $100 in her pocket, she moved with her sister to New York City, where they lived in an apartment in the South Bronx. After completing high school, she attended Barnard College and became a successful journalist, working at New York magazine, USA Today, Esquire, and most recently, MSNBC.
Her memoir, The Glass Castle, has won numerous awards, been translated into sixteen languages, has spent more than a year on the New York Times best-seller list, and has been optioned as a movie. Of it, one reviewer wrote: "Charles Dickens' scenes of poverty and hardship are no more audacious and no more provocative than those in the pages of this stunning memoir".
2006 - Donna Brazile, Brazile and Associates, LLC
Donna Brazile is Chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute (VRI) and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The VRI was established in 2001 to help protect and promote the rights of all Americans to participate in the political process. Donna Brazile is the author of Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, a memoir about her life in the political arena.
Brazile, a veteran Democratic political strategist, is the former Campaign Manager for Gore-Lieberman 2000 - the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign. Prior to joining the Gore campaign, Brazile was Chief of Staff and Press Secretary to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia where she helped guide the District's budget and local legislation on Capitol Hill.
Brazile is a weekly contributor and political commentator for CNN, a political consultant for ABC News, and a contributor to NPR's news and Notes with Ed Gordon. In addition, she is a columnist for Roll Call Newspaper and Ms. Magazine.
In addition to working on political campaigns, Brazile has served as a senior lecturer and adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and a fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics. In 2005, Brazile served as the Senator Wynona Lipman Chair at Rutgers University Center for American Women in Politics.
Brazile is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Washingtonian Magazine's 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, D.C., Essence Magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in America and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Award for Political Achievement.
Brazile, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1981 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Louisiana State University in May 2005. She is currently the Founder and Managing Director of Brazile and Associates LLC a political consulting and grassroots advocacy firm based in the District of Columbia.
2006 - Annette Simmons, M. Ed., President, Group Process Consulting
Annette Simmons is a behavioral science consultant and author of three books: The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling (Basic Books, 2002), A Safe Place for Dangerous Truth: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear & Distrust (AMACOM, May/1999) and Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work (AMACOM, 1997).
She is President of Group Process Consulting (Greensboro, NC) and combines public speaking, writing, consulting and constant research and development to serve organizations seeking to increase workgroup cooperation for bottom-line results. Annette delivers keynote speeches, short interventions and training experiences that cause participants to rethink faulty assumptions that perpetuate faulty workplace behaviors. Clients include federal clients like NASA, IRS, NSA, large clients like IBM and Analog Devices as well as small privately held clients.
Annette has been featured on CNBC's Power Lunch, radio programs including NPR, and quoted in Fortune, Working Woman, The Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. "Best Practice: Ideas and Insights from the Worlds Foremost Business Thinkers" published in 2003 includes a chapter by Annette.
2005 - Christopher P. Gardner, President & CEO, Gardner Rich & Company
Being a working single father and caring for an infant is tough enough; doing it while homeless and sleeping in a shelter and, on occasion, a subway station bathroom, makes it that much tougher. Through it all, Chris Gardner never gave up on his dreams.
It all started when Gardner met a man in a parking lot driving a red Ferrari. "He was looking for a parking space. And I said, 'You can have mine. But I gotta ask you two questions.' The two questions were: What do you do? And how do you do that? Turns out this guy was a stockbroker and he was making $80,000 a month."
Gardner started knocking on doors and applying for training programs at brokerage firms. Just after being accepted into a program, his plans collapsed as quickly as they had materialized. The man who offered him the training slot was fired, Gardner was hauled off to jail for unpaid parking tickets, his wife left him with their infant son to take care of and he suddenly found himself without a place to live.
Despite his lack of resources, Mr. Gardner found ways to make ends meet while finishing the training program and passing the licensing exam. After making a name for himself in the industry, he established his own successful Chicago-based firm, Gardner Rich & Company in 1987. Under Mr. Gardner's directions, GRC has adopted a "give back to the community" program. The Company donates 10% or more of the Company's earnings toward school and educational projects in the community it serves.
Mr. Gardner's tale of survival and success has earned him national acclaim. In January 2003, he was featured on the ABC news program "20/20." That segment caught the attention of several prominent Hollywood studios and producers who have compared Mr. Gardner's story to the critically acclaimed film "Antwone Fisher." Currently, Columbia Pictures has acquired the rights to bring Mr. Gardner's amazing story to the big screen. Mega-star Will Smith will co-produce the film titled "Pursuit of Happiness" and star in the movie as Chris Gardner. Production is expected to begin soon.
Christopher P. Gardner Bio (pdf:35kb)
2005 - Henry Cisneros, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, American CityVista and Former Secretary of the U.S., Department of Housing and Urban Development
As the founder and chairman of American CityVista, Henry Cisneros brings executive and urban planning experience to the community-building joint venture he formed with KB HOME in August 2000. Mr. Cisneros is also the chairman of CityView, a California-based company dedicated to creating for-sale workforce housing in urban areas in the Pacific Region.
The focus of these companies is to build significant numbers of homes - villages within the city - in the central neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas. The need for new homes within cities, the redevelopment priorities of local governments, and the homeownership dreams of urban families - all make the concept of building reasonably priced communities in central city areas an attainable business goal.
Mr. Cisneros is also the founder and Chairman of American Sunrise, a non-profit venture focused on homeownership and after-school programs in high-poverty areas of San Antonio.
Previously, Mr. Cisneros was President and Chief Operating Officer of Univision Communications in Los Angeles, the Spanish-language broadcaster which has become the fifth-most-watched television network in the nation.
From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Cisneros served as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As a member of President Clinton's Cabinet, Secretary Cisneros was assigned America's housing and community development portfolio. He is credited with initiating a major revitalization of many of the nation's public housing developments and with formulating policies which have contributed to today's record homeownership rate. Prior to joining the Cabinet, he was Chairman of Cisneros Asset Management Company, a fixed-income money management firm operating nationally.
In 1981, Cisneros became the first Hispanic American Mayor of a major U.S. city - San Antonio. During his four terms in office, Cisneros helped rebuild the City's economic base and created jobs through massive infrastructure and downtown improvements, earning for San Antonio a reputation as one of the most progressive cities in the nation in that era.
In 1984, he was interviewed by the Democratic Presidential Nominee as a potential candidate for Vice President, and in 1986 was selected the Outstanding Mayor in the nation by City and State Magazine.
Mr. Cisneros has served as President of the National League of Cities, Chairman of the National Civic League, Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as a board member of the Rockefeller Foundation, and as Chairman of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Cisneros presently serves as a board member of Countrywide Mortgage, The Enterprise Foundation, and the New America Alliance.
Henry Cisneros presentation (pdf:2.8mb)
Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, and spent her childhood in Arizona, California and Nevada. When she was 10 her family moved to a coal mining town in West Virginia where they lived in an unheated shack. At the age of 17, with less than $100 in her pocket, she moved with her sister to New York City, where they lived in an apartment in the South Bronx. After completing high school, she attended Barnard College and became a successful journalist, working at New York magazine, USA Today, Esquire, and most recently, MSNBC.Her memoir, The Glass Castle, has won numerous awards, been translated into sixteen languages, has spent more than a year on the New York Times best-seller list, and has been optioned as a movie. Of it, one reviewer wrote: "Charles Dickens' scenes of poverty and hardship are no more audacious and no more provocative than those in the pages of this stunning memoir".
2006 - Donna Brazile, Brazile and Associates, LLC
Donna Brazile is Chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute (VRI) and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The VRI was established in 2001 to help protect and promote the rights of all Americans to participate in the political process. Donna Brazile is the author of Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, a memoir about her life in the political arena.Brazile, a veteran Democratic political strategist, is the former Campaign Manager for Gore-Lieberman 2000 - the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign. Prior to joining the Gore campaign, Brazile was Chief of Staff and Press Secretary to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia where she helped guide the District's budget and local legislation on Capitol Hill.
Brazile is a weekly contributor and political commentator for CNN, a political consultant for ABC News, and a contributor to NPR's news and Notes with Ed Gordon. In addition, she is a columnist for Roll Call Newspaper and Ms. Magazine.
In addition to working on political campaigns, Brazile has served as a senior lecturer and adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and a fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics. In 2005, Brazile served as the Senator Wynona Lipman Chair at Rutgers University Center for American Women in Politics.
Brazile is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Washingtonian Magazine's 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, D.C., Essence Magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in America and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Award for Political Achievement.
Brazile, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1981 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Louisiana State University in May 2005. She is currently the Founder and Managing Director of Brazile and Associates LLC a political consulting and grassroots advocacy firm based in the District of Columbia.
2006 - Annette Simmons, M. Ed., President, Group Process Consulting
Annette Simmons is a behavioral science consultant and author of three books: The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling (Basic Books, 2002), A Safe Place for Dangerous Truth: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear & Distrust (AMACOM, May/1999) and Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work (AMACOM, 1997).She is President of Group Process Consulting (Greensboro, NC) and combines public speaking, writing, consulting and constant research and development to serve organizations seeking to increase workgroup cooperation for bottom-line results. Annette delivers keynote speeches, short interventions and training experiences that cause participants to rethink faulty assumptions that perpetuate faulty workplace behaviors. Clients include federal clients like NASA, IRS, NSA, large clients like IBM and Analog Devices as well as small privately held clients.
Annette has been featured on CNBC's Power Lunch, radio programs including NPR, and quoted in Fortune, Working Woman, The Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. "Best Practice: Ideas and Insights from the Worlds Foremost Business Thinkers" published in 2003 includes a chapter by Annette.
2005 - Christopher P. Gardner, President & CEO, Gardner Rich & Company
Being a working single father and caring for an infant is tough enough; doing it while homeless and sleeping in a shelter and, on occasion, a subway station bathroom, makes it that much tougher. Through it all, Chris Gardner never gave up on his dreams.It all started when Gardner met a man in a parking lot driving a red Ferrari. "He was looking for a parking space. And I said, 'You can have mine. But I gotta ask you two questions.' The two questions were: What do you do? And how do you do that? Turns out this guy was a stockbroker and he was making $80,000 a month."
Gardner started knocking on doors and applying for training programs at brokerage firms. Just after being accepted into a program, his plans collapsed as quickly as they had materialized. The man who offered him the training slot was fired, Gardner was hauled off to jail for unpaid parking tickets, his wife left him with their infant son to take care of and he suddenly found himself without a place to live.
Despite his lack of resources, Mr. Gardner found ways to make ends meet while finishing the training program and passing the licensing exam. After making a name for himself in the industry, he established his own successful Chicago-based firm, Gardner Rich & Company in 1987. Under Mr. Gardner's directions, GRC has adopted a "give back to the community" program. The Company donates 10% or more of the Company's earnings toward school and educational projects in the community it serves.
Mr. Gardner's tale of survival and success has earned him national acclaim. In January 2003, he was featured on the ABC news program "20/20." That segment caught the attention of several prominent Hollywood studios and producers who have compared Mr. Gardner's story to the critically acclaimed film "Antwone Fisher." Currently, Columbia Pictures has acquired the rights to bring Mr. Gardner's amazing story to the big screen. Mega-star Will Smith will co-produce the film titled "Pursuit of Happiness" and star in the movie as Chris Gardner. Production is expected to begin soon.
Christopher P. Gardner Bio (pdf:35kb)
2005 - Henry Cisneros, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, American CityVista and Former Secretary of the U.S., Department of Housing and Urban Development
As the founder and chairman of American CityVista, Henry Cisneros brings executive and urban planning experience to the community-building joint venture he formed with KB HOME in August 2000. Mr. Cisneros is also the chairman of CityView, a California-based company dedicated to creating for-sale workforce housing in urban areas in the Pacific Region.The focus of these companies is to build significant numbers of homes - villages within the city - in the central neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas. The need for new homes within cities, the redevelopment priorities of local governments, and the homeownership dreams of urban families - all make the concept of building reasonably priced communities in central city areas an attainable business goal.
Mr. Cisneros is also the founder and Chairman of American Sunrise, a non-profit venture focused on homeownership and after-school programs in high-poverty areas of San Antonio.
Previously, Mr. Cisneros was President and Chief Operating Officer of Univision Communications in Los Angeles, the Spanish-language broadcaster which has become the fifth-most-watched television network in the nation.
From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Cisneros served as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As a member of President Clinton's Cabinet, Secretary Cisneros was assigned America's housing and community development portfolio. He is credited with initiating a major revitalization of many of the nation's public housing developments and with formulating policies which have contributed to today's record homeownership rate. Prior to joining the Cabinet, he was Chairman of Cisneros Asset Management Company, a fixed-income money management firm operating nationally.
In 1981, Cisneros became the first Hispanic American Mayor of a major U.S. city - San Antonio. During his four terms in office, Cisneros helped rebuild the City's economic base and created jobs through massive infrastructure and downtown improvements, earning for San Antonio a reputation as one of the most progressive cities in the nation in that era.
In 1984, he was interviewed by the Democratic Presidential Nominee as a potential candidate for Vice President, and in 1986 was selected the Outstanding Mayor in the nation by City and State Magazine.
Mr. Cisneros has served as President of the National League of Cities, Chairman of the National Civic League, Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as a board member of the Rockefeller Foundation, and as Chairman of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Cisneros presently serves as a board member of Countrywide Mortgage, The Enterprise Foundation, and the New America Alliance.
Henry Cisneros presentation (pdf:2.8mb)
Future Conferences
April 28-30, 2008
June 1-3, 2009
April 26-28, 2010
Michigan Conference on
Affordable Housing:
3300 Washtenaw Avenue
Suite 220
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Phone: 734-677-2270
Fax: 734-677-2407
E-mail: jdickie@ucia2.com
Affordable Housing:
3300 Washtenaw Avenue
Suite 220
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Phone: 734-677-2270
Fax: 734-677-2407
E-mail: jdickie@ucia2.com