Michelle McDonough Winters, president of Winters Community Strategies and former senior manager for green strategies at NeighborWorks America, has joined the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing as a senior visiting fellow.
“We are honored to have Michelle join ULI. With her experience in the field of housing and community development, she will bring expertise and distinction to the center and its mission,” said Lynn Ross, executive director of the Terwilliger Center.
Winters, who has worked for nearly two decades on issues such as housing finance and policy, will participate in a range of research and events in order to advance ULI’s housing initiatives. She will help the Terwilliger Center conduct research on housing markets, policies, and best practices with a focus on affordable rental housing.
“ULI and its members are helping to shape the future of our communities, and the Terwilliger Center is focused on making housing options more affordable and communities more inclusive,” said Winters. “I’m honored to be involved in the impressive set of resources that the center is producing to help move this agenda forward.”
In Winters’s role with Winters Community Strategies, she works with clients to design and evaluate affordable housing and community development strategies, programs, and policies. She consults for both nonprofit and public sector clients on how to create more sustainable and inclusive communities.
Before joining ULI, she oversaw sustainability initiatives for NeighborhoodWorks America, one of the nation’s largest community development intermediaries. In this capacity, she managed the organization’s national grant making and technical assistance efforts related to green strategies and sustainability, in addition to developing the first organization-level green designation program for housing and community development nonprofits.
Before her time with NeighborhoodWorks America, Winters was appointed by the Arlington, Virginia, County Board to serve on the Arlington County Housing Commission. From 2007 to 2010, she advised the county on affordable housing issues, developments, and policy proposals. She also was program director for affordable housing preservation at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), where she provided loans and technical assistance to nonprofit developers and managed an active federal policy agenda.
After getting her start in housing research at the Urban Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Real Estate, Winters spent nine years at Fannie Mae and the Fannie Mae Foundation, where she managed policy and analytical functions related to affordable housing initiatives and regulatory requirements.
Winters holds a master of city planning from MIT, where she specialized in housing, community, and economic development; she earned her bachelor of arts degree in urban affairs from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
How should housing, health, and the built environment intersect in the face of shifting demographics and a changing economy? Find out by attending the Housing Opportunity 2014: Healthy Housing, Healthy Places conference in Denver, Colorado from May 14-16. Register today.
