Find Experts on Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties
This page helps connect reporters, conference organizers, and community leaders with our nationally recognized experts in community revitalization and vacant property solutions like code enforcement, land banking, property tax enforcement, vacant land reuse, and more. The “topic expertise” listed reflects where each expert can provide unique value; this is not an exhaustive list of their areas of knowledge or experience.
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If you’d like to schedule a media interview or book one of our experts for a speaking engagement, please contact Maria Elkin, Communications Director, at [email protected]. If you have a different question, please see our Contact page.
Kathleen J. Guillaume-Delemar
President & CEO
Guillaume-Delemar has over two decades of distinguished leadership in community development and philanthropy. She has a deep personal connection to disinvestment, the harm vacant properties cause a community, and can speak to the human element in community revitalization. (See a Spotify playlist of her past podcast appearances.) She is based in the Washington, DC metro area.
Topic expertise:
- Addressing disinvestment in marginalized communities
- Personal connection to living in a disinvested community
- Taking human-centered approaches in policy development and revitalization
Christina Carter-Grant
Associate Director of the National Land Bank Network
Carter-Grant implements programs for the National Land Bank Network, Community Progress’ member-based professional network for land bank staff. She has over 10 years of experience in nonprofits, housing, and community development, with a focus on trainings, leadership development, and empowering community members to address vacant properties. She is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Topic expertise:
- Land bank network building and leadership growth
- Educating community members on revitalization and vacant property reuse
Nora Daly
Associate Director of Technical Assistance
Daly supports the Technical Assistance team in developing customized solutions to vacant properties for its clients and partners. She draws on her background in public health, social work, and mixed methods research to support communities affected by systemic vacancy through stakeholder engagement, policy and data analysis, and development of policy, program, and practice recommendations. She is based in Washington, DC.
Topic expertise:
- Land bank approaches to brownfield revitalization
- Impact of vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties on community health and well-being—and strategies to mitigate harm
- Mixed-methods research design and data analysis to assess vacancy challenges and evaluate interventions
Justin Godard
Vice President of Education, Leadership, and Engagement
Godard directs Community Progress’ public education and leadership training initiatives for community development leaders. He leads programs that help grassroots leaders level up their skills to address vacant properties and supervises Community Progress’ webinars as well as the flagship Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference. He is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Topic expertise:
- Resident-focused education/engagement on vacant property and housing justice
- Creative placemaking as a tool for vacant property and commercial corridor revitalizatio
- Frameworks for understanding and pursuing effective, equitable community revitalization
Tasha Hall-Garrison
Associate Director of Education, Leadership, and Engagement
Hall-Garrison supports Community Progress’ public education and leadership training initiatives for community development leaders, with a particular focus on communities in the South. She has nearly a decade of experience in municipal government, including community outreach, engagement, and code compliance. She is based in the metro Atlanta area.
Topic expertise:
- Community engagement and resident outreach
- Code enforcement
- Economic and affordable housing development
- Supporting emerging and under-resourced developers in navigating affordable housing creation
Matt Kreis
General Counsel
Kreis works with the Technical Assistance team to help communities identify and reform the laws and policies that touch vacant property issues. Kreis is a nationally recognized authority on housing and building code enforcement, delinquent property tax enforcement, land reuse and land banking, and general municipal and real estate law. He is the nation’s leading expert on how the 2023 US Supreme Court decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County affects communities’ ability to reclaim vacant properties. He is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Topic expertise:
- Legal frameworks for vacant property revitalization, including policy and practice recommendations for municipalities
- Land bank legal frameworks and state-enabling legislation
- Delinquent property tax enforcement legal reform and other state laws related to vacant and deteriorated property revitalization
- Rental regulation and landlord accountability
- Code enforcement
- Vacant property receivership
- Heirs’ property
Liz Kozub
Associate Director of Technical Assistance
Kozub supports the Technical Assistance team in developing policy solutions, partnerships, and innovative approaches to addressing systemic vacancy. Kozub draws on extensive experience building interlocal cooperation among underserved communities (from her previous role with the Tri-COG region in southwestern Pennsylvania) to support the places the Technical Assistance team serves, with a focus on land banks, commercial properties, and code enforcement. She is based in Buffalo, New York.
Topic expertise:
- Regional collaboration to address vacancy across jurisdictions
- Tools for addressing vacant and deteriorated commercial properties
- Code enforcement department capacity building and training
- Repurposing vacant and underutilized properties for climate resilience
Brian Larkin
Director of the National Land Bank Network
Larkin directs the National Land Bank Network, Community Progress’ member-based network for land bank professionals. His local government experience includes serving as chief of staff, director of planning and development, and director for local chambers of commerce in Genesee County and his hometown of Flint, Michigan, where he currently resides.
Topic expertise:
- Land bank operations, strategy, and network building
- Brownfield revitalization and reuse
- Land banks and economic development
Danielle Lewinski
Chief Program Officer
Lewinski oversees the work of all Community Progress’ programs, ensuring they strategically inform and inspire vacant property policy and practice change. With over 20 years of experience in the vacant property revitalization field, she has deep knowledge of land banks, property tax, code enforcement, reuse strategies, and how these elements work together in service of equitable neighborhood revitalization. She is based in the metro Detroit area.
Topic expertise:
- Understanding the systems that perpetuate vacancy and how different tools to address them intersect
- Strategies and best practices to address abandoned and deteriorated properties
- Home repair programs as methods of promoting health, safety, and affordable housing preservation
- Long-term trends in housing and vacancy data, real estate markets, and strategic revitalization
Janell O'Keefe
Associate Director of Technical Assistance
O’Keefe supports the Technical Assistance team in developing customized solutions to vacant properties for its clients and partners. She has 15 years of experience in vacant land stewardship—including as a practitioner in urban vacant land reuse and agriculture—and how cities can manage their portfolios of vacant land. She is based in the metro Detroit area.
Topic expertise:
- Reusing and maintaining vacant land for climate resilience, food production, and more
- Real estate markets and how they affect neighborhood revitalization
- Data systems and tools for tracking and managing blighted property inventories
- Land bank strategy and aligning land bank disposition with community revitalization goals
Monica Passeno
Senior Counsel
Passeno works with the Technical Assistance team to assist communities in identifying and implementing legal tools and policy reforms to address vacant, abandoned and deteriorated property. She brings over a decade of experience in neighborhood stabilization, and knowledge of legal tools available to return vacant properties to productive use. As a former litigator and land use policy professional, she has helped cities and towns address vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties through receivership and policy reform. She is based in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Topic expertise:
- Vacant property receivership
- State-level programs and funding mechanisms for neighborhood stabilization and affordable housing development
- Code enforcement
- Legal frameworks for vacant property revitalization, including policy and practice recommendations for municipalities
- Heirs’ property
- Neighborhood stabilization strategies for communities in the South
Carolina Rodriguez
Senior Counsel
Rodriguez brings over 12 years of experience in housing policy, community development, transportation planning, and public health to the Technical Assistance team. She is a former land bank professional and Assistant Director of City Planning for Atlanta, Georgia. She is known for building and leading high trust teams in service of advancing community goals. She is based in San Juan, Puerto Rico and enjoys engaging in English and Spanish.
Topic expertise:
- Planning for execution through community-centered policy, program design, and project delivery
- Methods of unlocking the hidden value and wealth of the public’s real estate portfolio
- Designing local community development programs including affordable housing, tax abatement, and land banking
- Neighborhood revitalization in communities in the US South
- Strategies for inviting Latine/x/a/o communities to civic life
Book an Expert
If you’d like to schedule a media interview or book one of our experts for a speaking engagement, please contact Maria Elkin, Communications Director, at [email protected]. If you have a different question, please see our Contact page.
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