Community Progress Welcomes Presley Gillespie’s Return to Board of Directors

Returning board member brings deep leadership experience and strong ties to Pittsburgh as Community Progress prepares for Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference.

FLINT, MICHIGAN – The Center for Community Progress (Community Progress) is honored to announce today that Presley L. Gillespie, President and CEO of Neighborhood Allies, has rejoined its board of directors. Gillespie previously served on the Community Progress board from 2014 to 2022, including as board chair.

Gillespie is an esteemed leader in community and economic development, with more than two decades of experience spanning nonprofit leadership, community development finance, and real estate investment. Neighborhood Allies is a Pittsburgh-based community development intermediary focused on expanding opportunity and driving innovative, equitable approaches to neighborhood revitalization.

“Presley is an exceptional, strategic leader with practical expertise and deep credibility in the field,” said Kathleen J. Guillaume-Delemar, President and CEO of Community Progress. “His leadership was instrumental during his previous service as board chair, and we’re thrilled to welcome him back as Community Progress continues to grow its impact nationally and deepen its partnerships with the people of Pittsburgh.”

Gillespie returns to the board as Community Progress deepens its partnership with Pittsburgh, where the organization will host the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference on September 22–25, 2026. Based in the region, Gillespie has played a key role in building relationships with local leaders, practitioners, and organizations, helping ensure the conference is informed by—and responsive to—the ideas, priorities, and lived experience of the Pittsburgh community.

“I’m honored to rejoin the Community Progress board at such an important time for the organization and the field,” said Gillespie. “Community Progress plays a critical role in helping communities turn vacant and underutilized properties into assets for neighborhoods, and I’m excited to support that work—particularly as we bring the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference to Pittsburgh and spotlight the innovation happening here.”

Gillespie previously served as founding Executive Director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation and spent 18 years in banking, where he focused on community development lending and revitalization. He serves on several local and national boards and is widely recognized for his leadership in advancing equitable, community-centered development strategies.

###

About Community Progress: The Center for Community Progress helps people to transform vacant spaces into vibrant places. Since 2010, their team of experts has provided urban, suburban, and rural communities looking to revitalize vacant properties with the tools and resources needed to address those properties at the policy and systems level. As the only national nonprofit dedicated to vacant property revitalization, Community Progress drives change by uncovering and disrupting systems that perpetuate entrenched vacancy and property deterioration. Community Progress has delivered customized, expert guidance to leaders in over 300 communities and provided hundreds of hours of free educational resources as well as leadership programming to help policymakers, practitioners, and community members across the country return properties to productive use. To learn more and get help for your community, visit communityprogress.org.