Next Gen Talent Academy: Forging New Pathways to Affordable Housing Talent

Join us for a captivating discussion between Robin Hughes (Housing Partnership Network), Cedric Bobo (Project Destined), Jan Haase and Jazmin Vasquez (Community HousingWorks). Discover how Cedric and the remarkable Project Destined platform are revolutionizing the identification of diverse talent, and learn from Robin, who forged a partnership with Cedric to extend this impact to the affordable housing sector. Jan will share why Community HousingWorks became involved, while Jazmin will discuss how the program has shaped her career. Come, listen, and gain insights from their journeys, discovering how you can leverage their experiences to benefit your organizations.

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Speakers

David Dworkin (Moderator): David M. Dworkin is the 17^th president and chief executive officer of the National Housing Conference, the nation’s oldest housing coalition, founded in 1931. Prior to joining NHC in 2018, Mr. Dworkin was a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he advised Treasury Department officials on matters related to housing and community development. He also served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Detroit interagency team, where his responsibilities included developing and implementing strategies to assist in the City of Detroit’s revitalization.

Previously, he managed the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) at the Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund, which disbursed $80 million in grants for economic revitalization and community development through investment in and assistance to community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and nonprofit housing organizations.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department, he was CEO and Founder of Affiniti Strategies, a political consulting firm that assisted clients build political relationship capital. Mr. Dworkin served in a number of leadership positions at Fannie Mae. His service in the administration of President George H.W. Bush included the State Department’s acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs.

Cedric Bobo: Cedric Bobo is the CEO and Founder of Project Destined, a social impact vehicle that trains students to become owners and stakeholders in the communities in which they live, work and play. The platform has trained 8,000+ students across 1,300 academic institutions since 2016 and is backed by 250+ real estate firms.

Prior to founding Project Destined, Cedric spent over 20 years as an investor and investment banker including over 10 years at The Carlyle Group where he committed over $2 Billion of equity capital. Prior to Carlyle, he worked at D.L.J. Merchant Banking (London) and McCown DeLeeuw.

Cedric received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSME, summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee.

Robin Hughes: Since 2022, Robin has served as president and CEO of the Housing Partnership Network (HPN), a national collaborative of the nation’s top mission-driven, nonprofit housing developers, community lenders, and advocates. She helps fuel the work of more than 100 urban and rural housing and community development organizations, nine HPN-supported social enterprises, practitioner-led learning and data-sharing strategies, and critical advocacy on state and federal policy priorities to drive systems change.

Prior to taking the helm at HPN, Robin spent 26 years as president and CEO of Abode Communities, growing the organization into one of the top nonprofit developers in the country and premier provider of environmentally sustainable affordable housing in California.  Earlier, she worked in the housing finance sector at The Richman Group and Citi, deploying capital to high-value housing development efforts and in local government for the County of Los Angeles Community Development Commission and the City of Los Angeles Mayor Office of Economic Development.

Over the years, Robin has shared her expertise on a variety of boards, task forces and advisory bodies, including six years as HPN board chair before taking over as CEO. She currently serves on the boards of the Justice Climate Fund, Community Development Trust (CDT), and the California Community Reinvestment Corporation – all significant investors in affordable housing and other community-focused assets and programs – and on the advisory bodies for Morgan Stanley, National Housing Conference, and UCLA Ziman Center.

Robin earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in public administration from the University of Southern California and certification from the executive program in Achieving Excellence in Community Development at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Jan Haase is the Vice President of People and Culture at Community HousingWorks (CHW). In this role, she leads a dedicated team of three HR professionals, along with the organization’s administrative assistant and facilities staff, overseeing the entire employee life cycle and all aspects of human resources.
Prior to her tenure at CHW, Jan worked for a local nonprofit in San Diego, where she managed HR for a workforce of 160, including a preschool staff of 40.
Before that, Jan re-entered the HR field as a consultant after supporting her family while her spouse served in the U.S. Navy. Her HR career began in the Seattle area at Navigant Travel, where she spent eight years expanding and growing in all facets of HR. She then joined GE Capital, contributing to a division of GE’s financial services. During her time there, she supported the Lean Six Sigma training and assisted with the relocation of the Seattle team to the East Coast. Later, she transferred to another GE division in Bellevue, WA, where she focused on recruitment, training, benefits, and payroll, and led a team of 12.
Jan holds a Professional Human Resource (PHR) certification from the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI).

Jazmin Vasquez is a recent graduate from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Real Estate Development and minored in Urban Planning. During her final year at UCSD, she interned at Community HousingWorks through the California Coalition for Rural Housing Internship program where she learned about affordable housing development. She was also a part of the 2023 Merritt Community Capital Scholars Cohort and has participated in Project Destined programs such as the Next Gen Talent Academy (Affordable Housing Bridge Program), Affordable Housing Finance & Underwriting Certificate Program and the Real Estate Financial Modeling Certificate Program. In May, she was promoted to a Project Coordinator for the Real Estate Development team at Community HousingWorks where her passion for affordable housing continues to grow.