Announced today, Maureen Friar has been named president and CEO of the nonprofit National Housing Conference, the United Voice for Housing. A recognized and respected industry expert, Friar has established a distinguished and successful career in the housing field, as well as in building a strong and engaged membership organization.
Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York for 14 years. In that position, her accomplishments included: coordinating advocacy campaigns that resulted in $1 billion in funding from both New York City and the state of New York to create more than 10,000 units of supportive housing; developing and sharing innovative, cost-effective strategies to end chronic homelessness; and more than tripling the organization’s membership base.
“Maureen brings the right mix of leadership, advocacy, management, and passion for housing to NHC,” said NHC Chair Dan Nissenbaum. “Her experience also represents a clear understanding that decent, affordable housing is integral to ensuring thriving, successful families and communities.”
Friar most recently served as a marketing consultant to the National Equity Fund, the largest nonprofit investor in federal low-income housing tax credits, and as a fundraising consultant to Community Access, a New York nonprofit agency that provides supportive housing, employment training and advocacy for persons with psychiatric disabilities.
Her achievements were recognized by the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, which honored her with the Advocate of the Year Award for Excellence in 2006. In addition, she received the Nonprofit Sector Achievement Award from the National Alliance to End Homelessness in 2003, as well as the Regional Best Practices Award in 2000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, a Master’s degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and was a Charles H. Revson Fellow on the Future of the City of New York at Columbia University.
Maureen succeeds Conrad Egan who has been with NHC for nearly 12 years, becoming head of the organization after serving for five years as director of policy.