Overview
The Seattle Bank’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council includes eight members, one each from Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Each member serves a three-year term.

Alaska
Carol Gore
President and Chief Executive Officer
Cook Inlet Housing Authority

Carol Gore has been involved in the development, acquisition, management, and disposition of residential and commercial real estate for over 20 years. Ms. Gore is currently the president and chief executive officer of Cook Inlet Housing Authority (CIHA) in Anchorage, Alaska, a non-profit organization that supports a wide range of affordable housing activities, including the ownership and management of approximately $70 million in real estate assets. Under Ms. Gore’s leadership, CIHA has more than doubled its affordable rental housing, from 267 units to 533 units owned, plus an additional 80 units managed. Ms. Gore also oversees planning and implementation of approximately $16 million in annual grants for affordable housing activities through Native American Indian Housing Block Grants, awarded through HUD. CIHA is currently spearheading a major neighborhood revitalization project in Anchorage that has resulted in: demolition of 76 unsafe homes; total renovation of eight four-plex properties; and construction of more than 100 new apartments, townhomes, and single-family homes for rental and homeownership.

Before joining Cook Inlet Housing Authority (CIHA), Ms. Gore was vice president of income producing real estate for Cook Inlet Region, Inc., where she managed a national and local portfolio valued at over $200 million.

Ms. Gore serves on the boards of Pacific Northwest Regional Council for NAHRO (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials), the Alaska Association of Housing Authorities, and the Anchorage Community Land Trust.

Hawaii
Donald L. Tarleton
President
Hawaii Community Reinvestment Corporation

Don Tarleton is president and director of Hawaii Community Reinvestment Corporation (HCRC). HCRC is a loan program and a tax-credit equity fund that has financed approximately 2,900 rental housing units for elderly and low-income tenants and provided approximately $91 million in loans and $107 million in tax credit investments.

Prior to joining HCRC, Mr. Tarleton served as chief financial officer for the Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HFDC) of Hawaii, where he oversaw all of the state’s housing financing programs, including the Hula Mae Single Family Bond Program, the Multifamily Bond Program, and other specialized financing programs.

Mr. Tarleton has worked closely with county and federal housing officials to develop housing opportunities, and he has worked with financial institutions, investment banking firms, and credit rating agencies to market HFDC’s creditworthiness. Previously he served for 19 years with the Comptroller of the Currency, concluding as regional administrator of national banks for the sixth region, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mr. Tarleton has also worked with federal and state legislatures to develop new and improve existing housing programs.

Idaho
Andrew Rodriguez
Executive Director
Nampa Housing Authority

Andrew Rodriguez has been executive director of the Nampa Housing Authority in Nampa, Idaho, since April 2003, where he is responsible for overall operations and the development of a city-wide affordable housing project. Previously, he was department director for a state-wide community-based organization headquartered in Caldwell, Idaho, where he directed the operations of a state-wide social service employment and training program designed to enhance the lives of migrant and seasonal farm workers. In early 2006, he was selected as one of Governor Dirk Kempthorne's Brightest Stars. This celebration honors individuals, organizations, small businesses, corporations, and “communities of promise” from across Idaho, that are quietly making a positive difference in the lives of Idaho’s families and children.

Mr. Rodriguez is a proud veteran of U.S. Marines Corps and attended Boise State University, where he served two terms as the president of MEChA. His passion for affordable housing has resulted in the creation of a partnership among Nampa Housing, the Nampa School District, and the Urban Renewal Agency to eliminate urban blight and create safe, attractive, and affordable housing.

Montana
Ren Essene
Business Development and Strategic Consultant
homeWORD, Inc.

Ren Essene has 15 years’ experience in community development and is currently a research analyst at the Joint Center for Housing Studies, where she focuses on mortgage markets and fair credit. As Harvard University’s center for information and research on housing in the United States, the Joint Center analyzes the dynamic relationships between housing markets and economic, demographic, and social trends, providing leaders in government, business, and the non-profit sector with the knowledge needed to develop effective policies and strategies.

Ms. Essene is the founding executive director of homeWORD in Missoula, Montana, an organization that has led the acquisition, rehabilitation, and development of a variety of affordable housing projects in the state. As the business development and strategic consultant to homeWORD, Ms. Essene is helping the organization grow a statewide co-development strategy to serve smaller Montana communities. She has also created two homeownership centers in Montana, which have served over 2,670 clients with nearly one-third of the participants achieving homeownership. Ms. Essene holds a master’s degree in public administration.

Oregon
Peter Hainley
Executive Director
CASA of Oregon

Peter Hainley is executive director of CASA of Oregon, an organization committed to developing housing, programs, and facilities that promote the quality of life and self-sufficiency of farmworkers and their families. Under Mr. Hainley’s leadership, CASA assists community development corporations, nonprofit organizations, and housing authorities throughout the rural regions of the state and oversees needs assessments and market studies, site selection and land use, finance packages, funding packages, design and construction oversight, and property/asset management. CASA has developed more than 600 units of multi-family housing and 13 single-family units and overseen the renovation of 200 multi-family units and 1,600 bed spaces of on-farm housing. CASA manages VIDA, Oregon’s largest IDA program (over 200 participants) which is a collaboration of 15 organizations. CASA is also a Certified Development Financial Institution (CDFI).

Mr. Hainley is also president of the National Farmworker Housing Project Directors Association, co-chair of the Multnomah Local Interagency Coordinating Council, and a board member of the National Rural Housing Coalition, Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, and the Association of Oregon Community Development Organizations.

Utah
Ty Tippets
Executive Director
Color Country Community Housing, Inc.

As executive director of Color Country Community Housing, Inc. (CCCHI) since 1999, Ty Tippets has led the acquisition, rehabilitation, development, and preservation of a variety of affordable housing in southwest Utah and Southern Nevada. Mr. Tippets has been instrumental in expanding CCCHI’s portfolio of multi-family and single-family development, including RD Mutual Self-help Housing, housing rehabilitation, mortgage loan origination, and first-time homebuyer assistance.

Mr. Tippets serves on the boards of a variety of housing-related organizations, including: Raindancer Youth Services, a non-profit organization assisting Native American youth; the Erin Kimball Foundation, an organization dedicated to assisting women and children in crisis; and the Utah - American Indian Housing Advisory Council. Mr. Tippets is also president and owner of Sierra-Western Construction & Development, LLC, a general contracting firm he established in 1996.

Washington
John Berdes
President and CEO
Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia

With 25 years of community development experience, John Berdes is well versed in the issues surrounding community development policy and finance. As the president and chief executive officer of Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia, a nonprofit regional economic development corporation assisting entrepreneurs and organizations with the development of viable businesses, he is actively involved in providing capital investment, market and product development services, and community development support. Mr. Berdes also engages rural communities of the coastal Pacific Northwest in developing sustainable resource-based economic opportunities.

From 1988 through 1995, Mr. Berdes held two positions with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation’s largest community development intermediary: first as program director for Puget Sound Operations and, subsequently, as senior program director for field strategies. Prior to his tenure at LISC, he served as executive director of the Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Program (CHHIP), a community development corporation serving a central city neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.

Mr. Berdes has served on numerous boards of directors, including Mountain Pacific Workforce Development Council, Washington Community Reinvestment Association, Washington Community Development Loan Fund, Washington Rural Development Council, and ShoreBank Pacific.

Wyoming
Michael Stanfield
President
HOM, Inc.

Michael Stanfield is the president of HOM, Inc., which manages the Cheyenne Housing Authority and Buffalo Housing Authority and Lusk Housing Authority. In that management capacity he serves as the executive director of each agency. HOM, Inc., through its management contracts, administers over 73 percent of all Section 8 vouchers in several communities throughout Wyoming and over 52 percent of all public housing units in the state. Mr. Stanfield has also been involved with the development of over 230 units of affordable housing throughout the state using tax-exempt bonds, tax credits, HOME funds, and HUD Section 811 funding.

Mr. Stanfield serves on the advisory committee for the Fannie Mae Wyoming Partnership office and the board of directors for the Wyoming Housing Network, Inc. He is also very involved with NAHRO on the state, regional, and national levels.