2025 Housing Is Summit Breakout Sessions

This year's breakout sessions will share lessons learned from housing authorities, local partners, and national organizations and provide actionable insights and best practices for attendees to take home to their communities. As in previous years, the Summit will offer three breakout tracks focused on education, health, and partnerships.

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Learn More About Our Breakout Sessions!

Education Track

Creating Impact with National Partners to Improve Children’s Educational Outcomes

Real change and scale require ways to extend our reach beyond what any one of us can achieve alone, and ensuring the impact of early school success for low-income children is predicated on having the right mix of organizations, networks and champions to advance the work. This session will feature two of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading's Resource Network partners (The Basics and ParentChild+) who are effectively stepping up in public housing communities to help assure better futures for children. With representatives from each, we will explore phases of development and discuss outcomes. Parent/participant voice will be included.

Bonnie Howard, Senior Fellow, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Ron Ferguson PhD, Founder and Executive Director, The Basics, Inc
Malkia Singleton Ofori-Agyekum, Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, ParentChild+
Angie Drakeford, North Carolina State Director, ParentChild+
Precious Gadsden, Program Coordinator, INLIVIAN, ParentChild+
Oddess Blocker, Director of Youth and Family Center, Philadelphia Housing Authority

WISH: Highline College & King County Housing Authority's Partnership to Support Homeless Students

Supported by national and Washington state data, this session will explore the impact of housing insecurity and homelessness on college students. Panelists will focus on the importance of a thoughtful approach to program development, featuring support programs like While in School Housing (WISH). Participants will learn about an effective model for public housing authorities, sustainable partnerships with higher education, and an online toolkit for engaging partners.

Dr. Ted Dezember, Senior Manager for Educational Initiatives and Youth Programs, King County Housing Authority
Kerrie Rene, Senior Housing Program Manager, King County Housing Authority
Mariela Barriga Chavez, Assoicate Dean for Innovation, Transformation & Student Support, Highline College
Saido Alinur, Student Housing & Retention Program Manager, Highline College

The Power of Three: A Cross-Collaborative Approach to Removing Educational Barriers to Employment

This interactive session will highlight the collaboration between the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), Women Employed (WE), and City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) to help CHA residents secure family-supporting jobs. Learn about the Career Foundations course developed by WE and CCC, which helps students assess skills, explore career paths, and create a plan for college certificate or degree programs. The session will also cover how CHA began offering this course in fall 2024 to participants in the LevelUp Family Self-Sufficiency program and the course’s current impact.

Gionna N. Branch, Director of LevelUP (FSS) Program, Chicago Housing Authority
Stephenie McLean, LevelUP (FSS) Coach, Chicago Housing Authority
Tara Driver, Senior Career Pathways Manager, Women Employed

The Power of Place: Helping Housing Mobility Programs Transform Educational Outcomes

This session explores how the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program can be leveraged to advance educational outcomes for low-income families. Panelists will introduce a research-based toolkit being developed through collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and policy advocates that aims to equip housing mobility programs with strategies for school integration and supporting student success when voucher-holding families move to high-opportunity areas.

Philip Tegeler, Executive Director, Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC)
Anna Rhodes, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rice University
Joanea Spencer, Director of Housing Search & Landlord Recruitment, Boston Housing Authority

Health Track

Storytelling as Healing

This presentation explores two pilot studies that introduced storytelling as a healing practice in professional development for nursing students and public housing staff. The session will highlight how integrating narrative competence— the ability to recognize, absorb, and interpret stories—enhances empathy and understanding of social determinants of health. These studies suggest that incorporating storytelling into community health and housing education leads to more personalized, effective interventions, ultimately improving the quality of care in these settings.

Kit Kuran, Director of Supportive Services, Vancouver Housing Authority
Joan Caley, Board Chair, WSU-Vancouver and University of Portland Nursing Instructor (Retired), Vancouver Housing Authority/University of Portland School of Nursing and Health Innovations

Accessing Affordable Assisted Living in Public Housing – The New Jersey ALP Model

New Jersey’s Assisted Living Program (ALP) allows residents in publicly subsidized housing to maintain affordable rent while receiving comprehensive assisted living services. This model relies on a partnership between housing providers and ALP providers. Panelists will explore the NJ ALP framework and discuss strategies to replicate it, aiming to expand access to equitable home and community-based services for public housing residents.

Candace Robinson, Director of Healthy Communities, Capital Impact Partners
EJ Vizzi, Director of Senior Programs,The Bright Side Family
Ayse Akincigil, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, Hub for Aging Collaboration

Exploring Evidence-Based Health Interventions to Address Hoarding

This session explores how coordinated interventions can improve the lives and health of residents dealing with excessive clutter, which affects their safety and well-being. Panelists will go beyond inspections and sanitation issues, focusing on evidence-based health interventions and staff support to address high clutter and promote personal and community health and safety.

Rachael Steward, Deputy Director, Housing Operations, Seattle Housing Authority
Jesscia Chow, Health and Housing Program Manager, Seattle Housing Authority
Ashley Kraft, Housing Operations, Seattle Housing Authority
Cricket Farr, Clinical Director at Full Life Care, Co-Chair at Northwest Hoarding Coalition

Catalyzing Change: Using Community-Level Collaborations to Improve Health Outcomes among PHA Residents

Collaboration among public housing authorities, community-based organizations, health care providers, and payers can reduce negative health outcomes and enable community-centered solutions that address resident needs. In 2020, CLPHA entered into an innovative partnership with a health care partner that uses localized data in combination with community-level collaborations to improve health and social outcomes and drive meaningful change. These partnership models have been implemented at eight PHA sites across the country, where community partners have co-created multi-year, data-driven interventions with a path to sustainability. During this session, panelists will highlight learnings from three interventions to address diabetes prevention, food insecurity, and health and digital literacy through community-based education, coaching, and other activities.

Debra Grant, Resident Services – Regional Manager, King County Housing Authority
Borami C. Lee, MPH, Program Manager of Health & Wellness, Housing Authority of the City of Austin
Speaker from Managed Care Organization partner
Michael Ward Jr., President and CEO, Austin Urban Technology Movement

Partnerships Track

How to Make Housing Safe and Affirming for Older Adults

Housing concerns impact many older adults, but for some communities there are added challenges that have built up over a lifetime, making their path to safe and affordable housing more difficult. This session will provide background on the housing challenges facing different communities, the importance of housing for older adults that invests in the needs of those communities, and perspectives on strategies to develop and sustain affordable housing that is safe and open for all people.

Addressing Homelessness for Expectant Parents, Infants, and Children 3 and Younger: Convening Partners to Build and Communicate a Policy Agenda and Messaging Campaign

Homelessness during pregnancy or in the first three years of a child’s life has lifelong consequences for physical health and mental well-being. With support from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, Housing Is is working with a coalition of organizations to build a policy agenda and messaging campaign addressing homelessness for families with children prenatal-3 years old and promoting strong early childhood development and economic security.

In this session, coalition members will participate in a moderated discussion to provide an overview of our work to date to elevate the message that homelessness is preventable, and that stakeholders must take action to address it. The session will also include time for a listening session to hear from attendees about what messages and policy agenda items are important in their sectors and communities.

Erin Patterson, Director of Education Initiatives, SchoolHouse Connection

Strategies for Community-Building: Nurturing Social Connectivity through Partnerships in the Built Environment

This interactive session will explore strategies for community building and peacebuilding through a collaboration between university, community-based organization (CBO), and housing authority personnel in multi-family affordable and public housing. Focused on fostering social cohesion and resident organization development, the session highlights how disconnected neighbors can become a supportive community. Drawing on over 30 years of partnership, the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), and UWM’s Institute for Systems Change and Peacebuilding will share their cross-sector solutions and project curricula.

Paul Williams, Choice Neighborhood Initiative Coordinator, Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM)
Sandy Short, Food Justice & Community Wellness Coordinator, HACM
Silvia Patricia Gelvez Delgado, Graduate Project Assistant, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM) Institute of Systems Change and Peacebuilding
Segun Daniel Okeowo, Graduate Project Assistant, UWM Institute of Systems Change and Peacebuilding
Marie Sandy, UWM Institute of Systems Change and Peacebuilding

Specialized Cohorts and Partnerships-The Power of One Single Parent Program

The San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) will provide an eight-year overview of “Power of One,” a program for single parents receiving Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance. “Power of One” is funded by SDHC’s Moving to Work funds. It was designed to increase the opportunities for public housing authority program participants receiving training and securing employment and services. SDHC will share an in-depth synopsis of the program, which has served over 430 Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher participants. This will include a summary of the program, services, and partnerships that worked well for the program through eight cohorts spanning eight years. Partnerships include healthcare training providers, financial education and loan programs, personal training programs, and parenting programs. The session will also highlight the partnerships that worked well and how SDHC’s Workforce and Economic Development Department navigated issues, including COVID-19, that arose. An overview of eight years of tracking, providing outcomes for all programs and partnerships, will be shared.

Stephanie Murphy, Vice President of Workforce and Economic Development, San Diego Housing Commission
Azucena Valladolid, Executive Vice President of Rental Assistance and Workforce Development, San Diego Housing Commission

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2025 Housing Is Summit Breakout Sessions

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