FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2003
Contact: Mark Burneko
Neighborhood Reinvestment
(202) 220-2360
Executive Transition at Neighborhood Reinvestment
Corporation
Washington, DC — Ellen Lazar, executive director
of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, announced that she will
be leaving the organization to serve as the Fannie Mae Foundation's
Senior Vice President of Housing and Community Initiatives. Lazar,
who joined Neighborhood Reinvestment as executive director in
2000, said that she will remain with the Corporation until October.
Neighborhood Reinvestment Board Member Debbie Matz, a member
of the National Credit Union Administration Board, chairs the
selection committee that is leading the search for Lazar's
successor. The Boston-based national executive placement firm
of Isaacson, Miller is conducting the search. See Executive
Director Job Description.
Under Lazar's leadership, the NeighborWorks System has
experienced extraordinary accomplishments: the creation and preservation
of more than 141,000 units of affordable housing, providing homeownership
counseling to nearly 222,000 families, and generating nearly $5
billion in direct investment in the communities served by the
NeighborWorks network.
Citing her desire to continue her longstanding work in the housing
and community development field, Lazar also said that she wanted
to reduce the rigorous travel schedule she had maintained during
her tenure as executive director.
"In my new role with the Foundation, I will be able to
realize my personal goal of spending more time with my family,
and fulfill my professional goal of playing an active role in
the housing and community development field," Lazar said
in an e-mail message to the Corporation's nearly 250 employees
working in Washington and in district offices around the country.
Speaking on behalf of the Corporation's board of directors,
board chairman Edward M. Gramlich praised Lazar for her leadership
of the organization through a critical transitional phase.
"Thanks to Ellen Lazar's leadership and insight,
the Corporation has a strong management team and has developed
a strategic plan that provides the necessary foundation for expanding
the scope and effectiveness of Neighborhood Reinvestment and its
affiliated NeighborWorks organizations nationwide for years to
come," said Gramlich, who is a member of the Federal Reserve
Board of Governors.
Chief Operating Officer Margaret Kelly will serve as interim
executive director of the Corporation following Lazar's
departure, Gramlich said.
Lazar was Neighborhood Reinvestment's third executive director
in the Corporation's 25-year history. Neighborhood Reinvestment
Corporation, which founded and supports the NeighborWorks network
of locally based affordable housing and community development
organizations, was established by Congress in 1978 to develop
an effective national system of public- and private-sector support
for community-based revitalization efforts. Today, more than 220
NeighborWorks organizations are serving more than 2,300 urban,
suburban and rural communities throughout America. In the past
decade, these organizations have helped more than 76,000 lower-income
families purchase their first home, helped more than 150,000 residents
access funding needed for necessary home repairs, provided more
than 34,000 decent, affordable rental homes, and generated more
than $8 billion in local investments.
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