WAHNcast

For Ivory Mathews, affordable housing has always been personal. Growing up housing insecure in rural South Carolina shaped not only her career, but the kind of leader she chose to become. In this episode, Beth Baar talks with Ivory about lessons collected through more than three decades in affordable housing and leading housing authorities across the country: choosing courage over comfort, listeni...

What happens when you see a problem and decide to start solving it? For Ben Sigel, it started during COVID with a rented U-Haul and a mission to get fresh food to people who needed it. Today, he is the founder and president of Full Belly Foods, a national nonprofit bringing fresh, nutritious food directly to affordable housing communities across the country. Ben joins WAHNcast to talk about food i...

We’re closing out the 50/50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing Summer Takeover with Joy Horak-Brown, President and CEO of New Hope Housing, in conversation with her longtime friend and fellow 50/50 honoree Diana McIver. As New Hope Housing’s first employee, Joy helped grow an organization that began with just 40 apartment homes into one of Houston’s leading providers of permanent supportive...

Terri Lee spent years trying to run from housing. Today, the President and CEO of Atlanta Housing calls it her ministry, her calling and her life's work. In this special 50 Over 50 Women of Influence episode, Ashley Northcutt and Ann Cone talk with Terri about the journey from Grambling, Louisiana, to leading one of the country's largest housing authorities, the mentors and family members who shap...

Rebecca Louie, President and CEO of Wakeland Housing, joins Beth Baar and Ann Cone for a 50 Over 50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing conversation about more than two decades of learning, leading and figuring things out in affordable housing. Rebecca shares why careers don’t have to follow a straight line, why the best experience often comes from saying yes before you feel completely ready,...

Careers rarely follow a straight line, and Desiree Francis wouldn't have it any other way. In this special 50 Over 50 Women of Influence episode, guest host Diana McIver sits down with Desiree, who leads Capital One's Community Finance team, to talk about finding affordable housing at the intersection of finance and social impact, building a career through unexpected opportunities, and learning to...

Eleanor White stumbled into affordable housing more than five decades ago and went on to help pave the way for countless others. In this special 50 Over 50 Women of Influence episode, guest host Ann Cone talks with the Housing Partners, Inc. co-founder about her years at FHA/HUD and MassHousing, building her own firm, running that Boston-based company remotely from Oslo long before remote work bec...

What does it mean to be a “hope carrier”? For Beth Southorn, Executive Director of LifeSTEPS, it means helping people recognize the strength, experience, and possibility they already carry within themselves. In this episode of the WAHNcast’s 50 Over 50 series, Beth sits down with Beth Baar to share the experiences that shaped her 25-year career at LifeSTEPS and her approach to serving residents in...

What happens when the work you choose eventually connects back to an experience you spent years keeping private? In this special WAHNcast 50 Over 50 episode, host Babbie Jaco sits down with Katie Goar, President of Quadel, for a candid conversation about housing, leadership, resilience and the experiences that shape how we serve others. Katie shares how experiencing housing insecurity as a child i...

You don’t have to know where the journey leads. Trust your gifts. Raise your hand. That message captures Lori Little’s remarkable career and the wisdom she shares with hosts Jennifer Green and Diana McIver in this special WAHNcast 50 Over 50 episode. A Baylor Law graduate, Lori never planned on a career in affordable housing. A two-line newspaper job ad led her to research what LIHTC meant, take a...

Some people build careers in an industry. Ronne Thielen helped build the industry itself. In this special 50 Over 50 Women of Influence episode of WAHNcast, guest hosts Angie Truitt and Ashley Northcutt sit down with Ronne Thielen, Executive Vice President and Director of Public Policy & Advocacy at R4 Capital and one of affordable housing’s true legends. With nearly five decades in the indust...

When Nan McKay entered affordable housing in 1963, women had few opportunities to lead. She was once told a position was a “man’s job” and years later, when she started her own business, she couldn’t even get a credit card in her own name without her husband’s signature. That business, Nan McKay & Associates, began in 1980 as a training company focused on the emerging housing certificate progr...

Some careers are carefully planned. Others begin with one unexpected opportunity. In this episode of WAHNcast's 50 Over 50 Women of Influence series, fellow honorees Babbie Jaco and Diana McIver sit down with Marietta Rodriguez, President and CEO of NeighborWorks America, to explore the journey that took her from first-time homebuyer to one of affordable housing's most respected leaders. Marietta...

Our 50 Over 50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing WAHNcast series celebrates the remarkable women whose leadership, service, and generosity have shaped our industry while inspiring the next generation. In this episode, fellow 50 Over 50 honoree Ann Cone sits down with Cindy Prater of Tapestry Development Group, WAHN's inaugural WAHNderful Woman of the Year, for a conversation that's equal pa...

Linda Mandolini didn't plan on a career in affordable housing. Like so many leaders in our industry, she discovered it almost by accident during a college internship and never looked back. In this episode of the WAHNcast 50 Over 50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing series, host Babbie Jaco sits down with Linda, CEO and President of Eden Housing, to explore nearly four decades of leadership,...

Many people find affordable housing by accident. The best ones stay because they discover purpose. In this episode of WAHNcast, Jennifer Green talks with fellow 50 Over 50 Women of Influence honoree Michele Stowe, former COO of Mercy Housing, about the unexpected career that led her from human resources into affordable housing leadership and, ultimately, executive coaching. When she's not coaching...

As part of WAHNcast's special 50 Over 50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing series, host Babbie Jaco sits down with fellow honoree Kimberlee Schreiber, President of Michaels Management, for a conversation about leadership, mentorship, and preparing for what's next. Kimberlee reflects on her journey from leasing agent to executive leadership, sharing the lessons that shaped her career along t...

What does a lifetime of leadership look like? In this episode of WAHNcast's 50 Over 50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing series, Jennifer Green sits down with Laura Archuleta, President and CEO of Jamboree Housing, for a thoughtful conversation about the experiences that shaped nearly four decades in affordable housing. Laura reflects on how her family's own housing journey inspired her car...

Linny Simkin didn't plan on a career in affordable housing. She dreamed of becoming a singer-songwriter, moved to Los Angeles to pursue music, and took a job with an executive search firm simply to pay the bills. What she discovered instead was a career helping people find meaningful work and, eventually, a calling within affordable housing. Over the next two decades, Linny built one of the indust...

As part of WAHN's 50 Over 50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing series, Ann Cone and Diana McIver welcome fellow honoree Deborah Welchel, Vice President of Real Estate Development–Texas for Volunteers of America National Services. Debbie's path into affordable housing was anything but conventional. Over a career spanning underwriting, consulting, development, asset management, and nonprofit...

What happens when someone who once needed affordable housing dedicates her career to helping others find stability, opportunity, and hope? In this episode of the WAHNcast 50 Over 50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing series, hosts Ann Cone and Jennifer Green welcome Flynann Skeen, Executive Director of Rainbow Housing Assistance Corporation. Flyn shares her extraordinary four-decade journey...

When a team of WAHN University students entered the 2026 Bank of America Affordable Housing Challenge, they weren't just designing housing—they were reimagining community recovery. In this episode of WAHNcast, host Angie Truitt is joined by student team members Emily Jessup and Mia Spero, developer partners Leslie Weiss and Monte Heaton of Highridge Costa, and faculty advisor Mark Shelburne to dis...

WAHNcast is back! In this special kickoff episode, we're launching our new summer series celebrating WAHN's inaugural 50/50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing honorees. Host Angie Truitt is joined by four remarkable industry leaders who will be serving as guest hosts throughout the series: Ann Cone, Babbie Jaco, Diana McIver, and Jennifer Green. Together, they share their journeys into affor...

Brian Goldstone on the Rise of the Working Homeless In this powerful WAHNcast conversation, Angie Truitt and Jean Dahlquist sit down with award-winning journalist and anthropologist Brian Goldstone, author of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America. Through the stories of five Atlanta families, Goldstone exposes a deeply troubling and increasingly common reality: the rise of the...

In this episode of WAHNcast, host Sadie Nott, National WAHN VP, celebrates the 35th anniversary of Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build initiative with two leaders from Habitat Charlotte Region: Mary-Margaret Johnstone, NC WAHN Board Member and Events Co-Chair, and Brooke Moose, Director of Development for Community Engagement. What began in 1991 as a simple idea shared over brunch in Charlotte has...