David Berenbaum

Deputy Assistant Secretary, OHC, HUD

David Berenbaum serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing Counseling at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Office of Housing Counseling’s mission is to ensure that families have the knowledge they need to obtain, sustain and retain their housing via HUD's network of over 1,550 housing counseling agencies and their Certified Housing Counselors. The Program’s far-reaching outcomes annually impact over one million consumers and support numerous departmental programs, including the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) single-family housing program.

As a member of the Senior Executive Service, Mr. Berenbaum collaborates with HUD’s leadership, professional staff, and partners to provide the high impact services to ensure that every American has a place to call home and the ability to achieve their financial dreams. David brings more than 30 years of leadership and program experience to the Office of Housing Counseling and to the issues of fair, affordable and sustainable housing and related public and private sector housing counseling initiatives. He is nationally recognized as a trusted voice for consumers and as a champion for a vibrant marketplace that celebrates the importance of counseling, financial education, and open housing so that every neighborhood is a community of opportunity.

David previously served as the chief executive officer of the Homeownership Preservation Foundation and has held executive positions with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Equal Rights Center, the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington, and Long Island Housing Services. He is a frequent presenter at conferences across the nation – where he speaks from the heart and educates stakeholders to the importance of empowering consumers to make responsible choices to improve their housing, rally their credit and savings, understand their rights and responsibilities, and to avoid and/or recover from eviction, foreclosure or life’s unanticipated hardships.

Mr. Berenbaum has testified before Congress numerous times as a non-partisan subject matter expert, has served on many public and private sector advisory and social enterprise boards, has appeared as an expert on national news magazines and media shows, and has been regularly quoted by news sources across the country. His depth of knowledge on a panoply of community development issues ranging from housing finance to CRA position him well for leading the Office of Housing Counseling and enhancing HUD’s housing counseling programs.

Demetria L. McCain

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, FHEO, HUD

Demetria McCain joins HUD’s team as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Prior to serving in this capacity, she spent fifteen years, most recently as president, at the Inclusive Communities Project (ICP). ICP is a Dallas-based affordable fair housing organization. Prior to becoming president, she oversaw operations, communications and ICP’s Mobility Assistance Program, a housing mobility program that serves housing choice voucher holders who desire housing in low-poverty well-resourced neighborhoods throughout the seven-county Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Conceived by Demetria, ICP’s “Voices for Opportunity” initiative has provided advocacy training to voucher holders fighting for expanding housing options and Black and Latinx neighborhood groups seeking neighborhood equity.

Demetria is the recipient of the 2015 Texas Houser Award and has been a sought-after panelist and commenter on issues relating to affordable fair housing. She most recently appeared in Soledad O’Brien’s Disrupt and Dismantle series, was a participant of The Atlantic’s Breaking Ground forum and has written numerous fair housing opinion pieces about the need to expand housing options for low-income renters. She currently serves as an adjunct instructor at Coppin State University (Baltimore) where she teaches a Fair Housing and Homelessness course to upper-level undergraduate students.

Before joining ICP, Demetria worked as Equal Justice Works Fellow and staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project in Oakland, CA where she worked on preemption issues as they related to the USDA Section 515 rural housing program. As a staff attorney for the Neighborhood Legal Services Program of Washington, D.C., assigned to the southeast office, her portfolio primarily focused on landlord-tenant matters for low-income renters living in private and public housing.

Demetria has served on several local and national nonprofit boards. Beyond work and parenting her two young adult children, she engages in various local volunteer efforts through the Dallas Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and her church. Demetria received her J.D. from Howard University School of Law, her master’s degree from Brooklyn College, and her bachelor’s degree from New York University.

Melody Taylor

Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement Compliance, FHEO, HUD

Executive Director, PAVE Senior Advisor, National Fair Housing Training Academy (NFHTA)

Melody Taylor is the Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement Compliance in HUD’s Office of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity (FHEO). She is also the Executive Director of the Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) and concurrently serves as Senior Advisor to FHEO’s National Fair Housing Training Academy (NFHTA).

For more than 20 years, Melody has committed her life’s work to fair housing and civil rights providing education, enforcement, and advocacy nationwide. She has an expansive career working with non-profit, local government, and federal agencies including fair housing testing, policy development, and strategic planning for private and government entities.

Notably she has led enforcement efforts resulting in multi-million-dollar conciliations that have increased the supply of affordable housing, changed policies and secured remedies for victims of discrimination relating to affirmatively furthering fair housing, accessibility, insurance, and appraisal bias.

Melody continues to expand her commitment to civil rights and justice for marginalized communities. Most recently nominated as a board member for the League of Women Voters and serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

She is a graduate of Delaware State University, Senior Fellow for Excellence in Government, certified in Diversity and Inclusion and recently completed Harvard’s Executive Leadership for Government program.

Ayako Marsh Miranda, SRA

President, A&B Real Estate Group, Subcontractor to ICF

Ayako Marsh Miranda, SRA has over 22 years of real estate valuation experience. Ayako is President of a consulting company and subject matter expert in the areas of diversity, homeowner education, and appraisal bias solutions. Ayako was recently named a change agent by The New York Times for her work on diversity and appraisal bias. She is a designated member of the Appraisal Institute and Past President (2022) of the Metropolitan Washington DC Chapter. Ayako also served on the Appraisal Institute Teams: McKinley (DEI) Project, Bias Research-Solutions Project, HBCU Outreach and Representative to The Appraisal Foundation Advisory Committee. (TAFAC) Ayako assisted the Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity White House Task Force (PAVE) with an appraisal ride along offering insight to the day in the life of an appraiser. Ayako was a subject matter expert on a yearlong investigation on appraisal bias in minority communities for WUSA9. Ayako holds a B.A. in economics from Howard University.

Lauren Lewis

Chicago Homeowner

Lauren Lewis supports community-led Quality-of-Life Plans across Chicago. Her mission is to serve communities and demonstrate her love for relationship building by listening to her neighbors. From pioneering volleyball clinics to managing and strengthening partnerships between the Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago, Lauren has helped to engage intergenerational communities. Lauren has led program evaluation efforts in providing quality services alongside major institutions like the Chicago Housing Authority, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Connecting education, health and economic development, Lauren serves as an advisor to steering committees and on results-based boards across Chicago. Lauren earned her Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and Public Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She attained her B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from Eastern Illinois University. Lauren is also as a Program Officer at LISC Chicago for close to 4 years. She and her partner became homeowners in Winter 2022.

Falon Young

Housing Policy Associate, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago

Falon Young is the Housing Policy Associate at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. Falon leads the agency’s groundbreaking Appraisal Equity Campaign, which ensures consumers know their rights and what to expect during the appraisal process to ensure a fair and just appraisal. Coupled with that is her work on Chicago’s recently passed Lending Equity Ordinance which promotes transparency in mortgage lending and access.

Prior to her work at NHS, she was heavily involved in housing policy development and advocacy with the Safer Foundation, one of the leading organizations working on behalf of returning citizens.

Falon has always been drawn to projects to assist those in need and works to identify resources and solutions for those seeking self-determination and an improved quality of life. Falon is also a recent graduate of DePaul University majoring in Political Science and Public Policy.

Joseph Lopez

Executive Director and CEO, Spanish Coalition for Housing

Joseph Lopez serves as the Executive Director and CEO of Spanish Coalition for Housing (SCH), Illinois’ largest bilingual nonprofit HUD certified Comprehensive Housing Counseling Organization; serving the affordable housing needs of over 7,000 Chicago and Cook County households annually. Lopez has over 17 years of experience in community, economic development and nonprofit management serving in pivotal roles in state and city governments, public finance, and nonprofit sectors.

Jacqulyn Priestly

Principal and Owner, Oakhill Strategies

Jacqulyn Priestly, her husband and their three boys reside in Bowie, MD. Jacqulyn hails from Petersburg, VA and is a graduate of Howard University. She purchased her first home at the age of 24 in Washington, DC, sold and moved to her second home in the District three years later, before moving to Glenn Dale, MD in 2010 after she and Cassius married. Jacqulyn is a community advocate, passionate about creating pathways to equitable access and opportunities for women, communities of color and other historically marginalized populations. Jacqulyn is a founding member of the Fair & Unbiased Appraisal Advocates, a coalition working to bring fair and unbiased appraisal practices to Prince George’s County and to communities everywhere. She’s also the principal and owner of Oak Hill Strategies, a communications consultancy that works on issues related to public health, social justice and financial services.

Alexia Smokler

Director, Fair Housing Policy & Programs, National Association of REALTORS®

Alexia Smokler is the Director of Fair Housing Policy and Programs at the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Based in Washington, DC, she communicates NAR’s support for fair housing and closing homeownership gaps to Congress and federal agencies. Alexia also leads NAR’s ACT! initiative, which emphasizes Accountability, Culture Change, and Training to advance fair housing in the industry. Before joining NAR, Alexia worked in fair housing enforcement at HUD, on the staff of Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and with nonprofit civil rights organizations.

Julienne Joseph

Senior Advisor for Homeownership, Office of the Secretary, HUD

Julienne Joseph is the Senior Advisor for Homeownership to the HUD Secretary, The Honorable Marcia L. Fudge. In this role, Ms. Joseph serves as the Secretary-level point of contact and subject matter expert on all homeownership issues with a focus on expanding access to homeownership for diverse segments and first-time borrowers. Prior to her promotion to Senior Advisor in January of this year, Ms. Joseph served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Single Family Housing, where she oversaw the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) insurance-in-force portfolio of more than eight million loans with an unpaid principal balance of more than $1.2 trillion. She assumed that role in June 2021and managed all aspects of FHA’s single family housing operations including origination and servicing policy, information technology strategy, quality control and lender enforcement, and institutional risk management. Her responsibilities also included the management oversight of more than 700 employees.

Ms. Joseph has nearly 20 years of housing, borrower outreach, and mortgage industry experience. Prior to joining HUD in 2021, she was most recently the Associate Director of Government Housing Programs and Member Engagement at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Additionally, she previously served as the Housing Finance Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development where she managed the Commonwealth’s Affordable and Special Needs Multifamily Housing Program and administered the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Julienne also held the position of Senior Homeownership Advisor for Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore.

Michael Ibanez

Senior HomeOwnership Counselor, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago

Michael Ibanez has served as a Senior Homeownership Counselor with Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago for 6 and a half years, assisting both owners and buyers alike in pursuing and preserving their home ownership dreams. Michael provides individual counseling and homebuyer education on financial fresh start and foreclosure prevention. In previous roles, Michael served as a consumer advocate as a financial literacy specialist, a certified credit counselor, and a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) tax site coordinator.

Julianne Howard-Gibbon

Supervising Attorney at Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC)

Julia Howard-Gibbon is the Supervising Attorney at Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC). She represents FHANC in fair housing litigation and administrative complaints. She is currently representing clients, as well as the agency, in four appraisal bias cases in Marin County and Oakland, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to becoming the supervising attorney, she was a staff attorney at FHANC for more than two years.

Since receiving her undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies from UCLA in 2005, she has fought for the rights of tenants and those being excluded from housing, including members of protected classes. Prior to law school she was a tenant organizer in Washington D.C. After graduating law school in 2012, she was an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow at the New York Legal Assistance Group where she represented tenants who had been impacted by Superstorm Sandy, including tenants and homeowners facing housing discrimination.

She later became a staff attorney in the Civil Justice Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services, assisting clients facing eviction or denial of housing based on arrest, immigration status and/or family court involvement. As a public interest attorney, she has represented many people in accessing or retaining housing and/or public benefits. She has also worked on many housing policy issues, testifying at City Council hearings, participating in panels and policy task forces, and working with local lawmakers to protect and strengthen housing laws affecting members of protected classes.