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| Industry News |
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The McAuley Institute has appointed Eileen Fitzgerald vice president of program operations and Betti Sands director of development. Fitzgerald, who will direct housing and community development efforts, was previously chief investment officer for Single Family Finance at the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust. Sands, who will develop strategy for the institute’s growth and sustainability, was previously president and CEO of the United Ways of South Carolina and Fresno County, CA. Stephanie Robinson has joined the staff of the Center for Community Change as director of public policy. Prior to her appointment, she was chief legal and procedural advisor for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and one of his senior policy advisors on children and family matters, early education, welfare, budget and antipoverty initiatives. Sheila Maith was named vice president of leadership and practice development for the Fannie Mae Foundation. She will provide counsel and direction for the foundation’s efforts to raise awareness of affordable housing needs and oversee leadership development programs. Previously, Maith was senior counsel for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Prior to her work for Sen. Kennedy, Maith was director of federal policy for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. |
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| Empowering the Less Powerful: Paul Wellstone's Legacy By John Atlas Although I met Paul Wellstone only once, after he gave a spellbinding speech in New Jersey, his tragic death felt like the loss of a close personal friend – the kind of friend who struggled with me and my friends on the front lines with the poor, working families and others in the grass-roots movements committed to empowering the less powerful. Before he was elected to the Senate, Wellstone was a professor-activist, supporting the Hormel meatpackers’ strike in the 1970s and advocating for small farmers during the farm crisis in the 1980s. Once in the Senate, he fought against balancing the budget on the backs of seniors, families and children. What made him unique was his courage to speak, stand and vote on his principles, even at the risk of his political career. He fought for saving tens of billions of dollars by eliminating tax breaks for wealthy special interests and cutting unnecessary defense programs. He voted against Clinton on welfare reform and opposed the resolution granting Bush wide-ranging powers to make war on Iraq. Wellstone led the fight to raise the minimum wage, worked for fair trade rules to protect labor and the environment and joined a bipartisan effort to combat unfair Canadian timber subsidies. One of the Senate’s most forceful advocates for good quality jobs and economic development, he cast the tie-breaking vote in support of the 1993 Economic Recovery Plan, which helped create 418,000 jobs in Minnesota and helped bring unemployment nationwide to its lowest level in 30 years. But it is Wellstone’s own words that get to the heart of what made him our hero: The point is that most reports and studies have not increased the power of the poor, and without a shift in the balance of power, policy and practice will remain the same; that prior to a ‘reordering of priorities’ in America, there must be a reordering of power; that trying to reorder priorities without reordering power is a contradiction. It remains empty rhetoric unless strong and durable citizen organizations are developed to turn this appeal into specific programs backed by political clout. (How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grass-Roots Organizer.) Paul Wellstone’s voice is tragically silenced, but his work, courage and vision will continue to inspire our efforts to make this a better world. — John Atlas is president of the NHI Board of Directors. |
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| Organizations & Initiatives | The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced a $5 million low-interest loan to the Minneapolis-based Community Reinvestment Fund to expand its efforts to assist community development lenders. Jen Humke, MacArthur Foundation, 312-726-8000; Michael Blumfield, Community Reinvestment Fund, 612-338-3050. The MacArthur Foundation has also announced a $750,000 grant to the Boston-based CEOs for Cities for research on urban land use reform and to develop materials for Congress about new trends and opportunities in urban areas. Jen Humke, MacArthur Foundation, 312-726-8000. |
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