Shaun Donovan is the CEO and President of Enterprise Community Partners, beginning in fall 2023. One of the nation’s foremost leaders in housing and community development, Donovan’s 30-year career in public service has focused on building opportunity and fighting for people and communities too often left behind. He served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet for his full eight years in office, as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2009 to 2014 and as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 2014 to 2017. He was commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2004 to 2009. As HUD secretary, Donovan led the fight against the nation’s unprecedented foreclosure crisis and served as chair of the president’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. He also advanced landmark fair housing protections and led the strategy that dramatically reduced homelessness around the country, including cutting in half the number of veterans sleeping on our streets and in shelters. Later, as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Donovan increased investment in domestic and national security priorities as well as oversaw regulations that reduced inequality, expanded access to healthcare, improved education, and fought climate change. He also served in the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing at HUD and as acting FHA commissioner during the Clinton/Bush presidential transition. After a mayoral run in his hometown of New York City, Donovan was named a senior fellow by the Ford Foundation in 2022 and currently serves as a trustee of the Urban Institute, Regional Plan Association, Greater NY, and Rethink Food, as well as on the advisory board of Opportunity Insights. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration and architecture from Harvard University. Donovan is married to Liza Gilbert, a landscape architect who has designed and restored parks in New York City and across the country. They live in Brooklyn, where they raised their sons Milo and Lucas.

Donald Hugh Whitehead Jr. is recognized as a leading expert on homelessness, having served as the Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Assistant Director at St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, Program Director at Ohio Valley Goodwill, Grant Manager at Goodwill of Greater Washington, and Director of Communications at Greenpeace Ohio. Donald served two terms as President of the Board of Directors for the National Coalition for the Homeless, two terms on the Board of Directors for Faces and Voices of Recovery, and two terms on the Georgetown Center for Cultural Competency.

First elected to the Washington State House in 2016, Nicole has been a legislative leader in housing justice, health care access, and in enacting protections for LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, renters and low-income homeowners from discrimination and displacement. Nicole is vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, serves on the Health Care and Wellness Committee, and is co-chair of the Washington State Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. Outside the Legislature, she is Deputy Director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) which provides housing, shelter, integrated mental health, addiction treatment and other social services. In 2019, Nicole was named one of Seattle’s most influential people by Seattle Magazine and again in 2021 by Seattle Met magazine. She was honored to receive a 2018 Friend of Housing Award from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission for her work to support and expand affordable housing statewide. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington and completed a Certificate in Executive Leadership at Seattle University’s Albers School of Business.

Don Sawyer founded A Bigger Vision Films in 2014. Sawyer produced, directed and co-wrote the 2016 film "UNDER THE BRIDGE: The Criminalization of Homelessness" and won Best Hoosier Lens award at the Indy Film Fest, as well as official selection of the Chicago International Social Change Film Festival. Sawyer was also co-producer for the REELZ Channel series "HOW TO SURVIVE A MURDER". Sawyer wrote, directed and produced the 2021 PBS Independent Lens short film “TROUBLE AT LAKE MONROE”. Don Sawyer and Tim Hashko of A Bigger Vision Films received the 2022 Stewart B. McKinney award from the National Homelessness Law Center for their films on homelessness. Sawyer produced, directed and wrote the 2024 feature length documentary “BEYOND THE BRIDGE: A Solution to Homelessness”.

Prior to joining USICH, Erika served as a program manager at the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. She has more than 20 years of experience working in human services, housing, community planning, and program design. She previously worked in special needs housing and homelessness in Virginia, as a project evaluator for the Virginia Department of Health, and as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. Erika has a M.S.W. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Government from the University of Virginia.