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Living Cities Staff

Mr. Hecht is an experienced nonprofit executive, author and social entrepreneur. He was appointed President & CEO of Living Cities in July, 2007 to lead the organization’s new and ambitious agenda to transform the lives of low-income people as well as the urban neighborhoods in which they live. In 2000, he co-founded One Economy Corporation, a nonprofit organization that has become one of the most effective vehicles for social change in the nation.  Mr. Hecht led the growth of the organization from 3 employees to a $15 million organization with 50+ staff, online media properties serving more than 150,000 low-income people a month, and programs in 40 states, the Middle East and Africa. 

Immediately before One Economy, Mr. Hecht was Senior Vice President at the Enterprise Foundation.  In that capacity, he led the organization’s efforts beyond housing – building well-respected programs in childcare, workforce development and economic development.  Under his leadership, the number of community-based organizations working with the Foundation doubled from 750 to more than 1,500 in 48 states; capitalization of the organization’s revolving loan fund grew from $30 million to $200 million; and regional networks of nonprofit organizations linked by technology were born in New England and the Northwest.
 
Mr. Hecht received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center and his CPA from the State of Maryland.  For 10 years, he taught at Georgetown University Law Center and built the premier housing and community development clinical program in the country.  In 1992, with Congressional support, Mr. Hecht founded the National Center for Tenant Ownership at Georgetown, a program facilitating affordable housing development by nonprofits and tenant groups nationwide. 

Mr. Hecht has written three books, ManagingNonprofits.org (2001) with Rey Ramsey, Developing Affordable Housing: A Practical Guide for Nonprofit Organizations (3rd Edition, 2006) and Managing Affordable Housing: A Practical Guide for Building Stable Communities (1996), all published by John Wiley & Sons. 

Prior to his work at Georgetown, Mr. Hecht worked for the public accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand in Washington and served as counsel to the nonprofit, National Rural Development and Finance Corporation.  He has been an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center for 17 years, teaching accounting concepts for lawyers.  In 1997, he was awarded Georgetown’s prestigious Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award.  Over the years, Mr. Hecht has served on the boards of nonprofit housing organizations in Cleveland, Denver, New York and Portland, Oregon, and on the national boards of numerous organizations.  He currently sits on the Georgetown Day School and One Economy Boards of Directors. 

Ms. Hacke joined Living Cities as Director of Capital Formation in September of 2007. In her previous role as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Robin raised over $72 million from institutional, corporate and individual investors and built a portfolio of investments in 20 start-up companies.  Robin has spent most of her career guiding the growth of technology companies as a manager, consultant and director.  She founded and ran a strategy consulting firm that worked with 110 clients, and she currently serves as a director and Audit Committee Chair of Alvarion, a wireless communications company traded on Nasdaq. 

Before entering the tech sector, Robin was a banker in the Public Finance Department at Shearson Lehman Brothers, where she structured mortgage-backed bonds.  She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA magna cum laude in Government from Harvard-Radcliffe College.

Eric Henderson is Director of Communications for Living Cities. Previously he served as Director of Account Management for the marketing firm commonground (Chicago, IL) handling communications and creative strategy for Fortune 100 consumer products companies. His career has spanned multiple industries and sectors, with 14 years of marketing leadership in the U.S. and abroad with General Electric, Citigroup, Xerox, The Pepsi-Cola Company, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow. As a regular contributor to the industry publication, AdAge, Eric is a recognized thought leader in marketing and advertising.

Eric is also lead adviser on marketing/branding for the Socrates Society Seminars, a program of the Aspen Institute. He is an avid marathoner as well as an accomplished fine art photographer, having been recognized in The New Yorker magazine for works exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem. He earned his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management (Glendale AZ), including one year at ESADE (Barcelona, Spain). He completed his B.A. in Communications at Texas A&M University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Neil is responsible for framing the policy agenda at Living Cities and producing a series of research reports on a broad range of community and economic development topics that affect urban areas. Prior to joining Living Cities, Neil was the Vice President for Policy and Communications at Seedco, one of the nation’s leading workforce and community lending intermediaries, where he oversaw their research publications. Previously he was the founding director of the Center for an Urban Future, one of the nation’s only urban-focused think tanks. He has also consulted for philanthropic, cultural and business-development organizations including the Fund for the City of New York, Workforce Strategy Center and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Neil's policy work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has also taught urban politics at Barnard College and John Jay College-CUNY and been a visiting fellow at Williams College. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

 

In this role, David will be responsible for managing and developing financial, administrative and other internal functions to support the growth of Living Cities. With an extensive background in finance, administration, and operations, Lafleur has worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations and associations in New England and New York. Most recently, he was Vice President at Jewelers of America, the association representing the nationís retail jewelry industry. There he was responsible for the groupís member services, education, government relations, and consumer outreach activities, as well as finance and administration functions. A native of Massachusetts, Lafleur has lived in Brooklyn for more than 12 years.

 

Marian Urquilla helped found the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative, where she served as executive director for nearly 12 years.  An innovative network of community institutions working to support families in northwest Washington, DC, the Collaborative has combined a strengths-based approach to service delivery with focused and intensive capacity building and leadership development efforts. During her tenure, Ms. Urquilla led the transformation of the Collaborative from a pilot project to a complex and highly respected organization working in the areas of child welfare, youth development, and economic self-sufficiency.  She also helped spearhead the citywide implementation of family group decision-making and worked to launch a youth violence prevention partnership that dramatically lowered Latino youth homicide rates in the District of Columbia.  In addition, she served as a senior advisor to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Children, Youth, Families and Elders in Mayor Anthony Williams' administration and as a senior consultant for human capital to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development in Mayor Adrian Fenty's administration.

She has served as a staff member and consultant for a wide range of organizations, including Roadwork, the Association for Community Based Education, the Institute for Policy Studies' Washington School, Stand for Children, and the NGO Forum on Women, and is a board member of a number of local and national organizations, including the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness and Stone Circles.  Drawing on her scholarly interest in the fields of race and gender studies, she is an experienced trainer in the areas of cross-cultural communication and community-based leadership development.  Recognized by the Rockefeller Foundation as a Next Generation Leader, Ms. Urquilla has been a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities and is currently an Annie E. Casey Foundation Children and Family Fellow.

As a Program Associate, Tamir supports Living Cities’ investment work and special initiatives.  His areas of focus include Capital Formation and interventions to address the subprime mortgage crisis and its fallout in urban communities.  Prior to his involvement with Living Cities, Tamir worked in youth organizing and leadership development.  Tamir will complete his Masters in Public Administration, Specializing in Management, at New York University in May of 2008.  He received a BA from NYU in Metropolitan Studies in 2006. 

Laura supports the Director of Finance and Administration by managing communication and logistics for all of Living Cities’ committee meetings. Before joining Living Cities, Laura was an intern at the Center for Health Justice, a non-profit organization that works to improve the disparities between prisoner health and public health.  She brings with her a strong background in outreach and advocacy around issues of public health and education. Laura graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in History and World Arts & Cultural Studies.

Titilayo is program associate for Living Cities' policy, research and communications initiatives. She brings a career interest in community development, early childhood education, and policy-focused media relations. Prior to coming to Living Cities, Titilayo worked on a pilot program developing universal quality standards for early childcare in New York City. Previously, she was part of a research team at Vanderbilt University studying curriculum and professional development interventions within Head Start. She consulted to Sojourners, a social justice magazine and advocacy organization in Washington, DC, developing their progressive speakers bureau. She began her career as communications manager for Georgia Family Council, a statewide child and family policy organization. In this role, she designed media campaigns around pressing policy issues and placed news stories, opinion editorials and public service announcements in local and national media markets. Titilayo studied English Language and Literature at Spelman College. She will complete her Masters in Sociology of Education and Education Policy from Columbia University in December 2008.

Sunitha Malepati serves as Special Assistant to the CEO at Living Cities. She works closely with the CEO to lead special projects.  Prior to joining Living Cities, Sunitha worked as a syndicated research analyst at The Advisory Board Company, a best practices health care research and consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.  Before that, she was a business development intern with One Economy Corporation, a technology-focused nonprofit.  Sunitha graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Economics.