Roger Williams

Biography: Roger Williams Principal RW & Associates, LLC Potomac, MD Roger L. Williams is the founder of Rogelio Williams & Associates, a domestic and international consulting firm specializing in advising on a wide range of issues involving community development. The firm provides guidance on managing community transformation, asset building, disaster recovery strategies, resident ownership, resident engagement, developing innovative community economic development and housing financing strategies, microfinancing, human capital development, organizational development, program evaluation, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) matters, and foreclosure management and loss mitigation strategies. Internationally, Williams has worked in post-earthquake Haiti, South Africa and Nicaragua. Domestically, he has worked extensively in Camden, New Jersey, post hurricane New Orleans, and a wide range of US cities. Williams is the framer of Responsible Redevelopment, an approach to community development that is based on the integration of human capital with physical development in community revitalization efforts and that advocates for a holistic approach to community development. He has consulted for HUD on Changes to the Regulations for CDBG and NSP and worked with community organizations in New Orleans on involving minority males in community redevelopment efforts. Prior to founding RW & Associates he was a senior fellow/ director for neighborhood development at The Annie E. Casey Foundation. He has been a vice president at both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a senior vice president at First Union Bank and the Dime Savings Bank of NY, and deputy general counsel at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. He received national recognition for his innovative management of nonperforming mortgage loans (foreclosure management) and the development of mortgage products to serve low-income individuals. He is a founding director of CityFirst Bank, the first CDFI bank in Washington, DC. Publications by Williams include: HUD - Choice Neighborhoods Promising Practice Guide: Creating Choice Neighborhoods: Boston’s Critical Community Improvements, National League of Cities – Partnerships Unlock Door to Progress in the Twin Cities: The Central Corridor Light Rail Project, and Resilience in the face of Foreclosure; and an article for the Multi-Family Housing Council on increased demand for multi-family housing. He has also participated on Urban Land Institute Panels including one that proposed an adaptive reuse for a closed GM stamping plant. With ULI’s Rose Center for Public Leadership on Public Land Use he has advised the Mayors of Oakland, CA, Tacoma, WA, and Honolulu, HI, on community development initiatives. Williams received a Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Haverford College. He serves on the Advisory Board of the ULI Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use, the Executive Committee of the Board of the Roundhouse Theatre (Bethesda), and the Board of the International Housing Coalition (IHC). He has also lectured as part of the Capstone Program for Real Estate Professionals at Georgetown University and served as an advisor for students in Georgetown’s Masters in Real Estate Development Capstone program. March 2014