Speaker and Panelist Biographies
FHA Retrospective: Evolving Roles in an Uncertain Housing Climate
November 8, 2012
Carol Galante
Acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner and Assistant Secretary for Housing
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Carol J. Galante currently serves as Assistant Secretary for Housing and Acting FHA Commissioner for the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development. She previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Multifamily Housing Programs, a post to which she was appointed by President Barack Obama in March 2009.
Before her appointment at HUD, Assistant Secretary Galante was president and chief executive of BRIDGE Housing
Corporation, the largest nonprofit developer of affordable, mixed-income, and mixed-use developments in California.
Ms. Galante has also worked for the cities of Santa Barbara, Philadelphia, and Richmond (CA) in city planning and
community economic development. Among her many notable honors, she was named a “Woman of Influence” by
HousingWire in 2012. Ms. Galante has a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan and holds a master of city planning from U.C.
Berkeley.
Erika Poethig
Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
In June 2012, Erika C. Poethig was named Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She leads a talented and diverse team of approximately 150
staff responsible for research on important housing and community development issues, policy analysis and program
development assistance, and current information on housing needs, economic conditions, and housing market
conditions at the regional, city, and local levels.
Before federal service, Ms. Poethig was most recently the associate director for affordable housing at the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where she focused on regional policy and practice, housing policy and
research, and the foundation’s $150 million special initiative for the preservation of affordable rental housing. Ms.
Poethig also served as assistant commissioner for policy, resource, and program development at the City of
Chicago's Department of Housing, where she directed the department's city, state and federal policy agendas.
Ms. Poethig was a Phi Beta Kappa from the College of Wooster, a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Vienna, and
graduated with honors with a master's in public policy from the University of Chicago.
John C. Weicher
Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Housing and Financial Markets
Hudson Institute
Former Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Administration Commissioner, U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development
John C. Weicher is director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Housing and Financial Markets. From 2001 to 2005
he served as assistant secretary for housing and federal housing commissioner at HUD, where he was responsible
for 3,400 staff and a half-trillion dollars of FHA mortgage insurance. His major initiatives included regulatory reform of
the real estate settlement process, mission regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and establishment of a riskbased premium structure for FHA's multifamily mortgage insurance. He previously served as assistant secretary for
policy development and research at HUD from 1989 to 1993, and as chief economist at both HUD (1975–77) and
OMB (1987–89).
Weicher was assistant and associate professor of economics at The Ohio State University, president of the American
Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in 1982, and received the Association's George Bloom Award for
Career Achievement in 1993. He holds an A.B. in English from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in economics
from the University of Chicago.
Edward (Ed) Szymanoski
Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Ed Szymanoski is associate deputy assistant secretary in HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research, where
he helps oversee HUD’s housing surveys, data reporting (including the Administration’s Housing Scorecard), and
economic studies and policy analyses related to FHA mortgage insurance programs. Previously, Ed directed the
annual actuarial review of FHA’s single-family mortgage programs and supported FHA’s annual audit and financial
reporting. He played a key role in the original design, implementation, and early evaluations of FHA’s Home Equity
Conversion Mortgage program (also called the reverse mortgage program). He has also served at the Office of
Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
Mr. Szymanoski holds degrees in applied mathematics from Brown University and economics from the University of
Hartford.
PANELISTS
Eric S. Belsky
Lecturer and Managing Director, Joint Center for Housing Studies
Harvard University
Eric Belsky is managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and lecturer in urban
planning and design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The center is a collaborative venture of the Graduate
School of Design and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. It conducts research on the nation’s most critical
housing and urban issues. Before his Harvard appointments, Dr. Belsky led the Housing Finance and Credit Analysis
Group at Price Waterhouse LLP. He has also held the positions of director of housing finance research at Fannie
Mae, senior economist at the National Association of Home Builders, and assistant professor at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst.
Dr. Belsky has extensive experience conducting research on housing markets, housing finance, and housing policy.
He has published numerous articles in trade publications and academic journals.
Janis Bowdler
Director, Wealth-Building Policy Project
National Council of La Raza
Janis Bowdler is the director for the Wealth-Building Policy Project at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the
largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. In this role, she conducts policy
and legislative analysis, research, and advocacy on issues that promote the financial security and advancement of
Latino families through asset ownership and wealth creation. Most recently, the Wealth-Building Policy Project has
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targeted such issues as wrongful foreclosures, neighborhood preservation, financial access, and fair housing for
immigrants. Ms. Bowdler has written a number of publications on Hispanic homeownership and abusive mortgage
lending practices, among others, and regularly serves as an expert witness before Congress and federal regulators
on issues regarding wealth-building challenges facing the Latino community. Ms. Bowdler is an active blogger, with
regular posts on Shelterforce, Mom’s Rising, Univision, and Huffington Post and serves on the boards of the Raza
Development Fund, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and Fair Mortgage Collaborative.
James (Jim) H. Carr
Housing Finance, Banking, and Urban Policy Consultant and Senior Policy Fellow
Opportunity Agenda
Jim Carr is a housing finance, banking, and urban policy consultant and senior policy fellow with the Opportunity
Agenda. Previously, he served as chief business officer for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, where
he managed minority- and women-owned business centers in Washington, DC; New York, NY; and Houston, TX .
Mr. Carr also formerly served as an executive of Fannie Mae and the Fannie Mae Foundation, visiting professor at
Columbia University, and assistant director for tax policy with the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. He has testified
frequently before Congress on issues related to the economy, housing markets, financial system regulatory reform,
wealth and income inequality, and economic mobility. Mr. Carr has appeared on most national cable news networks
including CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, MSNBC, FOX News and PBS. He has been an advisor to the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Urban Affairs Project Group in Paris and has served as an
international advisor on financial modernization, housing finance or economic development to many nations including
China, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa, and Colombia.
Michael Fratantoni
Vice President, Single-Family Research and Policy Development
Mortgage Bankers Association
Michael Fratantoni is vice president of single-family research and policy development for the Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA). He is responsible for managing MBA's industry surveys, economic and mortgage originations
forecasts, industry technology efforts, and policy development research for issues impacting single-family lending.
Additionally, Fratantoni is the executive director of MBA's Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA) and
president of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO). Fratantoni also staffs MBA's Risk
Management Forum.
Before joining MBA, Fratantoni was an economic strategist within the enterprise risk management group of
Washington Mutual. In this role, he was responsible for assessing macroeconomic, regional, and housing market
trends that impacted Washington Mutual's risk exposure and business prospects. He has also served as an adjunct
professor at the University of Washington, and Johns Hopkins, George Washington, and Georgetown universities
and has published papers in economics and real estate finance academic journals. Fratantoni has a B.A. in
economics from The College of William and Mary and a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Sarah Rosen Wartell
President
Urban Institute
Sarah Rosen Wartell became the third president of the Urban Institute in February 2012. A public policy executive
and housing markets expert, Ms. Wartell was President Bill Clinton's deputy assistant for economic policy and the
deputy director of his National Economic Council. In 2003, she cofounded the Center for American Progress, serving
as its first chief operating officer and general counsel. Later, as executive vice president, she oversaw its policy
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teams and fellows. Her work has focused on the economy and housing finance, mortgage markets, and consumer
protection. In 2012, she was named a “Woman of Influence” by HousingWire.
Ms. Wartell has an A.B. degree with honors in urban affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs and holds a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.
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