MODERATOR

David Brand

WNYC-Gothamist

David is a reporter covering housing for WNYC-Gothamist. He previously worked at City Limits, the Queens Daily Eagle and as a licensed social worker.

PANELIST

Lorraine Collins

Government Relations and Public Affairs Manager, Northeast Region

Zillow Group

Lorraine Collins is the northeast region Government Relations and Public Affairs Manager for Zillow Group. In this role, Lorraine develops and executes a regional state and local government relations strategy focused on the real estate industry and other issue areas critical to Zillow Group’s business. Prior to joining Zillow, Lorraine managed the public policy and external affairs team for Enterprise Community Partners’ New York market office. In this capacity, Lorraine led several public policy efforts focused on addressing affordable housing and community development issues across New York State. Lorraine began her extensive affordable housing career in state government, having spent most of her time in the public sector at New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). She held numerous roles at HCR, including Assistant Commissioner and founding Director of the agency’s Fair and Equitable Housing Office (FEHO).

PANELIST

Angella Davidson

Program Director

NHS Brooklyn

Angella Davidson hails from Jamaica, West Indies. She is the Program Director for the Foreclosure Intervention Program at Neighborhood Housing Services of Brooklyn CDC, Inc. (NHS Brooklyn), a nonprofit housing counseling agency, where she oversees the Canarsie office. In addition to being a HUD-certified Housing Counselor, Ms. Davidson is one of only seven housing counselors in New York State certified in Reverse Mortgage Counseling. Her areas of expertise range from foreclosure avoidance, loss mitigation, financial coaching, and reverse mortgage to estate planning, training and development, and emergency preparedness and response. Her certifications include homeownership counseling and not just of first-time home buyers, but of program managers and executive directors. After working on Wall Street in the financial industry for fifteen years, Angella joined NHS Brooklyn in 2008, where she remains committed to helping hundreds of clients a year to avoid the trauma of foreclosure, strengthen their financial capability, and build intergenerational wealth. Angella holds Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degrees from Bernard M. Baruch College (CUNY).

PANELIST

Tanya Dwyer

Director of Foreclosure Prevention

Legal Services of Hudson Valley

Tanya Dwyer, Esq. founded and operated a law firm for 10 years, primarily preventing foreclosures in Brooklyn, NY. During this time, she was selected as a 2016 TED Resident. She presented her TED Talk, “Brooklyn is Magic,” about the vast economic potential of the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Ms. Dwyer earned her law degree from George Washington University. She interned at the United Nations on the Right to Adequate Housing, the Ugandan Woman’s Lawyers Association (traveling throughout Uganda and informing women of their newly-granted Constitutional rights), and the D.C. Office of Human Rights.

In 2018, Ms. Dwyer joined the Foreclosure Unit at Legal Services of Hudson Valley and is presently the Director of Foreclosure Prevention. There, she drafted the firm’s first amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court for a case that was decided unanimously in favor of homeowners. She is presently advocating for the Violence Against Women Act to be applied equally to survivors who own homes as it is to survivors who rent their homes.

PANELIST

Brendan Cheney

Director of Policy and Operations

New York Housing Conference

Brendan Cheney is the director of policy and operations at the New York Housing Conference. He has worked on New York housing and homelessness policy for the past 18 years. Most recently he worked at Gateway Housing doing policy research focused on the city’s homelessness challenges. Before that Brendan worked as a data and policy reporter at Politico New York, often writing about homelessness and housing. Brendan also worked for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn as a senior policy analyst focusing on housing issues and worked as a budget and policy analyst at the New York City Independent Budget Office, analyzing the city’s housing and homelessness funding and programs.