After the Hurricanes: Reflections on Philanthropic Capital at Work with discussants Lorna Bourg, Kathy Laborde, Evelyn Brown, and moderator Darren Walker. Ben Johnson delivers the welcoming remarks.
Bio
Lorna Bourg
Lorna Bourg is the President, Executive Director, and Co-founder of SMHA. She has 40 Years of experience organizing in LA rural communities.
Evelyn Brown
Evelyn Brown is the Senior Vice President of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
Gregory Ben Johnson
Gregory Ben Johnson has served as President and CEO of The Greater New Orleans Foundation since 1991. Currently, he is chairman of the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute. He serves on the national board of the Council on Foundation?s Community Foundation Board, the Southeastern Council of Foundations, the Junior League Advisory Board, The New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Committee of the Council for a Better Louisiana. He has a Masters of Business Administration from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
Kathy Laborde
Kathy Laborde is the President of Gulf Coast Housing Partnership.
Kathy Laborde joined the staff of the Network in January 2006 to createthe Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP), which is operated by the Housing Partnership Network.
Over the past ten years, while serving as developer, project manager,and consultant, Ms. Laborde has developed more than two thousand affordable and market-rate homes both directly and in partnership with local nonprofits, city and state government, and the private sector. Prior to joining the Network, Ms. Laborde operated Kaliope, LLC, a real estate development and consulting company which she established in 1999. Previously, she was founder and executive director of the first bank-owned community development corporation in Louisiana. Before settling in Louisiana, Ms. Laborde held a variety of management positions with private sector real estate developers in Missouri and North Carolina.
Ms. Laborde holds a BS in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and an MBA from Tulane University. She is a 2006 recipient of City Business' Women of the Year Award and prior recipient of the YWCA's Role Model Award. She serves as a board member of the Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard Merchants Association and the New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative. She is currently serving as the chairman of the Parkway Partners Board of Directors.
Kate Starr
Kate Starr is an Investment Officer at the FB Heron Foundation, and chair of the PRI Conference 2008.
Darren Walker
Darren Walker is Vice President, Foundation Initiatives of the Rockefeller Foundation where he leads the Foundation’s work in the United States in New York, New Orleans and national policy. Mr. Walker also oversees a new exploration that addresses the transformation of cities and economies in the Global South as a result of urbanization and its impact on poor and vulnerable communities.
Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Mr. Walker served as Chief Operating Officer of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, a faith-based community development organization in Harlem. There he lead efforts that resulted in the development of over 1,000 units of housing for low- and moderate-income residents; Harlem’s first large-scale privately financed commercial project in over 30 years, a Pathmark Supercenter; and construction of the Thurgood Marshall Academy—the first public school ever built by a community organization in NYC.
He began his career in 1986 at the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. In 1988, he joined the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), where he spent seven years in its capital markets division. In 1995, after leaving UBS, Mr. Walker worked for a year as a full-time volunteer staff member at the Children's Storefront School, an elementary school serving low-income families in Harlem. Mr. Walker is a 1982 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he was named one of ten “Dean’s Distinguished Graduates”. In 1986 he graduated from the University of Texas School of Law and received the Law Alumni Association "Outstanding Graduate Award." He attended the Kennedy School of Government's State and Local Government Leaders Program as a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow.
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