Jens Ludwig is the McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law and Public Policy at the University of Chicago, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and nonresident senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. His research focuses on urban policy challenges related to poverty, including in the areas of housing, crime, education and health. Since 1995 he has been involved in the study of HUD’s Moving to Opportunity (MTO) residential mobility experiment and for the past several years has also been working with Brian Jacob to study the city of Chicago’s housing voucher program. His research has been published in leading scientific journals across a range of disciplines, including Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, American Economic Review, and American Journal of Sociology. In 2012 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.

Robin Snyderman has been providing leadership in the housing and community development arena for 25 years. Currently a Non Resident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution, she is also a Founder and Principal with the "collaborative management" and consulting firm, BRicK Partners, LLC.  With BRicK Partners, since 2012, Robin and her colleagues have supported a number of catalytic initiatives for the Regional Housing Initiative, Cook County, the Illinois Attorney General and other local and national leaders working to align public and private sector priorities and resources at the appropriate, place-based scale.   A native of the Chicago area, Robin served as Vice President of Community Development for the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) from 2006 through 2012, after initially joining as housing director in 1998. While at MPC, Robin managed the launch and growth of several nationally recognized efforts, promoting regional collaborations and securing resources for trailblazing initiatives in the areas of interjurisdictional municipal coordination, employer-assisted housing, public housing reform and local, state and federal policy innovation.  Prior to her work at MPC, Robin worked for 10 years with San Francisco's Mission Housing Development Corporation, where she shaped its supportive housing strategy and managed several developments.  Robin is a board member of the Illinois Housing Council, Heartland Housing, and The South Suburban Land Bank and Development Authority.  She is a Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago, a graduate of Colorado College and Harvard University's Executive Education Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government, within the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and completed terms of service for the City of Evanston's Housing Commission, for the affordable housing committee of the Federal Home Loan Bank, and as faculty at Northwestern University's Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration Program.

Carol Naughton, the recently appointed President of Purpose Built Communities, helped found Purpose Built Communities and served as Senior Vice President since 2009. She previously served for seven years as the Executive Director of the East Lake Foundation, the community quarterback organization that developed and continues to implement the model of successful community revitalization that helps families break the cycle of poverty which Purpose Built Communities is charged with replicating around the country. An expert in public/private partnerships, Carol has crafted groundbreaking alliances in housing and education. Prior to joining the East Lake Foundation, she was General Counsel and Deputy Executive Director for Legal and Nonprofit Affairs for the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) where she served as a key member of the leadership team that brought AHA from the brink of receivership to national recognition as a sophisticated, progressive sponsor of affordable housing programs and community development. While at AHA, Ms. Naughton played a significant role in developing the legal and financial model for mixed income housing.

Mark Joseph is an Associate Professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and Director of the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities. His current research focuses on mixed-income development as a strategy for addressing urban poverty, with particular attention to transforming public housing developments. He has conducted and supported research and evaluation of mixed-income developments in Akron, Chicago, San Francisco and in the first five Choice Neighborhood Initiative sites and recently completed a survey of 60 mixed-income developments. His co-authored book Integrating the Inner City: The Promise and Perils of Mixed-Income Public Housing Transformation will be published by the University of Chicago Press in November 2015. He received his Ph.D. from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and was a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University. He is the Vice-Chair of the Board of the Center for the Study of Social Policy, based in Washington, D.C.