The Just Home steering committee provides guidance that informs the Urban Institute's site coordination and technical assistance efforts. The committee consists of 9 members who each bring a range of experience and expertise, including lived experience with homelessness, professional experience building affordable housing, and experience with or working within the criminal legal system.
Willette Benford
Senior Advisor, Office of MK Pritzker
Willette Benford is a fierce advocate for criminal legal system reform and an expert on re-entry. Willette Benford currently serves as Senior Advisor to Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker. She supports the First Lady in her role as First Lady and advises her on women’s re-entry issues and her justice portfolio. Prior to her work with the Pritzker Administration, Willette held the historic role of being the first Director of Re-entry for the City of Chicago and served under two administrations. In that role, she led the mayor’s Interagency Re-entry Council, which utilized a whole-of-government and cross-sector approach to supporting justice-involved residents and giving them the opportunities and support necessary to thrive. Her advocacy began while she was incarcerated focusing on improving conditions for women and elevating their needs and concerns toward humane and dignified treatment throughout IDOC. Upon her release, her advocacy continued as she led decarcerating work at Live Free Illinois, which is a faith-based organization that works to end gun violence, mass incarceration, and police violence in black and brown communities. Willette has received numerous awards and recognition for her contributions to re-entry and justice advocacy. She serves on Governor Pritzker’s Crime Reduction Task Force and Domestic Violence Pretrial Task Force and was a member of Lt. Governor Stratton’s Children of Incarcerated Parents Task Force. She is a 2021 Community Change Women’s Fellow and a 2021 Soros Justice Fellow, where she created the Cost of Dignity Project that supports and elevates the leadership development of Black women impacted by the criminal legal system to lead criminal justice reform work. Willette is a proud wife, mother, and minister. She resides on Chicago’s South Side.
Michael Bodaken
Former President, National Housing Trust
From 1993 to 2018, Michael Bodaken served as head of the National Housing Trust (NHT). During his tenure at the organization, Bodaken served as president of NHT, NHT-Enterprise Preservation Corporation (NHT-Enterprise), and the National Housing Community Development Fund (NHTCDF). Bodaken was largely responsible for the growth of the organization into an industry leader affordable housing and “green preservation,” targeting grants and loans for energy retrofits of affordable housing. Under his leadership, NHT won the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative & Effective Institutions. He was a cofounder of "Energy Efficiency for All," a unique collaboration between NHT, NRDC, and the Energy Foundation. NHT is responsible for financing and preserving more than 30,000 affordable homes throughout the nation, leveraging more than $1 billion in financing. Before joining NHT, Bodaken worked as deputy mayor for housing for the City of Los Angeles. Bodaken is currently a consultant for the Center for Community Investment and is teaching part time at the University of Maryland.
JūLondré Brown
Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Belonging, The Bay School of San Francisco
JūLondré Brown is a creative strategist, social researcher, DEIB practitioner and school leader from Flint, Michigan. Brown works with mission-driven organizations and communities to enhance impact toward justice and an improved lived experience for those systemically pushed to the margins of society. Currently Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Belonging at The Bay School of San Francisco, Brown was a senior research team member of The Learning Race Lab at New York University; senior program manager for equity initiatives at the Center for Justice Innovation; and, most recently, Director of Community, Equity, and Inclusion at The Bush School in Seattle. Brown earned a BA in anthropology from Yale University, as a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Millennium Scholar, and served on the Minority Advisory Council. Brown has been a fellow with the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School and holds an MA in educational leadership, politics and advocacy from New York University.
Jon Christian
Lived Experience/Expertise Advisor, Corporation for Supportive Housing
Jon Christian is a lived experience/expertise advisor. He was unhoused from the age of 18 until becoming permanently housed in January 2019. He currently lives in Lancaster, CA, and used to live in Pasadena, CA, where he went through the Union Station Homeless Services (USHS) shelter. In 2021, Christian became a graduate of SpeakUp, which is a supportive housing community advocate training program run by the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) in Los Angeles. He has attended and participated in upwards of 20 focus groups and advocacy events for CSH. In addition, Christian is a member of the lived expertise advisory panel for USHS and a member of HUD's resident advisory board. Recently, Christian has been consulting with Redstone Strategy Group, where he provides analysis and recommendations for the governance of housing in Los Angeles County.
Charles Frances
Deputy Program Director, Behavioral Health, The Council of State Governments Justice Center
Charles Francis oversees work at the intersection of housing, criminal justice, and behavioral health. He focuses on strategies for state and local partners to increase access to and availability of housing to reduce justice system involvement and facilitate successful reentry, as well as effective law enforcement and community responses to homelessness. Previously, Charley was assistant director of Leased Housing at Rhode Island Housing and director of Policy for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. At the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, he played a lead role in implementing the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. Charley holds an MPP from the Heller School for Social Policy at Brandeis University and a BA from Hamilton College.
Jane Graf
Retired President and CEO, Mercy Housing, Inc
Jane Graf began her career in not-for-profit, affordable housing in Oregon in 1978 through her involvement in housing issues affecting persons with disabilities. In 1981, she founded Specialized Housing, Inc., a not-for-profit housing development corporation that serves persons with developmental disabilities throughout the State of Oregon. She served as its first Executive Director for 6 years. In 1987, Graf left Oregon and joined Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in San Francisco, California as the Director of Housing Development and doubled its production of affordable housing over the next 6 years. In 1993, Catholic Charities Housing Department merged into and became part of the national Mercy Housing organization and Graf became President of the Mercy Housing California region. During her early tenure in that role, she was responsible for expanding Mercy Housing California’s portfolio to include supportive housing serving formerly homeless as well as continuing the robust expansion of family and senior housing throughout the Bay Area. In July 2014 Graf was appointed President and CEO of Mercy Housing responsible for the full scope of the organization with 5,000+ employees including, but not limited to, Mercy Community Capital, a certified CDFI, Mercy Services, a full service property management company, and real estate development operations led by its 5 regional offices located in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Denver and Atlanta. When Graf retired from Mercy Housing in July 2020 after 33 years of service, the organization owned and operated over 25,000 affordable rental homes nationwide. Current board affiliations include: Chair of the Board of the National Affordable Housing Trust; Director and Chair of the Governance committee of the National Equity Fund; Director and Chair of the Real Estate Development Committee of Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. Graf received a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from the University of Oregon and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Minnesota.
Regina “Regi” Huerter
Senior Project Associate, II, Policy Research Associates, Inc.
Regina “Regi” Huerter retired from the City and County of Denver in 2017 after 25 years of service to join Policy Research Associates, Inc. as a senior project associate, II. Before joining PRA, she was the executive director of the Denver Office of Behavioral Health Strategies, and the Crime Prevention and Control Commission for the City and County of Denver. In this capacity she led juvenile and adult criminal legal system and behavioral health reform resulting in improved system efficiency, and effective policy and practices with a focus on addressing the needs of individuals with behavioral health, brain injury, trauma, housing instability, and those with complex needs. The result is a comprehensive array of alternatives for individuals in crisis, and improved access, availability and capacity of treatment, and housing and other supports for justice-involved individuals.
Ryan Moser
Vice President for Strategy and Impact, CSH
Ryan Moser is an innovator and a futurist. Always working to stay ahead of the curve, Ryan has developed housing and services initiatives addressing the complex intersections of health, human services, justice and housing. Currently the Vice President for Strategy and Impact, Ryan is responsible for CSH’s Data & Analytics, Strategic Alignment, and Impact Investment portfolios. Ryan is a national thought leader helping to define impact and pursue scale to meet the demands for supportive housing. Prior to joining CSH, Ryan facilitated the first housing placement for FUSE, a CSH Signature Initiative for high utilizers of public services. At CSH Ryan has held multiple roles, leading work in New York, the Eastern United States and Nationally. Ryan excels at achieving high stakes goals through effective collaboration. Recent accomplishments include the development of the nation’s first national needs assessment and Impact Investment model for supportive housing. Ryan is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, ceramicist and guitarist with a BA from the University of Richmond and an M Ed from Pennsylvania State University. When Ryan isn’t at work he’s probably chasing after his kid and happy to be doing it.
Helen “Skip” Skipper
Executive Director, NYC Justice Peer Initiative
Helen Skipper ("Skip") has been working in peer support since her release from incarceration in 2007. She previously was the senior manager of peer services at the New York City Criminal Justice Agency. In this position, she was intentional about creating space for individuals with lived experiences. In March 2022, she became the executive director at the NYC Justice Peer Initiative. Skipper was formerly a community research assistant at Urban Institute. In this role, she worked on several research initiatives representing community voices and lived experiences. In her academics, Skip is a rising senior pursuing a degree in criminal justice at St. Francis College. She is also a Beyond-the-Bars 20/21 Fellow and a Justice-in-Education scholar at Columbia University. Previously, Skipper held several leadership positions as the inaugural executive chair of the NYC Peer Workforce Coalition and an executive team member of the NYC Justice Peer Initiative. Skipper was also previously a peer supervisor for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She lives by her mantra: "I've been around the block a time or two on my tricycle and use those lived experiences to color my world while assisting, supporting, advocating, and navigating for those still caught up in the oppressive and broken criminal justice system!"
