Keynote Address
Dr. Jenny Schuetz
Dr. Jenny Schuetz leads Arnold Ventures’ infrastructure portfolio for housing. In this role, she oversees AV’s efforts to identify and enact policies that can successfully expand housing supply and make it easier to build more and different types of housing.
Jenny came to Arnold Ventures with more than 25 years of experience in housing policy as a professor, economist and author. She is a prolific writer on housing markets and authored the book, Fixer Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems.
Prior to joining AV, she was a senior fellow at Brookings Metro and adjunct lecturer in the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Georgetown University.
She previously worked as an economist for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, as a professor at the University of Southern California and City College of New York and as a senior research affiliate at New York University. She began her career at Abt Associates Inc.
She received a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University, a master’s in city planning from M.I.T., and a bachelor’s in economics and political and social thought from the University of Virginia.
Industry Update
Sarah Brundage
Sarah Brundage is the President and CEO of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL). Sarah served as the Senior Advisor for Housing Supply and Infrastructure in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She also served as General Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at HUD. Sarah led the Department’s efforts to enhance HUD programs that increase the production and supply of housing, including the execution of the Administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan. Sarah played a lead role in the implementation of the Interagency Taskforce on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) Action Plan. She also served as a senior policy advisor on the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Prior to HUD, Sarah was the Senior Policy Director at Enterprise Community Partners, where she co-led the national ACTION Campaign to strengthen and expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. She also led Enterprise’s state and local policy work in California and previously worked at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Sarah holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida and a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Sarah lives in Arlington with her husband and two sons.
Stephanie Watkins-Cruz
Stephanie Watkins-Cruz joined the NC Housing Coalition in August 2022 as the Director of Housing Policy. Stephanie is passionate about affordable housing, community engagement and creating bridges for effective and creative collaboration to address community needs. Prior to joining the Coalition, Stephanie worked as a Policy Analyst for Chatham County where she was responsible for developing and implementing affordable housing policies and programs, facilitating strategic planning efforts, and providing support to organization leaders, officials and community partners. She also worked as a Fellow with the Development Finance Institute at the UNC School of Government and as a Collaborative database Project Manager for the Chatham County Council on Aging. She has a master’s degree in City & Regional Planning and Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
For almost a decade, housing policy, access to education and equity have been her core interests. Over the course of Watkins-Cruz’s educational career, those interests have developed into a passion for identifying creative ways to create and preserve affordable housing and empowering communities through equitable development, neighborhood revitalization and capacity building.
It is Watkins-Cruz’s hope that throughout her career, she’s able to help connect stakeholders through effective and efficient processes that allow them to actually address the critical needs in their respective communities. She hopes to continue building her capacity to effectively navigate real estate development deals and serve as a productive partner in the world of affordable housing and community development finance for years to come.