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Barry Zigas is Director of Housing Policy for Consumer Federation of
America. He joined CFA in October, 2008.
He also consults
with foundations, nonprofits and others in the areas of strategy, policy
development and program development through his consulting practice,
Zigas and Associates LLC, founded in 2006. His clients have included
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Neighborworks
America, the Ford Foundation, the National Housing Trust, Low Income
Investment Fund, NCB Capital Impact, National League of cities, the US
Treasury’s CDFI Office, Mercy Housing, Inc., and UniDev LLC.
Prior to founding
Zigas and Associates LLC in 2006, Zigas was a senior vice president at
Fannie Mae where he led the corporation’s community lending initiatives,
including specialized mortgage product development to increase
homeownership opportunities for low and moderate income borrowers and
underserved communities; investments in CDFIs; Fannie Mae’s investments
supporting homeownership education and counseling; and corporate and
regulatory housing goals reporting.
Zigas was president
of the National Low Income Housing Coalition from September, 1984 until
joining Fannie Mae in 1993. In this position, Zigas led the policy
development and advocacy efforts that resulted in the low-income housing
tax credit in 1986. He played a leading role in the creation and
enactment of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990, particularly
in developing the HOME program. He testified frequently before
committees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S.
Senate, and was a member of the Rouse-Maxwell Housing Commission from
1988-89 and the Mitchell-Danforth Tax Credit Task Force in 1987.
Before that, Zigas
was with the US Conference of Mayors for eight years as the senior staff
person for the organization’s housing, community, and economic
development policies. He began his career in 1973 as a staff writer for
the Housing and Development Reporter, published at that time by
the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
Zigas serves as a
Trustee of Enterprise Community Partners and on the boards of the Low
Income Investment Fund; the National Housing Conference; Mercy Housing,
Inc. in Denver, CO; and the Avalon Theater Project, a nonprofit
community owned movie theater, in Washington, DC. He also served in the
past as a board member of the American Homeownership Education and
Counseling Institute, and the Fannie Mae Foundation.
Zigas has a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in history from Grinnell
College where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received a Wingspread
Fellowship from the Johnson Foundation. He also is a 1997 graduate of
the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School of Business,
University of Pennsylvania.
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