Two receive leadership award from Housing Studies

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and the NeighborWorks Network of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation have named Sarah Karlinsky and Madeleine Pill as the two Harvard recipients of the Emerging Leaders in Community and Economic Development Fellowship program.

Karlinsky, a master of public policy and urban planning candidate at the Kennedy School of Government has experience in education and rehabilitation in urban neighborhoods. Pill, a master of public administration candidate, also at the Kennedy School, is a British citizen who served as manager of an urban redevelopment program in central London. Each fellow will develop an analytical project based on 10 weeks of on-site experience.

“The first-year of the Fellows Program exceeded all of our expectations,” said Margo Kelly, deputy executive director of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. “The two fellows plunged into two substantive, timely issues with a thorough and disciplined approach. As a result, the dialogue among practitioners on the issues of predatory lending and expiring use restrictions for multifamily properties became more focused, more strategic, and more productive.”

Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, commented, “This Fellowship Program represents a unique opportunity for Harvard students to learn from and contribute to the task of community building. We are pleased to join with the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation – an outstanding not-for-profit intermediary dedicated to revitalizing and sustaining communities throughout this nation.”

Karlinsky will be based in Boston for the summer, working on the topic of “Balanced Growth” – highlighting the important role that community development organizations play in creating a viable alternative to sprawling suburban development.

Pill will focus her analysis on the topic of the linkage between employment and housing – analyzing the roles of public, private, and nonprofit sectors in employer-assisted housing.

Each project will be advised by members of the Joint Center and Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and will culminate in the publication of a Joint Center working paper and public presentation of the studies’ findings.