The COSCDA staff consists of an Executive Director, one professional, and one operations and office manager. The Executive Director has primary responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the organization. The advocacy and federal programs director is responsible for policy and advocacy matters in their respective program areas of community development, housing, homelessness, and disaster recovery as well as involvement in training and technical assistance. The operations and office manager has responsibility for membership and conferences, as well as day-to-day administrative issues. COSCDA utilizes the services of a Conference Training Coordinator and Comptroller on a contractual basis.
Tess Hembree is the Executive Director and has overall management responsibility for the operation of the organization, to include fiscal, staffing and operational. She has responsibility for membership services, internal management, external representation, including advocacy on a host of programmatic and regulatory issues of importance to the COSCDA members, policy development and ethics. Tess is the primary liaison to the COSCDA Board of Directors, the governing body of the organization.
Ms. Hembree comes to COSCDA from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), where her decade-long leadership on Congressional affairs and grassroots advocacy resulted in consistent advances and policy victories in affordable housing for members representing thousands of local housing agencies nationwide. She brings a total of nearly 15 years of experience developing and implementing strategies to produce tangible results in appropriations, regulatory efforts, and grassroots advocacy. Hembree has an Executive Masters in Public Administration from the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.
Jenna Hampton leads COSCDA’s government relations efforts as Director of Advocacy and Federal Programs. Representing COSCDA’s four mission areas of community development, housing, homelessness, and disaster recovery, she engages national stakeholders to ensure federal resources and policies adequately respond to state and local needs. Jenna has past experience advocating at the federal level for public housing, housing choice vouchers, resident services, and community development programs. She holds a Master of Social Work and a Master of Social Policy dual degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
Michael Lightfield is the Comptroller and has primary responsibility for COSCDA’s fiscal and budgetary issues. He is the President of Lightfield Wealth Management.
Angel Billingsley, Operations and Office Manager, is the key administrative support person for COSCDA. Her responsibilities include data base and web management, conference and training logistics, technical assistant for IT solutions, and membership.
Ed Geiger serves as the Conference Training Coordinator who manages the planning, organizing, and implementing of COSCDA’s annual trainings, specifically the Program Managers Meeting in late winter and the Annual Training Conference in the fall. He previously administered most of the community development and housing programs within the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). After nearly 33 years with Pennsylvania state government, Ed started Edge Strategic Consulting, which provides training, research, technical assistance, and strategic planning for housing and community development clients.
COSCDA is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of four officers (President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer), along with the immediate Past President, plus at-large members and the representatives elected from each of COSCDA’s four regions. The Board is COSCDA’s policy-making body, except when policy is made by vote of the members. Policy decisions must fit within COSCDA’s bylaws, our vision and mission statement along with the organizational strategic plan. The Board meets in person four times a year: at the Annual Training Conference in September; in December; in conjunction with the Program Managers Training Conferences in March and the first week in June. The Board also meets via telephone conference call the first Wednesday of each month. Each year, the COSCDA Board participates on organized teams and meets with key Congressional committee staff and senior leadership at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
630 Eye Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 293-5820
