Diane Yentel, veteran affordable housing policy expert and advocate, has been named as the new President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) by the coalition’s board of directors. She will replace Sheila Crowley, the coalition’s long time President and CEO, who is retiring. The transition will take place in April.

“Speaking on behalf of our entire board, I could not be more pleased that Diane will be the new head of NLIHC,” said Brenda Clement, Chair of the NLIHC Board. “She has the right combination of leadership skills, policy expertise, political savvy, and commitment to housing justice to be a perfect fit for our coalition. The people in our country who lack decent and affordable homes will be well served by NLIHC under Diane’s direction.”

Ms. Yentel is currently the Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs of Enterprise Community Partners, where she leads its federal, state and local policy, research and advocacy programs. She also worked at the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Office of Public and Indian Housing directing policy development and implementation for the Public Housing program, and as a Senior Domestic Policy Advisor for Oxfam America.

Ms. Yentel’s first job in Washington was for NLIHC, where she worked a Policy Analyst from 2005 to 2008. During her first year at NLIHC, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, displacing hundreds of thousands of low income people and damaging much of the region’s low cost housing stock. Diane led NLIHC’s efforts to advocate for an appropriate federal response by both Congress and the Administration.

Prior to her career in DC, Diane was the Housing Policy Coordinator for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. She was a volunteer with the United States Peace Corps working as a community development specialist in Zambia from 1995-1998. Diane is a graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook and has a Masters of Social Work from the University of Texas.

“I am honored by the opportunity to build on years of creating transformative public policy to help achieve NLIHC’s vision of assuring the lowest income people in our country have decent and affordable homes,” said Diane Yentel. “Given the extraordinary leadership of Sheila Crowley and the talented and dedicated board and staff at NLIHC, I have a tremendous foundation from which to sustain and expand our impact.”