OUR TEAM
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together"
Vincent van Gogh
BOARD
GOVERNANCE & SUSTAINABILITY
MARILYN MELKONAIN
FOUNDER & CHAIR
Marilyn is the CEO and founder of Telesis Corporation which plans, finances, and rebuilds urban communities, and founder of Neighborhood Associates and the National Housing Trust. She serves on the boards of Common Cause and the Brookings Institute’s Center on Urban & Metropolitan Policy. During the Carter Administration, she was the Deputy Assistant Undersecretary of HUD. She contributed to the Repairing the Breach report which still guides Neighborhood Associates' work.
ROBERT HACKETT
VICE CHAIR
Bobby has served as the President of the Bonner Foundation since 2010. Prior to Bonner, he worked at the affordable housing development firm, Telesis, and also served as managing director of the Campus Outreach Opportunity League. For the past 20 years, he has worked in various capacities with the Youth Policy Institute, an organization that researches and reports on youth-related policies and programs. Bobby earned his Bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1985 and received an MBA from Yale University's School of Organization and Management in 1990.
RON GRYZWINSKI
TREASURER
Ron is a community development banker and one of four founders of ShoreBank. He retired as chair of ShoreBank Corporation in 2010 and became an advisor to its Board of Directors. He assisted with the establishment of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the Southern Development Bank Corporation in rural Arkansas. In 2007, he helped launch ShoreBank Pacific, the nation’s first bank formed to support environmentally sustainable development.
GLORIA COUSAR
DIRECTOR
Gloria has an extensive career in the fields of housing, community building, and neighborhood revitalization. Her executive experience is rooted in the public sector as a former administrator of multiple housing programs for HUD, and in the private sector as a consultant, entrepreneur, and CEO. She is also a board member of the National Alliance for Resident Services in Affordable and Assisted Housing (NAR-SAAH). She holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs and Urban Planning from Princeton University
VIRGINA HARRISON
DIRECTOR
It is with great sadness that we share that Virginia "V V" Harrison passed away in October 2020, after a brief illness. Her spirit lives on in the lives she touched through her writing and philanthropy, and in the organizations she helped develop. She will be missed by all at Neighborhood Associates.
STAFF
GROWING OPPORTUNITIES FOR RESILIENT NEIGHBORHOODS
DR. BOBBY WILLIAM AUSTIN
PRESIDENT
Bobby Austin has been a recognized leader in the fields of leadership, sociology, Public Kinship, and American culture for over 40 years.
His co-chairmanship of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Task Force on African American Men and Boys led to the groundbreaking report Repairing the Breach: Key Ways to Support Family Life, Reclaim our Streets, and Rebuild Civil Society in America’s Communities, which he authored, and which the Washington Post’s Bill Raspberry called “the plan to save America.” The 2014 Harvard Graduate School of Education conference “Revisiting Repairing the Breach” reflected on the ongoing urgency of Dr. Austin’s recommendations.
He is also the author of The Acacia Strategy; I’ll Make Me a World; “21st-Century Leadership in the African American Community” (with Andrew J. Young); and many other books and articles. He founded the Urban League Review and the Village Foundation. He has lectured on Public Kinship, common culture, peace studies, and African American men and boys around the US; at the UN; at TEDx; at the Salzburg Seminar (Austria); and in Hiroshima (Japan) and Nassau (Bahamas). He delivered the keynote address at the opening of the James Macgregor Burns Academy of Leadership at Churchill College, Cambridge in 2017. In 1982-83, he served as Research Director of the DC Statehood Constitutional Convention.
Dr. Austin is also a creative artist of long standing. In 2009, upon publication of his short story collection Circus Clowns and Carnival Animals, he was a PEN/Faulkner Author in the DC Public Schools. Juba, his Black American folklore for children TV series, aired on PBS (WETA) in 1978. With Joy Ford Austin, he wrote and produced Frederick Douglass, a docu-drama presented on the grounds of the Douglass Home and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1980).
Dr. Austin is Mahatma Gandhi Fellow at the American Academy of Political and Social Science, serves on the World Board of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and holds membership in the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller.
DR. ALEX BAIN
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
Alex has 20 years of experience in higher education and the humanities as a professor, researcher, and writer. Throughout his career, he has been a strong advocate for the centrality of culture and the arts in building civic engagement and resilient public spheres in American life. Alex leads Neighborhood Associates' media and outreach efforts to bridge the arts and civic dialogue. Prior to Neighborhood Associates, Alex served as a strategic planning consultant and program manager for Humanities DC, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was also a professor of 20th-century literature and culture at major universities in Oklahoma, California, and New Jersey. Dr. Bain holds a Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University.
AFNAN RASHID
VICE PRESIDENT
Afnan develops programs and partnerships with our allied communities. Before joining Neighborhood Associates in 2015, he was the Program Manager for a joint AmeriCorps VISTA Program between the Bonner Foundation and NJ Campus Compact. The program supported building the capacity of city-wide coalitions across NJ with varied anti-poverty missions including access to care, college access, and youth development. Afnan has also worked for a progressive Detroit Congressman and for Kaplan Test Prep, and has interned at the Grameen Bank. He graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in economics.
MING LOWE
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Ming has dedicated much of his professional career to the field of education. As a recruiter, placement specialist, supervisor, mentor, evaluator, and program coordinator, he facilitates opportunities to help people thrive – individually and collectively. Ming holds a JD from The George Washington University Law School and a BA from Cornell College. He has an Experiential Education Academy certification from the National Society for Experiential Education and a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certification from the Council on International Educational Exchange. He is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.
NANCY HALL
ACTING CFO
Nancy serves as the Acting Chief Financial Officer for Neighborhood Associates. With over 30 years of experience in the legal structure and finances of nonprofits, Nancy has assisted in the start-up and merger of hundreds of NGOs. She is currently the president of 501(c) Solutions and an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she teaches courses on nonprofit management, governance, and finance. Nancy was one of the first women to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School.
NICHOLAS DROZDIAK
GREEN INITIATIVES ASSOCIATE
Nick is passionate about urban gardening and farming. He leads the development and fundraising for community gardens at our three Washington, DC communities. Nick has updated the Paradise at Parkside Apartments community garden by founding a Paradise Gardening Club and adding low-maintenance hydroponic growing towers. He continues to raise funds and work with residents to further advance the project. He is also a financial risk analyst, entrepreneur, and an ultra-marathon runner. Nick holds an MBA from Vlerick Business School and a Masters of Finance degree from the Luxembourg School of Finance.
RESEARCH
FELLOWS OF THE REPAIRING THE BREACH INSTITUTE
DR. KARINA KOROSTELINA
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
DR. SABINE O'HARA
URBAN AGRICULTURE
COMMUNITY
BUILDING PUBLIC KINSHIP EVERY DAY
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATE
ROBERT S. JERVAY PLACE
WILMINGTON, NC
RESIDENT SERVICES COORDINATOR
BASS CIRCLE
WASHINGTON, DC
COMMUNITY COORDINATOR
BRADENTON VILLAGE
BRADENTON, FL
QUINCY SPRUELL
COMMUNITY CONNECTOR
BARCLAY COMMUNITY
BALTIMORE, MD
CONTACT
1101 30th St NW, Fourth Floor
Washington, DC 20007
Office: (202) 333-8447
