CEO Today USA Awards

CEO Today USA Awards 2019 www.ceotodaymagazine.com - C A L I F O R N I A - 40 LISA A. BAKER CEO of Yolo County Housing ABOUT LISA A. BAKER In the time since Ms. Baker became CEO, she has doubled the agency’s annual budget, the agency has expanded into sustainable rehabilitation and development. They have created award winning housing in acquisition/rehabilitation from an energy perspective, conceived and implemented new types of specialty housing development, including post incarceration social reintegration and housing with wrap around services for those exiting homelessness. Ms. Baker has spearheaded and shepherded the agency’s affordable tax credit housing portfolio. Recognizing Ms. Baker’s success, she was named a 2019 Woman of Persistence by the League of California Cities Women’s Caucus and a Woman of the Year for California Congressional District 3 by Congressman John Garamendi. She is also the recipient of awards in sustainability and in advocating for equity in climate adaptation, receiving both a 2016 award from Cool Davis and a 2012 Breathe California Clean Air Champion award. Ms. Baker is currently Vice Chair of the Fannie Mae Duty to Serve PHA Advisory Counsel, a Cool Davis Fellow and a former President of the California Association of Housing Authorities. She serves as Vice Chair of the Planning Commission for the City of Winters and a board member for the California Coalition for Rural Housing. Ms. Baker’s career has included work in local government, private practice and in public housing authorities. She earned a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of California, Davis. She is the author of several articles in the field of housing and community development, most recently for a two-part series on implicit bias in housing and community development, “Walls and Bridges - Inside the Neuroscience of Implicit Bias,” published by the Journal of Housing and Community Development. FIRM PROFILE Yolo County Housing (YCH) is a California Public Housing Authority. YCH delivers service enriched housing and community development services primarily to households below 60% of area median income. YCH provides year round affordable housing to families, seniors, the disabled and to those exiting homelessness, as well as providing seasonal family farmworker housing, post incarceration step up housing and permanent supportive housing for formerly chronically homeless disabled persons and disabled U.S. veterans. Like many parts of the country, Yolo is experiencing a severe shortage of available and affordable housing, along with rising rents and high homeownership prices. YCH is at the forefront, along with the cities and county, in working collaboratively with jurisdictional, institutional and NGO partners to address these issues and provide workable solutions and new housing product types to meet need and demand. YCH is an industry leader in product innovation, collaboration and partnership, as well as housing support to service, healthcare and development providers. www.ych.ca.gov