T4America co-chair appointed to HUD

Expected to head new office

Steve Hawley, Jul 29, 09.

Shelley Poticha, president of Reconnecting America and co-chair of Transportation for America (T4America), has been appointed as Senior Advisor for Sustainable Housing and Communities at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to T4America.

The article notes that Poticha is expected to be named as head of a new HUD Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities later this year. The office would be created by legislation sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut.

T4America states:

As president and CEO of the national nonprofit Reconnecting America since 2004, [Poticha] has become a national leader for the reform of land use and transportation planning and policy. In that role, and as former executive director of the Congress for the New Urbanism, she has helped stimulate a national conversation about the role of transportation in shaping communities and making them more sustainable and affordable. She also has been a tireless advocate for diverse and inclusive neighborhoods.

In addition, the group says, “Poticha has helped forge an inter-agency partnership between HUD and the Federal Transit Administration to link transit and land use policy and funding, and to study the interplay between housing and transportation costs.”