Joel Owens, Director

B: 330-458-0962 / F: 330-454-5855 / M: 330-329-5417 / E: jowens@communitybuildingpartnership.org

Joel is a national community development practitioner and consultant with over 25 years of non-profit experience in a variety of local and national settings. Joel began his career in community work as a community organizer and later as Director of Housing for the Massillon Urban League in Massillon, Ohio. Joel has been associated with the NeighborWorks® Network since 1980, when he served as the first executive director of Neighborhood Conservation Services of Barberton (Ohio). He joined the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation in 1984 and worked extensively with national neighborhood strategist David Boelhke on neighborhood strategic planning, community self-reliance, and neighborhood impact processes. Later, Joel served as director for the Mutual Housing Association national demonstration project in Baltimore, Maryland before joining the program review department of Neighborhood Reinvestment in 1987. As a senior member of program review, Joel managed organizational evaluations of many of the larger Network organizations, lead review teams, and trained new review officers and consultants. After 12 years of service with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation in Baltimore, Joel returned to his home state of Ohio to be the executive director of the Neighborhood Housing Services of Cleveland. In 1998, he opened his own full-time consulting practice specializing in community revitalization planning, organizational development and evaluation, interim management services, community lending, and non-profit program operations. Altogether, Joel has worked with over 125 organizations and communities during his career. Joel has a MA in City and Regional Planning, with a specialty in community economic development from Pratt Institute in New York City, a BS in Psychology from Malone College, as well as being a graduate of the Development Training Institute’s National Internship in Community Economic Development. He has been recognized as a community development practitioner and advisor in Who’s Who in the East. He has taught a variety of neighborhood revitalization courses at the Neighborhood Reinvestment Training Institute since the mid-eighties. Joel lives in the Portage Lakes region of Akron, Ohio with his wife Vicki and son Alex. He enjoys golf, kayaking, and amateur astronomy as well being an active performing musician in the region.

Aaron Brown, Healthy Neighborhoods Program Manager

B: 330-458-0962 / F: 330-454-5855 / M: 330-209-8678 / E: abrown@communitybuildingpartnership.org

Brenda Turner, Healthy Neighborhoods Projects Coordinator

B: 330-458-0962 / F: 330-454-5855 / M: 330-413-6224 / E: bturner@communitybuildingpartnership.org