Advisors
Joel Bookman, MetroEdge Advisor and Director of Programs for LISC Chicago (jbookman-at-lisc-dot-org)
Joel Bookman is the Director of Programs for LISC/Chicago. Prior to joining LISC in 2005, he was a consultant in strategic planning, economic and real estate development, and nonprofit management. His clients include neighborhood organizations, businesses, institutions, foundations, and government agencies.
From 1997 through 2001, Mr. Bookman was Executive Director of the North River Commission, a 42-year old consortium of 100 civic associations, block clubs, businesses, and institutions. He led a comprehensive community development organization with programs in housing, economic development, education, environment, and community organizing. From 1978 to 2001, he served as Executive Director of LADCOR, one of the nation's preeminent and oldest community-based economic development corporations, located in the multiethnic, low and moderate income Albany Park community on Chicago's northwest side. LADCOR is responsible for more than $150 million in neighborhood investment, resulting in the creation or retention of more than 3,500 jobs. In 1987, Mr. Bookman became CEO of the newly-formed Kimball Plaza Development Corporation. KPDC planned, packaged, developed, and owned the $2 million, 17,000 square foot Kimball Plaza Shopping Center, at the terminal of the Ravenswood "el" line at Lawrence and Kimball Avenues.
Mr. Bookman is a co-founder, past president, and past chairman of the board of the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations (CANDO), and a member of the Metropolitan Planning Council. He has been a panelist and participant on programs for WBEZ, WLS, and WBBM radio and NBC and CNN television. He has served as an appointee to the Mayor's Task Force on Navy Pier, the Retail Chicago Planning Committee, and the Chicago Economic Development Commission Strategic Planning Committee. He is a founding member of the Chicagoland Transportation and Air Quality Commission.
Chris Walker, MetroEdge Advisor and Director of Research and Assessment for LISC National (cwalker-at-lisc-dot-org)
Chris Walker is Director of Research and Assessment for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the nation’s foremost community development intermediary. He is responsible for assembling, conducting, sponsoring, and disseminating high-quality research on community development’s contributions to the well-being of individuals, families and communities. He also supports the research activities of the 27 LISC local programs throughout the United States.
Currently, he directs a multi-site assessment of LISC’s new comprehensive community change initiative, is principle investigator of a study on the impacts of low-income housing tax credit projects on neighborhoods and families, and provides senior research support to LISC-MetroEdge – a consulting practice devoted to uncovering hidden retail potential in low-income urban neighborhoods. In recent months, he has carried out extensive research on the patterns and performance of residential mortgage loans across the nation’s cities and neighborhoods.
Prior to joining LISC in late 2005, Mr. Walker was director of the community and economic development program of the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, where he worked for 19 years.
Francisca Winston, MetroEdge Advisor and Research and Assessment Program Officer for LISC National (fwinston-at-lisc-dot-org)
A Research Associate at LISC since September 2005, Francisca Winston has an academic background in mathematics, statistics and public policy. One of her largest projects at LISC is to construct and update a national neighborhood monitoring database that houses census tract and ZIP code level data on neighborhoods. The data are drawn from various Federal agencies, including the US Census, Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, Internal Revenue Service, United State Postal Service, and Department of Education. She is currently using the database to create neighborhood reports on 50 LISC communities. Each report identifies levels and trends of critical neighborhood quality indicators in the target neighborhood. The levels and trends are compared to a statistically similar set of low-income neighborhoods in the same city.
In addition, Ms. Winston applies her GIS mapping skills to a variety of projects at LISC. She contributes to LISC Research and Assessment’s ongoing analysis of home foreclosures and subprime mortgage loans. In 2007 she created maps of all LISC local program areas to identify neighborhoods at highest risk of concentrated foreclosure. She also produces current neighborhood foreclosure maps for various LISC departments and offices. Ms. Winston has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Williams College and earned a Master’s of Science in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in 2005.