Profile

Dee Walsh has been the Executive Director of REACH Community Development since 1990. REACH is a 29-year old nonprofit community development corporation that provides innovative affordable housing solutions for lower income renters and home buyers in the Portland metro area.

Under Dee’s leadership, REACH has developed or preserved 1000 units of affordable housing, bringing REACH’s total portfolio to 1400 units. Dee has also conceptualized and implemented programs to revitalize inner-city residential areas and business districts and created programs to build assets for residents of REACH-owned housing.
Dee is responsible for the overall management of REACH, which has a staff of 94 and a consolidated annual budget of $11 million.

Prior to working with REACH, Ms. Walsh worked for ten years in the field of housing and community development with both public and private firms, including: Pacific Power and the cities of Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis.

Ms. Walsh holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the University of Washington and a certificate of completion from Harvard University for the Achieving Excellence in Community Development program. Walsh received the Gretchen Miller Kafoury Award for Lifetime Achievement in Community Development (2002), the Fannie Mae
Foundation James A. Johnson Fellowship (2005) and Senator Merkley’s “Bending Toward Justice” award (2011).

Dee currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Housing Partnership Network and is on the steering committee of the International Housing Exchange Partnership, a peer exchange with social housing organizations in the UK, Canada and Australia. She also sits on the Oregon Opportunity Network Portland Policy Council. She is an adjunct instructor at Portland State University’s School of Urban Studies and Planning. Dee, along with co-
author Robert Zdenek, has published three papers on the affordable housing field for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Community Development publication and Shelterforce magazine.