Mike Hawkins currently serves as the Director of Community Housing for the Virginia Housing Development Authority. In that capacity, he directs VHDA’s REACH initiative which involves a team of experienced housing professionals engaged in efforts to build the capacity of housing developers and local government agencies in promoting affordable housing particularly in the context of sustainable and inclusive mixed-use/mixed-income communities. Mike previously worked in housing and community development at the local level which included serving as the Community Development Director for the redevelopment and housing authorities in the cities of Newport News and Chesapeake. In these positions, he directed major neighborhood revitalization efforts as well as the development of homeownership and rental communities. Mike is a past President of the Virginia Association of Housing and Community Development Officials and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Virginia Habitat for Humanity State Support Organization. Mike is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He received a B.A. in Government from William & Mary along with a M.P.A. and Ph.D. (in Public Administration and Urban Policy) from ODU.

Bruce DeSimone joined the Virginia Housing Development Authority in December of 2006, and now serves as a Senior Community Housing Officer in the Department of Community Housing. As a REACH Team member, Bruce specializes in multifamily housing loan underwriting, seniors and disabilities housing issues, and rural community development. Prior to joining VHDA, Bruce created and managed a housing department for a regional agency on aging in Virginia that did single-family home repairs, rehab and new construction; developed and managed supportive housing for the elderly apartments; and also served as project manager on a number of CDBG-funded projects for local governments. He has been active in Virginia housing since 1980 when he accepted a Management Internship with HUD and worked in the Richmond Office doing multifamily housing development, single-family mortgage credit analysis and real estate appraising. He also managed single-family mortgage underwriting and origination departments for a Richmond lender. Before HUD, Bruce worked as a planner and project manager for environmental planning and engineering firms in the greater Philadelphia area, and specialized in environmental impact assessment, land use planning and socio-economic analysis. Bruce holds a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from Rutgers University, is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and is certified as a Housing Development Finance Professional by the National Development Council.

Keith Sherrill is a Community Housing Officer with the Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA) REACH team, focusing on outreach to local governments. In this position he also advises on VHDA's Mixed-Use/Mixed-Income Financing Loan Program and Mixed-Use/Mixed-Income Planning Grants. Prior to joining VHDA in September of 2012, he worked for five years at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) as a Community Development Policy Analyst. In this position he provided project development assistance to applicants for CDBG, ARC, and other state and federal funds; managed the application processes for these programs; coordinated the preparation of the state’s program designs for these initiatives; and provided training and technical assistance to applicants. Prior to coming to DHCD, he managed housing and community development programs at Quin Rivers, Inc., a Community Action Agency in eastern Virginia. He holds a Master’s Degree in Housing, Interior Design, and Resource Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Virginia Tech.

Swetha Kumar currently is a Community Outreach Program Coordinator for the Department of Community Housing at Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA). As a recent graduate of the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), she is passionate about mixed-use transit-oriented development, urban agriculture, entrepreneurship and public involvement. Her previous experience in housing, community and economic development stems from her background working for Downtown Blacksburg, Inc., Town of Blacksburg’s Housing and Neighborhood Services, City of Virginia Beach and Virginia Center for Housing Research. She received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from North Carolina State University and served as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer.