WAHNcast

What becomes possible when people have a safe, affordable place to call home? Sophia Steinberg, Senior Research Associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center, joins Ashley Northcutt to explore housing’s connection to health and opportunity. With a background in biochemistry, a master’s in public health and a family story rooted in immigration, Sophia brings scientific curiosity and personal passion to a conversation about building better policies, staying hopeful and leading with empathy.

What if the future of cancer treatment is closer than we think? And what if each of us could help bring it closer?

As WAHN closes Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this deeply personal and powerful conversation reminds us why awareness is only the beginning.

Longtime WAHN member and dear friend Liz Childers returns to WAHNcast to share her ongoing fight against breast cancer. Joining her are her identical twin sister, Norma Unser, a breast cancer survivor and fierce advocate, and Kristen Dahlgren, former NBC News correspondent and cancer survivor whose determination to accelerate cancer vaccine research led her to the Parker Institute.

Together with host Ashley Northcutt, they share stories of sisterhood, resilience, promising breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy and the urgent need to get research out of laboratories and into the lives of patients who need it.

This conversation is about more than breast cancer. It's about the people we love, the future we want for our children and the extraordinary things that can happen when people refuse to accept that we've done enough.

Please don't just listen. Share this episode. Start conversations. Support the research. Help turn hope into action.

Learn more about the Parker Institute and its mission, Cancer Ends Here, at https://www.parkerici.org.

What if we stopped waiting for people to reach a breaking point before we helped?

In the Multifamily Impact Council’s Women of Impact series, host Angie Truitt welcomes two women turning that question into action: Laurie Schoeman, Executive Director, Global Philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase, and Rachel Munsie, CEO and Co-Founder of Ounce of Care.

Laurie brings decades of experience advancing sustainable, resilient housing that protects communities against natural disasters and changing environmental conditions. Rachel is connecting healthcare, housing and resident services to address the financial and health challenges that can put a family’s stability at risk.

Together, they explore what it takes to help people stay safe, healthy and housed, why investing in their well-being strengthens property performance, and how listening to residents and the teams working alongside them leads to better decisions. From homes built to withstand a disaster to support that keeps an unexpected expense from becoming a crisis, this conversation brings lasting impact into focus through the lives and futures that housing makes possible.

Lisa Davis and Tia Boatman Patterson know how profoundly housing can change lives. They’ve built their careers around making that promise real.

In this final conversation of the Multifamily Impact Council’s Women of Impact series on WAHNcast, Lisa, Partner and Head of Sustainability and Impact at The Vistria Group, and Tia, CEO of CCRC, join hosts Rachel Mavrothalasitis, Jenn Wilkinson and Angie Truitt to explore how to keep people at the center of housing policy, investment and everyday decisions. They share candid lessons about listening to communities, challenging disconnected systems, and choosing partners who turn commitments into action.

Along the way, they celebrate the mentors, friendships and villages that sustain them as they create greater opportunity for others.

A new tool can change how housing operates. But does it make someone’s life better?

In this Women of Impact episode sponsored by the Multifamily Impact Council, Janine Steiner Jovanovic, CEO of LeaseLock, and Angela Bruno, CFO of Mercy Housing, join Angie Truitt and Rachel Mavrothalasitis for a thoughtful conversation about turning new ideas into meaningful outcomes.

Janine explores the financial pressures renters face and why rethinking security deposits can help protect both household finances and property health. Angela shares how she approaches financial sustainability as part of Mercy Housing’s promise to the people it serves, with every budget decision carrying a human consequence.

Together, they discuss preserving existing housing, questioning what technology actually delivers, and making sure the pursuit of efficiency improves the experience of residents and staff.

Their people-first approach extends to leadership, too. They share stories of encouragement that changed their careers, friendships that became family, and the responsibility to create opportunities for others.

An honest, engaging conversation about the work it takes to turn innovation into impact, and the people who make that work matter.

WAHNcast launches its new Women of Impact series, sponsored by the Multifamily Impact Council, with Chrystal Kornegay, CEO of MassHousing, Rachel Mavrothalasitis, COO of the Multifamily Impact Council, and host Beth Baar.

Together, they explore what meaningful impact really looks like in affordable housing, from connecting capital with purpose and preserving housing for generations to come, to keeping people at the center of every data point and decision.

Chrystal also shares candid lessons about leadership, owning her power and influence, and remembering that leadership only matters when others are willing to follow. Rachel challenges leaders at every level to recognize the power of their voices and intentionally create opportunities for the next generation.

It’s a conversation about people, power, relationships, opportunity and the responsibility that comes with making an impact.

There are things no one tells you about breast cancer until suddenly, you need to know them.

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Brooke Etie returns to WAHNcast one year after sharing her diagnosis and treatment journey. This time, she is joined by Mary-Margaret Lemons, President of Fort Worth Housing Solutions, who received her own breast cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

Their experiences have been very different, but their conversation is remarkably honest about what comes after the diagnosis: advocating for yourself, navigating treatment and reconstruction, adjusting to a changed body, accepting help, finding the right questions to ask and discovering that “cancer-free” does not necessarily mean the journey is over.

They also share what helped, what didn’t, why screening and knowing your own body matter, and how an unexpected shared experience deepened a friendship.

Most importantly, they leave listeners with a reminder for all of us: don’t wait for a diagnosis to spend time with the people who matter, take the trip and create the memories.

For Ivory Mathews, affordable housing has always been personal. Growing up housing insecure in rural South Carolina shaped not only her career, but the kind of leader she chose to become.

In this episode, Beth Baar talks with Ivory about lessons collected through more than three decades in affordable housing and leading housing authorities across the country: choosing courage over comfort, listening deeply before acting, telling the truth to build trust, turning losses into learning opportunities and remembering that leadership is never about being the smartest person in the room.

Ivory also shares why the little girl she once was still walks into every boardroom with her, and why women should stop waiting until they feel perfectly ready to take their seat at the table.

Since this conversation was recorded, it was announced that Ivory has been named the next Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, beginning October 1. Congratulations to Ivory on this exciting next chapter!

What happens when you see a problem and decide to start solving it?

For Ben Sigel, it started during COVID with a rented U-Haul and a mission to get fresh food to people who needed it. Today, he is the founder and president of Full Belly Foods, a national nonprofit bringing fresh, nutritious food directly to affordable housing communities across the country.

Ben joins WAHNcast to talk about food insecurity, dignity and the entrepreneurial journey that has taken Full Belly Foods from a volunteer project to more than a million meals. He also shares the people and partners who helped along the way, including Zac Silber at Related Affordable, Enterprise Community Development and Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH).

It’s a conversation that gets to the heart of what makes the affordable housing community special: seeing a need, bringing people and resources together, removing barriers and finding a way to make life better for residents.

If Full Belly Foods could make a difference in one of your communities, visit fullbellyfoods.com to connect with Ben and learn more.

And if this episode makes you think of someone, please share it with them. Ben told us that one of his biggest challenges is simply making sure people know this resource exists. WAHN would love to help change that. Share this episode with your colleagues, resident services teams, owners, developers and anyone else who might be able to help Full Belly Foods reach one more community and one more family.

We’re closing out the 50/50 Women of Influence in Affordable Housing Summer Takeover with Joy Horak-Brown, President and CEO of New Hope Housing, in conversation with her longtime friend and fellow 50/50 honoree Diana McIver.

As New Hope Housing’s first employee, Joy helped grow an organization that began with just 40 apartment homes into one of Houston’s leading providers of permanent supportive housing, with more than 2,000 homes today. Along the way, she championed a belief that housing should offer more than shelter. It should provide dignity, beauty, quality and hope.

As Joy prepares for retirement, she reflects on the people who shaped her, the mission that became her life’s work and the lessons she hopes others will carry forward: ask for help because people truly want to give it, don’t wait until you have all the answers, start walking, and always care deeply about the quality of what you build.

It’s a fitting finale to an unforgettable summer celebrating women whose influence will be felt for generations to come.