President Obama announced last week that he was appointing Carol Galante to fill the role left in May by David Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Galante currently serves as Acting Assistant Secretary for Housing-FHA Commissioner, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. President Obama appointed her in March 2009 as the deputy assistant secretary for Multifamily Housing programs, where she oversaw the largest ever expansion of the multifamily portfolio.
Prior to her appointment at HUD, Galante was president and chief executive of BRIDGE Housing Corp., the largest non-profit developer of affordable, mixed-income and mixed-use developments in California. BRIDGE is a hybrid organization blending the best of business practices and entrepreneurial ideas with a mission to create affordable homes and apartments. Prior to BRIDGE she was the executive director of Eden Housing, Inc.
In addition to her work in real estate development, ownership and management, Galante has also worked for the cities of Santa Barbara, Philadelphia and Richmond, Calif., where she worked in city planning and community economic development. Galante has held numerous volunteer leadership positions including director of Housing Partnership Network, California Housing Consortium, Center for Creative Land Recycling, Center for Housing Policy, and Urban Land Institute. She has been the recipient of many notable honors including Multifamily/Developer Magazine-Executive of the Year in 2008, Builder Magazine-Top Most Influential People in Homebuilding in 2006, and California Housing Consortium-Leadership Award and Hall of Fame.
Galante is a licensed real estate broker (currently inactive) and holds a Master of City Planning from U.C. Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan.
“The Mortgage Bankers Association applauds President Obama’s nomination of Carol Galante to lead the FHA at such a critical time for the industry,” Stevens said in reaction to the nomination. “Carol’s decades of work in affordable housing development and then managing FHA’s multifamily programs give her a unique perspective on the issues facing the mortgage markets.”
“FHA is playing a more critical role than ever in housing finance in this country, in both the residential and multifamily markets, and we think Carol is a fine choice to be the Commissioner,” he said.