OUR TEAM
Jeff Washburne
A subject matter expert on the design, development, and implementation of the Community Land Trust model, Jeff has more than 25 years of executive level non-profit leadership experience. More broadly, Jeff has experience with all kinds of affordable homeownership best practices, resources and programs, including down payment assistance, development (new construction and rehab), cooperative ownership, manufactured housing and fiscal policy. Jeff is skilled in coalition building and creating strategic partnerships using a solution-driven mindset. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Depauw University and a Masters of Public Administration from Hamline University. Jeff is an avid traveler, cyclist, and enjoys rehabilitating old homes, including his own, in Minneapolis.
Tara Beard
With more than 20 years of public sector experience, Tara has been an influential change maker in the Twin Cities housing policy world. She’s rewritten zoning codes to allow for more barrier-free shelter locations, co-authored the 7-county region’s 2040 Housing Policy Plan, and designed the Inheritance Fund, a one-of-a-kind program to provide significant downpayment assistance to descendants of property owners who were displaced in the 1950s due to the construction of Interstate 94 through Saint Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood. Tara loves deconstructing public policies and rebuilding them to more closely align with equity, market realities, and efficient implementation. Tara has a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Minnesota and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She loves to read, spend time with her family, and watch dystopian shows from her home in Minneapolis.