Eleanor White
Eleanor White has worked in the field of affordable housing since 1967, including (from 1983-1995) as Co-CEO of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (now MassHousing), directing all activities of this multi-billion dollar quasi-public lending institution. Before MHFA, Ms. White held a variety of positions at the U.S. Department of HUD from 1967-1983. Currently, since 1995 Ms. White has been President/CEO of Housing Partners, Inc., a national housing consulting firm. Housing Partners works with a wide range of public, nonprofit, and private-sector clients on topics relating to housing development, housing policy and strategic planning, preservation, organizational development, issues relating to diversity, and most recently 40R Smart Growth Zoning and Workforce Housing programs.
Ms. White holds an A.B. cum laude from Harvard/Radcliffe College, 1967; a Master of Public Administration from Northeastern University, 1975; and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 1978-79.
Ms. White has served on numerous boards of directors of housing and real estate organizations in Massachusetts. She is a past President of Citizens Housing and Planning Association, a past co-Chair of the Commonwealth Housing Task Force, Vice President of B’nai B’rith Housing New England, and board member of the American Jewish Committee Boston Chapter. She has won many awards for excellence in programs of affordable housing, as well as for far-reaching contributions to the community, and has lectured at many colleges and universities. She was appointed by former Boston Mayor Menino to his Housing Advisory Group, and was Chair of the Boston Foundation’s Housing/Economic Development Policy Committee. She was a member of the founding board of the School of Public Policy at Northeastern University, and was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick as Chair of the Multifamily Housing Advisory Committee of MassHousing. She has served as the Honorary Chair of the American Women’s Club of Oslo, Norway; and as Honorary Chair of the Board of the Oslo Children’s Museum. In 2013, she became a Senior Advisor to Hub Holdings, LLC.
Ms. White has received many awards for her accomplishments, including from Fannie Mae, the Boston Foundation, HomeStart, the Boston YWCA, Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership, the Institute for Real Estate Management, Citizens Housing and Planning Association, and received a Paul Ylvisaker Award for Public Policy Engagement. She and her husband received the Community Service Award from the American Jewish Committee. Ms. White was selected as one of 10 leaders worldwide to participate in the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Exchange in Hamburg and Berlin, Germany, and was profiled in Banker and Tradesman in January, 2015 as “Boston’s Champion of Affordable Housing”.
Ms. White is a long-term resident of Newton, MA; she lived in (and telecommuted from) Oslo, Norway from 2009-2013, where her husband served as U.S. Ambassador to Norway. Married since 1967, she and her husband Barry are the parents of three sons and have two granddaughters.