Lisa Rice
President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance Washington, DC Award Year: 2021As President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, Lisa Rice leads its efforts to advance fair housing principles and to preserve and broaden fair housing protections while expanding equal housing opportunities for millions of Americans. She played a major role in crafting sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and in establishing the Office of Fair Lending within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Lisa previously served as CEO of the Toledo Fair Housing Center and the Northwest Ohio Development Agency, where she developed and implemented Ohio’s first anti-predatory lending remediation program. Throughout her career, she has worked to pass legislation and promote policies that expand access to quality credit and equal housing opportunities. She has helped to lead the investigation and resolution of precedent-setting fair housing cases that have resulted in the elimination of systemic discriminatory practices involving lending, insurance, real estate, rental, and zoning matters.
Lisa used her award to launch two new initiatives at the National Fair Housing Alliance, Keys Unlock Dreams and Tech Equity Initiative. Keys Unlock Dreams is dedicated to providing consumers and communities with the resources and expert advice they need to build thriving, inclusive communities and make homeownership a reality for millions of people. The goals of the Initiative are to attain 3 million net new Black homeowners by 2030 and a 50% Latino homeownership rate by 2024.
The Tech Equity Initiative is a multi-faceted effort designed to eliminate bias in algorithmic-based systems used in housing and financial services, increase transparency and explainability for Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, outline ethical standards for responsible tech, advance effective policies for regulating AI tools, and increase diversity and inclusion in the tech field.
Lisa provided extensive background information for John Oliver’s July 26, 2021 segment on Housing Discrimination, providing numerous resources to help produce the segment. Lisa also co-published an op-ed, Creating equitable infrastructure is essential to addressing racism in our country for The Grio and Biden Promised Racial Equity, And There’s A Political Tool To Help His Administration Accomplish This for Blavity: News.