Terri Hamilton Brown’s career includes executive and board positions in banking, housing, community development, economic development, nonprofit community organizations and community foundations. Since late 2011, Brown has been Midwest regional director of The Community Builders. In 1990, she joined the administration of Cleveland mayor Michael R. White as deputy community development director, later appointed director. Under her leadership, the city of Cleveland worked with private and nonprofit developers to spur a residential construction boom in both the neighborhoods and downtown. Brown took over as executive director of the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority in 1998 and was responsible for turning around the troubled agency. During her five-year tenure, CMHA increased public housing occupancy rates, passed HUD physical inspections, produced auditable financial records, and advanced plans for mixed-income new construction developments through the federal HOPE VI program.

Brown then spent two years as president of University Circle Incorporated (UCI), contributing to efforts for the long-awaited UpTown mixed-use development project. She joined National City Bank (now PNC) as senior vice president for corporate diversity and developed community programs and activities to achieve the corporation’s diversity goals. After nearly three years at the bank, Brown returned to nonprofit service as the lead consultant for the Opportunity Corridor, a transportation and economic development project for which she laid the groundwork while at UCI. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.