Leslie Steen
President and CEO
Community Preservation and Development Corporation

Leslie A. Steen is President and CEO of Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC), a non-profit that creates and preserves financially sound, socially responsible affordable housing, and works in partnership with residents to establish service programs that increase opportunities for community and individual growth. Since its founding in 1989, CPDC has acquired, operates and/or has under development 2,798 apartments in 17 properties, and has demonstrated the ability to create and maintain sound, safe, and sustainable communities in which individuals and families can prosper. CPDC currently operates and coordinates community service programs in conjunction with over three dozen partners at seven of its properties.

Over the past five years, Ms. Steen has been at the forefront of efforts to use technology as a tool to develop sustainable, affordable communities. She is a recognized leader in national efforts to bridge the "digital divide" by teaching the use of technology, making it accessible for the residents of large urban housing complexes, and using it to communicate and build relationships in communities. Her research and development have culminated in a sound technological understanding of the limitations of technology, as well as the beneficial uses of technology in residential settings, and her recognition as an authority by federal, state, local and international agencies. Ms. Steen currently oversees the final implementation of EdgeNet, a community-based electronic village, at the 16-acre 884-unit Edgewood Terrace complex in northeast Washington, DC.

Leslie Steen was formerly with the National Housing Partnerships (NHP), where she developed tax-credit-eligible projects for low-income housing and held the position of Director of Portfolio Finance, working with lenders and HUD to refinance troubled properties in the NHP portfolio. Ms. Steen was also the first executive director of Twin Cities Housing Development Corporation, a nonprofit, affordable-housing developer created by the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Prior to her involvement in government sponsored, affordable housing, Ms. Steen had project management and marketing responsibilities for numerous market rate and urban revitalization homeownership and rental housing developments with several development organizations in the cities of Washington, DC and St. Paul, MN.

Ms. Steen currently serves on the boards of the Washington Area Housing Partnership, an affiliate of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the National Housing Conference, and The Housing Partnership Network and is a member of the Fannie Mae Washington, DC Partnership Office Advisory Council. Ms. Steen has a B.A. degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA and has done postgraduate work at The American University, Washington, DC.

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