LAI Webinar

Sheila D. Harris, PhD

Dr. Harris has been involved in the development of affordable housing for over 30 years. She has taken a multi-disciplinary approach to her work and as a result has amassed significant knowledge and experience in the field.

Her employment career includes serving two Arizona Governors. She is the founding Director of the Arizona Department of Housing and Arizona Housing Finance Authority. During her nearly six year tenure in those positions she oversaw the financing of more than $1.5B in housing and community economic development.

In addition to her public service and work experience, Dr. Harris received her doctorate in Public Administration from Arizona State University. Her dissertation focused on the creation of affordable housing. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University.

Dr. Harris has been very active in the community and has served on numerous boards and commissions including 12 years as a publicly elected school board member (Litchfield Elementary and Aqua Fria Union High School,) former President of the Phoenix Chapter, and current Treasurer of Lambda Alpha International Honorary Society, and is a member of the Board of Stewards of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. She was appointed by then Chairman Greenspan as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco where she served for six years (1999-2004) and served at Deputy Chair of the board for nearly two years. Dr. Harris was the first Arizonan to be chosen to serve on the head office board.

In 2011 she established Sheila D Harris Consulting Services and in that capacity she shares her expertise in housing and economic development activities. Activities include acquisition, rehabilitation and development of multi-family and single family developments, as well as consulting services for private sector, local, county, state and federal governments and tribal entities.

James R. Musbach

James Musbach is a Senior Principal with Economic & Planning Systems, a land economics consulting firm with offices in Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Denver. With 40 years of experience as a consulting land economist, Mr. Musbach has been involved in the planning and implementation of projects throughout the United States ranging from large-scale master plans, complex redevelopment efforts, and the formulation of land use policy. He has developed innovative financing programs, and has extensive experience in the structuring and negotiation of business terms for Public/Private Partnerships. In addition, he is a frequent writer and speaker on urban economic issues.

Mr. Musbach has a Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a member of the Urban Land Institute, and the Public Private Partnership product council. He has been a member of LAI since 1994. He serves on the Board and was past president of the Golden Gate Chapter of LAI. For the last 10 years, he has been a member of the Board of Governors and Executive Committee at the international level of LAI, and serves as the Western Regional Vice President, representing 10 chapters of LAI throughout the Western US, as well as Vancouver, B.C. Hawaii and the western Pacific, and the Sonoran Desert region of Mexico.

Jason Moody

Jason Moody has over 20 years of experience consulting on the economic dimensions of land use planning and development. His work has focused on the evolving economic and market dynamics affecting real estate investment decisions for developers, tenants, and others. At EPS, Jason has led the firm’s practice in the area of economic repositioning and revitalization, focusing on individual projects as well as larger planning areas (e.g., neighborhoods, corridors, cities). He often works as part of a multi-disciplinary team to fashion viable land use programs and policies that account for the need to finance public infrastructure, amenities, and on-going government services.

Prior to joining EPS, Jason worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C. covering national legislative issues as well as an analyst for the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey and later for the San Francisco Budget Office. He holds a Master in Public Policy (MPP) degree from the University of California’s Goldman School and a BA in economics from UC Santa Cruz.

David W. Zehnder

David W. Zehnder is a Managing Principal of Economic & Planning Systems, Inc. (EPS). On behalf of public and private sector interests he analyzes market and financial feasibility to align interests, evaluate impacts, and negotiate deal points for major hotel, retail, office, R&D, industrial, residential and mixed-use projects in downtown, waterfront, university, and infill districts. He is presently engaged in a number of tech sector evaluations of potential metro economies across the U.S.

David is the former Chair of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Sacramento District Council and the national ULI Urban Revitalization Council, an advisory board member and strategic research partner of the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED), a member of the regional advisory council for the UC Davis Center for Regional Change, and a member of the Lambda Alpha International Land Economics society. He recently served on the Mayor’s Commission on Climate Change in Sacramento. He holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Geography from San Francisco State University, and a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley with an emphasis in Regional Economics.