Richelle has been in the affordable housing development field since 1994 and has been involved in the development or preservation of over 25,000 units of affordable rental housing.  She serves as an owner/developer as well as provides development consulting to owners and housing authorities, with a specialty in LIHTCs, Section 8 rental assistance, and HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.  Prior to founding Collaborative Housing Solutions, she founded and co-led Tapestry Development Group for nine years, a successful development and consulting organization.  She previously served with a large non-profit development organization for twelve years, serving as the President of its real estate development arm in her last position.  Her expertise includes multi-layered financing and fostering collaboration between public and private sectors to develop mixed-income housing.  She serves as subject matter expert in efforts with state and federal agencies to create new and creative financing programs and policies for affordable housing development.  She has served as a speaker and trainer to a variety of stakeholder groups in the affordable housing field.  She is active with several trade associations to advocate for sound public policies that support affordable housing.  She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association and serves as Chair of the RAD Committee of the Georgia Association of Housing and Redevelopment Authorities.  She co-founded and for 11 years, co-chaired the Women’s Affordable Housing Network, an Atlanta-based effort to support women in the industry, which has expanded to multiple chapters across the country, and she currently serves on the Advisory Board of the national WAHN.  She has earned several recognitions in the real estate industry including a Women in Real Estate Award from the national commercial real estate online platform Connect CRE Media; was named one of the “ChangeMakers” from the Women’s Leadership Initiative of the Atlanta chapter of the Urban Land Institute for her extraordinary contribution to the built environment; was named as one of the top 12 Young Leaders in Affordable Housing in the nation by Affordable Housing Finance magazine; received the Founders Award from WAHN; and received a POW! Award from the online publication Womenetics for serving as a model of a purposeful business woman.  She is a graduate of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2010.   She earned a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and Master of City Planning from Georgia Tech.  She completed an Executive Education program within the Social Enterprise Initiative at the Harvard Business School.  She serves on several committees at her church and her children’s schools, as well as mentors younger developers in the affordable housing industry.