Cat Goughnour, Assistant Secretary of Just Communities​

Cat Goughnour serves as the Department’s Assistant Secretary for Just Communities. Previously, she served on the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative, headed the Racial Wealth Equity Strategy team, and was Racial Wealth Equity Fellow at Prosperity Now, a 45-year old national nonprofit focused on asset-building for low- and moderate-income people. She has a background in social science, community economic development, design thinking, and public health, and established Right 2 Root, a community-centered system for equitable development for which she received awards from the American Planning Association and the City of Portland's Human Rights Commission.

Goughnour is originally from Oregon where she served as Housing Committee Chair of the Oregon Chapter of the NAACP and trainer at the Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference five years running. She worked in coalitions to revise the City of Portland’s Comprehensive Plan, establish and design the N/NE Housing Strategy, including its Community Benefits Agreement and Preference Policy, while concurrently serving on the Metro Regional Government’s Equitable Housing Advisory Committee and Equitable Framework Advisory Group.

Assistant Secretary Goughnour received a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts: Social and Political Philosophy from Portland State University and a master's degree in Sociology: Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies from the University of London.

E: Cat.Goughnour@M​aryland.gov

Krystle Okafor - Director, Just Communities

Krystle Okafor (she/her) is the Director of the Just Communities Division in the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. In her role, she plans, implements, and evaluates strategies to foster equitable development in Maryland. Krystle has 10 years of housing policy experience. Before joining DHCD, she was the Director of Policy and Planning at SHARE Baltimore, Baltimore’s community land trust network. She supported grassroots leaders in their efforts to build 1,500 units of CLT housing by 2033 and to advance policies for community control of land. Krystle began her career with the City of Philadelphia, staffing cross-sector leadership tables on citywide housing issues. Krystle holds a J.D. from the New York University School of Law, an M.S.W. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, and a B.A., in government and politics, from the University of Maryland, College Park. Krystle was raised in Hyattsville, MD; she currently resides in Baltimore, MD.

E: Krystle.Okafor@Maryland.gov