​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Jacob R. Day, Secretary​​​​​

Prior to his nomination to lead the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development under Governor Wes Moore, Secretary Jacob R. Day served as the 28th Mayor of Salisbury, Maryland. Born and raised in Salisbury, he previously served as City Council President. His tenure as Mayor was marked by a resurgent downtown, including nearly $650 million in new construction, the establishment of two youth community centers, and the creation of a permanent supportive housing program to address chronic homelessness.

Secretary Day also previously worked for the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy as Director of the Center for Towns, utilizing design, planning, and development assistance to establish vibrant, sustainable small cities and towns. He served as national president of the American Institute of Architecture Students, and as editor-in-chief of CRIT, a journal of architecture. He was also elected 79th president of the Maryland Municipal League, representing Maryland’s 157 municipalities, and was one of Maryland’s representatives to the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Local Government Advisory Committee.

A U.S. Army Major, Secretary Day is a Cavalry, Information Operations, and Special Technical Operations Officer assigned to Special Operations Detachment-NATO. He is a veteran of the Global War on Terrorism and was deployed to Somalia, Kenya, and Djibouti.

Secretary Day earned a Master of Science in Nature, Society & Environmental Policy from Oxford University. He also earned a Master of Urban Design from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Maryland. He is the proud father to two beautiful daughters, Lilly and Olivia.

Julia Glanz, Deputy Secretary

Julia Glanz serves as the Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, and began her post in December 2023. As Deputy Secretary, Glanz supports the Secretary with day-to-day operations, oversees all of DHCD’s major divisions and programs, and creates a bold vision for housing policy. Before being named Deputy Secretary, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Strategic Initiatives with DHCD. Prior to joining DHCD, Glanz served as the City Administrator for the City of Salisbury, managing day-to-day operations across all the city’s departments since December 2016. She was the youngest, and first female to hold the City Administrator post. She also served as Acting Mayor and led Salisbury forward through challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustices.

A native New Yorker, Glanz moved to Salisbury in 2007 to study at Salisbury University and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and Political Science (2011) and a Master’s Degree in Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution (2013). Glanz lives in Greenbelt with her wife, Lindsey, and their four-legged children.

Rosa Cruz, Chief of Staff

Rosa Cruz, a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), is Chief of Staff for the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). In this role she oversees the Office of the Secretary administrative support operations, the Office of Public Affairs and the Office of Community Engagement, coordinates senior leadership workflows and manages intergovernmental engagement and external partnerships. Ms. Cruz initially served at DHCD from 2008 to 2013 as Deputy Communications Director. Prior to returning to state service, she was Vice President of Communications for the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation in Annapolis.

Ms. Cruz served in communications positions for various Maryland state agencies, including the ​Governor’s Press Office. Her professional experience includes serving as a television news producer for several media outlets including ESPN, Fox News and local news stations in Baltimore and Richmond, Virginia.

She holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the American University and a B.A.in international relations from George Mason University.

Garret King, Chief Operating Officer

Garret King is DHCD’s Chief Operating Officer, who oversees personnel, administrative and system functions of the department and serves​ as the principal deputy and senior advisor for operations and administration. ​King has nearly two decades of public service focusing on community engagement, policy, and constituent services and programming. His expertise in government, project management and agency operations was honed serving as Chief of Staff at the District of Columbia’s Department of Aging and Community Living (DACL). During his nine-year tenure at DACL, King was the key advisor to five different directors and managed the daily operations of a complex $66 million operating budget and $17 million capital budget primarily focused on support services for the District’s 119,000 older adults, people with disabilities and caregivers. In this role, King helped triple the size of the agency from 42 to 126 employees and doubled the operating budget, drastically increasing capacity and resources to improve the quality of life for DC residents. His proudest achievement at the department was harnessing year-over-year growth and operating excellence to transform the agency from an office into a department, while co-developing the national award-winning Safe at Home Program, which supports more than 6,000 D.C. residents in adding safety adaptations and modifications in and around their homes.

Prior to his time at DACL, King served in various capacities in the Council of the District of Columbia, including roles focused on workforce development, senior issues and working with offices that advocate and serve the diverse population of the District of Columbia.

A graduate of the University of the District of Columbia Law School and the University of Maryland- College Park, Garret resides in Anne Arundel County with his wife Bethany and two sons Crosby and Davis.

Gregory Hare, Assistant Secretary

Gregory Hare serves as Assistant Secretary of the Department’s Community Development Administration, overseeing the development finance and housing bond programs. Under his leadership, the Department has experienced record-breaking production in affordable rental housing, homeownership, and small business lending.

Prior to his appointment as Assistant Secretary, he served as the Deputy Director for the Community Development Administration and Director of Multifamily Housing. Before joining the Department, Mr. Hare was an Administrator for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City’s Rental and Assisted Housing Division.

Carol A. Gilbert, Assistant Secretary

Division of Neighborhood Revitalization

Assistant Secretary, Carol A. Gilbert heads the Division of Neighborhood Revitalization, the office responsible for administering the majority of the department's community development and revitalization programs. Those include the Community Legacy, Strategic Demolition Fund and Community Development Block Grant programs.

Before joining the department, the assistant secretary served as both a program consultant and program officer with t​he Goldseker Foundation, specializing in providing investment strategies and community development expertise to support nonprofit organizations helping communities and individuals in the Baltimore metropolitan area. She is a former executive director of the Neighborhood Design Center, a 30 year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to providing lower income communities access to professional community design services. She also founded the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition, a public-private partnership working to prevent the loss of affordable housing due to mortgage foreclosure and predatory lending.

Assistant Secretary Gilbert received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Virginia and a master's degree in architecture from the University of Maryland College Park's Graduate School of Architecture.

Danielle Meister, Assistant Secretary of Homeless Solutions

Danielle Meister is the Assistant Secretary for Homeless Solutions, overseeing department and interagency strategy, policy, and initiatives to prevent and end homelessness. Prior to this role, Meister served as the Director of the Office of Community Services Programs and Senior Policy Officer for Homeless Initiatives at DHCD, overseeing $550 million in annual and pandemic relief funding for community-based programs focused on preventing and ending homelessness, reducing poverty, and creating economic mobility for low-income households. This work included coordinating the Maryland Interagency Council on Homelessness, a collaborative of state and local government agencies, nonprofits, and Continuums of Care working together to advance policy and funding solutions to end homelessness in Maryland. Additionally, Meister led the formation of the new Maryland Balance of State Continuum of Care, which was established in 2020 and has since expanded to include 9 rural and suburban counties, over a third of the state.

Prior to joining DHCD, Meister was the Deputy Director of Homeless Services for Baltimore City, securing over $14 million in new annual federal and state funding to support local programs, launching the City’s first Youth Action Board, implementing a new Medicaid 1115 Waiver project to create new permanent supportive housing for 200 families, and successfully led a community-wide campaign to reduce veteran homelessness by over 30% in 3 years. Prior to working in government, Meister oversaw direct services to people experiencing homelessness as a family shelter director, case manager, and street outreach worker.

Meister holds a Masters in Public Affairs from Indiana University and Bachelor of Arts from Gonzaga University, and was recognized as one of the Top 100 Maryland Women by the Daily Record. Danielle resides in Baltimore City with her husband Andrew and two wonderful kids.

Scott Gottbreht, Assistant Secretary of Policy

Scott Gottbreht joined Maryland DHCD as Assistant Secretary of Policy, overseeing the Division of Policy, Strategy and Research, in August 2023, bringing with him nearly two decades of expertise in the areas of policy advocacy, community organizing, academic research, and housing program management.

Prior to coming to Maryland DHCD, Gottbreht worked at United Way of Central Maryland, where he worked for 10 years to help build a diverse portfolio of innovative housing stability programs and led a team of 40 staff. While at United Way, Scott worked with partners to co-create a new model for eviction prevention (the STEP Program) that distributed more than $100 million in rental assistance to keep more than 10,000 avoid eviction during the pandemic.

In 2015, Gottbreht received the Innovator of the Year Award for Nonprofits in Maryland from the Daily Record, and in 2018, he received his PhD from the Department of Comparative Thought at Johns Hopkins University, where he championed interdisciplinary approaches to homelessness and housing insecurity.

Cat Goughnour, Assistant Secretary of Just Communities

Cat Goughnour will serve 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. In addition to building capacity to design, develop, operationalize, and evaluate multi-stakeholder human-centered solutions, she has a background in social science, community economic development, design thinking, and public health.

Before joining the department, she served as both a human rights consultant, specializing in technical assistance, human and civil rights strategies and system change expertise to support placemaking and positive economic mobility for communities and individuals. She 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.