Erica Hall, M.S. CED, MBA, ARM, has an extensive background as a community organizer, advocate, trainer, Board member, and Senior Legal Professional who has worked extensively in urban agriculture and food policy.
As a Senior Legal Professional, Erica has worked on all aspects of corporate and commercial real estate transactions. While working at NeighborWorks America, a government chartered national non-profit, Erica assisted in the review and oversight of affordable housing programs including Treasury’s Making Homes Affordable (MHA), the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program (EHLP), the National Foreclosure Counseling Mitigation Program (NFMC), Wells Fargo’s LIFT Program and the Stable Communities Initiative, while helping with the design of NeighborWorks America Green Organization program which is setting an example that will lead the affordable housing and community development industry to a more sustainable future. Erica also performed research and assisted in the creation of NeighborWorks’ initial sustainability efforts focused on resource conservation through initiatives related to energy, water and materials, including Energy Star benchmarking; high-efficiency lighting, plumbing, HVAC equipment; green roofs; recycling and sustainable purchasing.
Erica has also been active in the US Green Building Council (USGBC), American Planning Association, and other environmental, neighborhood revitalization groups throughout the DC area working in youth development, Black Farmers, food insecurity, workforce training, historic preservation, and urban agriculture in DC, VA, MD, NYC, Atlanta and Los Angeles working in youth development, Black Farmers, food insecurity, workforce training, historic preservation, and urban agriculture. She previously chaired a DC non-profit, Healthy Solutions, that worked with Community Gardens, Brownfield Remediation, food insecurity, and urban agriculture. Erica previously served on the Board of Directors of Groundwork Anacostia River DC, a local non-profit that utilizes environmental restoration goals as a vehicle for community development. Erica is also a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program, a dynamic network of 900 of the country’s top emerging environmental and social change leaders. Erica was also selected as co-chair of the Host Committee for Greenbuild, the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to Green Building. As co-chair, she worked to connect and introduce the U.S. Green Building Council and Greenbuild to International Real Estate Management (IREM) and other real estate groups. The 2015 Greenbuild Host Committee, on which Erica served, has earned the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2016.
She has participated in developing Food Policy Councils in NY, DC, VA, and MD and has been very active in the green building and environmental justice community in the DC area, using her platform to combine leadership and activism. In 2007, she worked on the initial Corner Store project in DC that has since been duplicated around the country. The Corner Store Project began with pilot locations in Southeast Washington DC and was designed to thrive in neighborhoods which had been and continue to be overlooked by traditional supermarkets. Erica volunteered and worked with various sectors of the DC's food system including academia, agriculture, health, hospitality, non-profit, and the public to help pass the Supermarket Tax Exemption Act (DC Law 13-166), which offered grocery stores located in designated Priority Development Areas ten-year waivers on real property taxes, business license fees, personal property taxes, and construction
material sales and use taxes. All of this work led to President Obama’s 2010 Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), which initially offered $400 million in funding to develop and equip grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities.
In New York City, Erica assisted on the 2009 Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) Program to promote the establishment and retention of neighborhood grocery stores in underserved communities throughout the city. Since 2011, she has been a Grant Reviewer for the USDA National Institute of Food & Agriculture's Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program which funds projects designed to meet the needs of low-income individuals and increase community self-reliance concerning food and nutrition. As a member of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Enoch Davis/St. Pete Youth Farm, Erica helped to define the mission statement for the project, helped guide project direction, while producing some broad actions needed to implement the project. Through this program, youth are empowered to lead urban agriculture projects under community guidance and resources has proven to be a successful strategy in youth, workforce, and neighborhood development.
Erica is also very active in the International Real Estate Management Florida Chapter 44 by participating in numerous committees, including the National Diversity and Inclusion Committee of Real Estate Management and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the American Society of Aging. Erica continues to be very active in the green building and environmental justice community, using her platform to combine leadership and activism, while working hard to foster collaboration between affordable housing, green building and property management.