Housing Works is pleased to announce the re-election of Laura Craska Cooper, the managing partner of the Bend office of Ball Janik LLP, as the 2009 Chair of the Board of Commissioners. Chuck McGraw, land use consultant, will continue with the duties of the Vice Chair of the regional housing authority, and Michael Hinton, with Cornerstone Mortgage Group, will fill the Second Vice Chair office.
Ms. Cooper, who was appointed to the Board of Commissioners by Crook County in 2001, is a practicing real estate, business and land use attorney. She received her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri in Columbia, with dual degrees in journalism and political science.
Ms. Cooper is very active in the communities of Central Oregon. She is the immediate past president of the Deschutes County Bar Association. Ms. Cooper is also the secretary of the OSU Cascades Advisory Board, a member of the Prineville Hospital Foundation and the secretary of the St. Andrews Episcopal Church Foundation in Prineville. She serves as legal counsel to numerous non-profit charitable organizations throughout Central Oregon. Ms. Cooper currently resides in Prineville.
Chuck McGraw has represented Jefferson County on the Housing Works Board for more than 18 years, 15 of which he served as Chair. He is currently the Principal with McGraw and Associates Planning and Consulting LLC, a land use planning firm. Formerly, Mr. McGraw was the Planning Director for the City of Madras and was the senior planner for Deschutes County, the Planning Director for Jefferson County and the City of Madras, and the Senior Planner for the City of Redmond. He has also assisted Crook County and Harney County in completing comprehensive plans and development code updates, along with obtaining land use approvals for both residential subdivisions and commercial developments in Central Oregon.
Mr. McGraw is a graduate of University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science Degree and has a Masters Degree of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon. He currently resides in Madras.
Michael Hinton, representing Deschutes County, has served on the Housing Works Board of Commissioners since 1998. Mr. Hinton is Vice President at Cornerstone Mortgage Group in Redmond. Mr. Hinton has over 15 years of experience in mortgage lending first the Bank of the Cascades and subsequently Columbia River Bank.
He has a Master of Science degree from Pepperdine University. He also is currently serving as president of Central Oregon Chapter of Oregon Association of Mortgage Professionals. Mr. Hinton resides in Bend.
Housing Works, Central Oregon's regional housing authority, provides affordable housing options, from homelessness to homeownership, in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson Counties. Annually, Housing Works serves an estimated 1,600 household in the region.
