Julie DeGraaf Velázquez is POAH’s Vice President for Community Redevelopment, works with the POAH team and partners on the redevelopment of one of the organization’s Miami properties and new development projects in Chicago and St. Louis. She recently led the completion of a new mixed-use, mixed-income project in the historic Sugar Hill Arts District in Midtown Detroit known as The Freelon, Sugar Hill.
Previously, DeGraaf Velazquez worked for McCormack Baron Salazar (MBS) where she was a managing director of development responsible for comprehensive, large-scale, mixed income and mixed finance community redevelopment projects and developing community facilities in low- and moderate-income communities. She joined MBS as a Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence Fellow (University of Pennsylvania), and prior to MBS was the Director of Homeownership Services with the Resurrection Project in Chicago.
She is a graduate of Calvin College and received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.