Abby Hoover
Managing Editor

Indian Mound neighbor Amanda Wilson was recognized by Empower Missouri as Affordable Housing Advocate of the Year. Wilson is a Senior Program Officer at LISC Greater Kansas City. Her focus is on providing capacity building support and technical assistance to local community development corporations (CDCs), leading local affordable housing policy efforts, and leading their work to create safe and healthy neighborhoods.

“Our Advocacy Awards honor individuals, groups and organizations who have made significant contributions to decreasing poverty across the state,” said Amber Foster-Hobart, Communication Director for Empower Missouri. “The Housing Advocate of the Year award recognizes an individual, group, or organization that has taken significant strides in advancing affordable housing in recent years. To choose awardees, we have a nomination process open to the public, and then a selection committee that reviews nominees and chooses the recipients.”

Wilson was nominated by Travis Rash for her work as Senior Program Officer for LISC – KC, and for her leadership of the Promoting Equitable Neighborhoods workgroup, which strives to address affordable housing policy concerns in the greater Kansas City area, Foster-Hobart said.

Prior to LISC, Wilson worked to build neighborhood association capacity as a program manager for a local nonprofit funding organization and supported community engagement for infrastructure projects for a large engineering firm. Amanda holds a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, and before finding planning and community development as a career path, she was a volunteer and fundraising event coordinator for a conservation land trust and served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for two years with a watershed group in the Portland, Oregon area. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Missouri State University.