Profile

Louise Elving grew up in Michigan and aspired to become a professor of comparative literature after completing her bachelor’s in English at Cornell and a master’s in humanities at University of Chicago. However, her plans changed after she encountered the community development world by chance. She remembers,

“I needed to copy my master’s thesis, and in those days, we had Xerox but no personal computers. Someone told me a nearby place did cheap copying, so I got on my bike and rode there. It clearly wasn't a copy shop; it was an office that had interesting posters on the walls and a very diverse group of people working there.”

This Chicago organization was Urban Research Corporation, seeking to diversify business employment, improve career-readiness, and publish a weekly newsletter on urban issues. After meeting URC staff, they offered her an editing job which Louise quickly accepted. She remembers how she was “thrown into multiple new adventures, creating job training programs for Chicago businesses [and] helping design [a] non-place based high school for kids who were having trouble in conventional programs.”

After working at URC, Louise relocated to Cambridge to study urban planning at MIT. Since 1973, she has been involved in affordable housing development at several Massachusetts organizations including the Boston Urban Observatory and The Community Builders (TCB), while also conducting domestic and international research. In 2001 after 21-years as TCB’s Vice President of Housing Development, Louise decided to move into consulting to share her extensive experience. She partnered with three former colleagues from TCB to form VIVA Consulting, where she has been a principal consultant ever since. She assists multiple CDCs with affordable housing and other real estate development, advises nonprofits and public agencies on organizational and strategic planning along with policy and program design, and teaches for NeighborWorks®America, MIT Department of Urban Studies, and the Mel King Institute. She is also chair of the Board of Homeowners Rehab, Inc., based in her hometown Cambridge.

Louise has been involved with MACDC since the mid-2000s before MKI was established. Along with Don Bianchi, MACDC’s Director of Housing, she created courses helping CDCs learn real estate development and then, during the financial crisis of 2009-11, how to buy foreclosed housing. Soon after MKI was launched in 2009, Louise began teaching our Introduction to Affordable Housing Development workshops. Her courses draw on both her practical real estate experience and prior teaching, while keeping in mind the target audience and timeframe.

Looking forward, Louise aspires to continue supporting the community development sector during these unpredictable times. She explains, “the big issue now is how do our organizations navigate through quickly changing challenges and how do we all learn what changes are needed to best serve our communities in an evolving political and financial context.”

When she’s not at work, Louise enjoys gardening, listening to music, traveling, and hiking.

On May 15, 2025, Louise will be teaching Introduction to Affordable Housing Development for CDC Board Members. Reserve your spot today!