Profile

Rebecca Plaut Mautner ended up in Boston for the last year of her government and economics undergrad program for an investment banking internship. With a background in political organizing, she knew that she was not going to stay in finance, but she chose to study government and economics to learn about the numbers and statistics she did not see utilized enough in the political spaces she organized in as a teenager. 

Rebecca was inspired to be a part of the community building sphere by the prevalent political issues of her youth. She remembers how in high school she became an activist and conscientious objector: ”most of my organizing was around nuclear weapons. I went to high school in the early 80s, and the nuclear arms race was a huge deal. So, I didn't go straight to college. I spent a year working as an organizer.” 

Rebecca knew she wanted to work in affordable housing development while reflecting on what she liked about investment banking. She recalls: 

before I went to law school, I thought, ok, I like doing things that are community based. I like numbers. One thing I really liked about investment banking was that it was very project based. I really like that. I thought affordable housing would combine what I had enjoyed most about my previous jobs and be rooted in the community. 

During her time in law school, Rebecca began working in affordable housing internships —working for Legal Services as well as lenders. Since she couldn’t immediately find a job in housing, she worked on affordable housing as a lawyer. She kept networking as much as possible and soon landed a position at Boston Housing Authority. Rebecca officially began her work in the CDC world when she began working at Allston Brighton CDC in 1997.  She then spent nine years with another nonprofit developer.  When her daughter was two, she began working as a real estate development consultant for CDCs and other organizations across the Commonwealth.  After working with Jamaica Plain NDC for several years, she became Acting Director of Real Estate in 2020 and then joined the staff as VP of Real Estate Development & Assets in 2021.  Her role includes overseeing all real estate development, JPNDC’s portfolio of 750 units and 158,000 s.f. of commercial retail space.   

At this point in her career, Rebecca hopes to do all she can to support the next generation of community builders and the emerging leaders in the CDC world. One way she hopes to do this is through the Building Foundations Program, an intensive training series on affordable housing offered by the Mel King Institute in collaboration with JPNDC and LISC Massachusetts. Rebecca co-created and will instruct this program with her colleague Ricky Guerra, JPNDC’s Director of Real Estate Development and the winner of MACDC’s 2024 Ricanne Hadrian Award. She is excited to launch this new program because “affordable housing development is ridiculously complex. There's a very high barrier to entry. And I think that's just wrong. So ever since I figured out how this stuff works, I've been very dedicated to training other people and demystifying it.”  

Looking forward, Rebecca’s top priority at the JPNDC “is to help support and build our real estate team to help everyone on our team get to the next level in terms of our work. Part of the next frontier is decarbonizing our portfolio and incorporating environmental justice principles and resident services into everything we do.” 

In her free time, Rebecca stays active in the Jewish community and local activism. She also loves to hike and knit.