Building Homes and Hope Together
Providing decent, affordable housing in the District takes the work of many partners -- corporations, foundations, local government and individuals - including the members of D.C. Habitat's Board and staff. You can learn a bit more about our office and site staff here.
Learn about our Board Members.
Office Staff
Kent Adcock
President
Prior to joining DC Habitat as President Kent Served as Director of Government and Community Relations for Habitat for Humanity of the MS Gulf Coast. While there, Kent's role was to assist and facilitate Habitat International's response to Hurricane Katrina by helping service and increase capacity in coastal Mississippi affiliates. Additionally, he served as the lead advocate with all local NGO's, along with corporate, governmental and faith-based organizations. Prior to taking that position, Kent served with Habitat for Humanity's Operation Home Delivery as Associate Director of Field Operations, assisting in Katrina recovery effort on the MS Gulf Coast. Kent assumed his role of President of DC Habitat in April of 2009.
Richard S. Algra
Director of Development
As the Director of Development for Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C., Richard Algra works on growing the fundraising capacity of the organization by exploring all possible fundraising avenues. Richard's recent experience in the arena of fundraising includes his work with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) in the capacity of Planned Giving Officer. While in this position Richard was a member of a team of three staff members that assisted in the acquiring of over $10M in matured planned gifts. He also worked hard to make the planned giving department more visible as a resource to all Habitat affiliates in the US as well as promote the newly established endowment fund. Prior to his time with HFHI, Richard was Development Manager for NatureServe in Arlington, VA and Manager of Development Operations with the Points of Light Foundation in Washington, DC.
Ahmadou Bachir Diop
Housing Programs Manager
Bachir has been actively involved in the Washington, Metropolitan area housing market since 1999. He is a HUD certified housing counselor and a member of the National Association of Housing Counselor and Agencies. He has more than ten years of affordable housing experience. He has worked with several non-profit organizations in Washington, D.C. to promote homeownership opportunities for low-to-moderate income homebuyers. His specialties include pre-purchase and credit counseling, loss mitigation, loans servicing, creative financing for affordable housing programs, and residential sales. He has taught numerous first-time homebuyers classes in both English and Spanish and has developed classes on Buying a Home, Working with a Realtor and 3 Proven Methods for Obtaining Affordable Homeownership. He is also a licensed real estate broker in Maryland and Washington, D.C. and a member of the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors. Mr Diop is currently enrolled in Southern New hamphire University Mater program in Community Economic Development.
Peter Kiburi
Accounting and Compliance Manager
Peter has more than 13 years of progressive international and local experience in customer relationship management and business development for several non-profit organizations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. His focus has been on controllership and management accounting for 501c (3) non-profit organizations. He has extensive experience in grant management, statutory reporting and compliance monitoring for federally and locally funded projects targeting affordable housing, community development and emergency preparedness. Peter has a Masters Degree in Public (Government) Administration from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.
Heather Phibbs
Director of Communications & Client Services
Originally from Richmond, VA, Heather Phibbs studied journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, then worked in public relations and advertising for the following 12 years. After living and working in New York City and Frankfurt, Germany, she relocated to Washington in early 2007. Prior to joining D.C. Habitat, she was Interactive Creative Director at Porter-Novelli Public Relations firm, where she developed online media campaigns for a variety of corporate, government and non-profit clients.
Agnes Reyna
Accounting Assistant
Agnes relocated from Philadelphia, PA to Northern Virginia in 2008. She joined the accounting department of Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. this past February. Agnes possesses more than 25 years of accounting experience in a wide range of industries. She studied accounting in New Jersey and Philadelphia accredited Vocational Training Institutes.
Emily T. Rowan
Office Manager
After receiving a BA in Elementary Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a MA in Elementary Education from San Francisco State University, Emily spent the first 10 years of her professional life teaching elementary school in San Francisco. When she moved back to Washington, D.C., her hometown, she embarked upon a new career in finance and administration. She worked for a variety of early stage companies as the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. Emily and her husband also started their own business, providing financial and administrative services to start-up companies. When her children reached the ages of 8 and 10 years old, Emily quit working for pay in order to raise her children. Now that her children have moved on to college, Emily has gone back to work with administrative responsibilities at Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C.
Dennis Smyth
Land Acquisition Manager
Dennis Smyth started as a construction volunteer with DC Habitat for Humanity in June 1991. He joined the Board of Directors in 1993, eventually serving as Board President for four years. He remained an active construction volunteer and Board member with Habitat during his career as a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM Business Consulting Services, as well as his independent consulting work for the World Bank, Calvert Social Investment Foundation and ShoreBank International. He has worked on more than 50 Habitat homes in Washington, DC, as well as on Habitat builds in Alaska and Georgia. Dennis served as DC Habitat's Interim Executive Director from November 2008 through April 2009, and then moved to his current position as Land Acquisition and Capacity Building Coordinator. Dennis lives in Washington, DC, with his wife Eileen, who is a physician at Georgetown University Hospital, and their two daughters, Evelyn and Brigid. Dennis received his B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University at Albany and his M.B.A. from Fordham University.
Site Staff
David Gano
Director of Construction and Land Development
David's long career in construction and housing was launched at the age of 10, when he painted his first house in his hometown of Eureka, CA. He worked his way through college by moving houses, and worked towards a Masters Degree in Public Administration at West Virginia University as a carpenter. He relocated to the Washington, D.C. area in 1985, where he launched a career designing and building custom homes and then working as a construction superintendent on various multifamily projects. David joined DC Habitat in 1997. He has spent the last 12 years overseeing the construction of more than 70 independent Habitat houses, developing a 4-acre tract of land into a 53-house Habitat subdivision, and completing a 23-unit Habitat townhouse development. David says he loves his job because, "Where else can you be painting interior walls with President Obama at 10:30 in the morning and participating in a home dedication ceremony for a needy family at 2:00 that afternoon?"
Teresa Hamm
Site Superintendent
Teresa has been a part of the construction staff since 2006, working on the Northeast Parcel as a site superintendent. In the fall of 2009, she took on the role of project manager, helping to oversee the administrative aspects of Habitat's construction program. As a LEED AP she also manages the green building agenda that Habitat has integrated during the past two years, administering the green building certification programs and presiding over DC Habitat's environmental committee. She hopes to continue her environmental/sustainable building education by one day returning to get her master's degree in architecture and sustainable building. Although she enjoys her in-office responsibilities as project manager, she loves her days on the construction site working with the Americorps, volunteers and homeowners -- whether it's swinging a hammer or working on punch-out lists. Originally from Bethesda MD, Teresa loves being home and working in Washington, D.C.
Andrew "Drew" Trooein
Assistant Site Superintendent
Andrew grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. He studied biology at St. John's University in Minnesota, then worked in a pharmaceutical lab for a year following college. In 2005 he left Minnesota to work as an AmeriCorps member with DC Habitat. In 2006 he completed a second year of AmeriCorps service with the Dallas area affiliate, then stayed on for two more years as a staff supervisor. When Texas got too hot for Andrew in June of 2009, he returned to DC Habitat as assistant site superintendent.
AmeriCorps Staff 2009-2010
- Darcy Bender
- Devin Cowens
- Justin Dunn
- Ben Kaplan
- Jennifer Sharp
- Jenna Widmann
