Al Bellenchia is Executive Director and CEO of Columbia-Greene Habitat for Humanity in NY, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023. In 2024, the organization expanded to service Greene County, NY. Under his leadership, CGHFH is evolving to build more often and to provide a greater diversity of homes and services to average wage and lower-income residents.

Al has global experience in strategic planning, marketing, management, and organizational development. He has worked with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations of many sizes and specializes in driving growth. 

He has served on numerous non-profit boards, and frequently speaks on housing, organizational development and management issues. You can find “What Fresh,” his writing on housing and organizational leadership, at albellenchia.substack.com.

bio forthcoming

Jules Farr is the Director of Growing Homes at Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming. Jules brings a background in land conservation, agriculture, farmworker justice and housing to this role. Jules is the former Executive Director of the Kingston Land Trust. There, they established the foundations of what would become Taproot Community Land Trust for permanently affordable housing. Jules also co-led two land reparations initiatives, the protection of the Pine Street African Burial Ground and the development of Land in Black Hands. As a trailblazer for socially responsible conservation, they served on the Land Trust Alliance’s National Leadership Council. Jules’ previous work was in communications at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub where Jules co-built the language justice program. Most recently they were on the development team at Sweet Freedom Farm, a Black-led abolitionist farm. Jules holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture, a certificate in Permaculture Design and a certificate in English-Spanish translation. They currently serve as an advisor for land rematriation at the Native Food Hub Alliance. Jules has called Kingston home for the past eleven years.

Rebecca Gillman Crimmins has worked on the financing and development of affordable and supportive housing, as well as planning and policy in government and nonprofits for nearly 15 years. She is currently the Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Development at the Institute for Community Living and a co-convener of the Hudson Valley Alliance for Housing & Conservation. Previously, she was an Assistant Vice President at New York State Homes and Community Renewal financing affordable housing across the State and a Senior Policy Analyst working on housing and zoning policy within the Land Use Division at the New York City Council. In her spare time she enjoys powerlifting, live music, hiking, and gardening.

Javier Gomez is the Vice President of Operations for Hudson River Housing. He coordinates the development of housing projects throughout the Hudson Valley, and provides oversight to various community development and resident services programs, local partnerships, and advocacy efforts for the agency. Prior to his current role, Javier held previous positions within the agency as Director of Real Estate and Community Development, Director of Community Development, Manager of Real Estate Development, and Real Estate Development Program Coordinator. Before joining Hudson River Housing in 2018, he completed a one-year service term as an AmeriCorps VISTA for the Empire State Poverty Reduction Initiative in the City of Newburgh sponsored by the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region

Javier has a deep interest in the issues of regional community and economic development as demonstrated by his other professional experiences as a Pattern for Progress Fellow, Good Work Institute Fellow, and as a cohort-member of the Community Preservation Corporation’s ACCESS program. He graduated from Roy C. Ketcham High School in Wappingers Falls and holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Marist College.

Steve Rosenberg is co-convener of the Hudson Valley Alliance for Housing and Conservation. For many years he was SVP of Scenic Hudson and ED of the Scenic Hudson Land Trust and also served for nine years on the board of the Land Trust Alliance. He's led efforts bringing land, equity and conservation together at the regional scale, including authoring the NYC/Hudson Valley Foodshed Conservation Plan, launching Scenic Hudson’s River Cities program, and transforming multiple former industrial Hudson River waterfronts into more ecologically-healthy and people-friendly public spaces. 

David is a regenerative development guide—part teacher and facilitator, part designer and strategist, part community developer and reverent placemaker. He’s been an educator for over 25 years and a real estate professional for over 20 years. He’s consulted and guided developers, investors, founders, and built environment entrepreneurs through the adventures of aspirational projects and business transformations.

David has been a pioneer out on the fertile edges of regenerative real estate. It’s never been purely transactional–-always relational, aspirational, and rooted in wholeness. He's collaborated on residential Living Building Challenge and Passive House projects, cottage clusters and cohousing developments, and years of systemic community engagement to initiate the market transformation needed to support these efforts.

David’s work is devoted to field building, community development, and placemaking. He designs and initiates ecosystem partner engagement that cultivates strong, networked relationships across leading edge practitioners, aligned capital, and development partners.

At the heart of it all, David helps people, communities, and organizations develop culture, capability, and consciousness that honors life and enables flourishing.

Here in the Hudson Estuary, he’s a board member of TapRoot Community Land Trust, a co-founder of Belltower Commoning, a member of Rosendale Heart & Soul, and a co-founding board member for Deep Hole Nature Sanctuary.