About Brad

I was born in Appleton, in east central Wisconsin, with four siblings. As our family grew from 7 to 9 with the sudden adoption of two cousins, my parents made the fateful decision to move to the country.

This is where I learned to work hard! I grew up on a 100 year-old farm, where we lived a rural life tied to the land and rural community. My summer & winter jobs included working the surrounding dairy & horse farms, bailing hay, raising livestock, and harvesting the food that we sold or kept for ourselves.

My father was a hospital chemist by day, and an avid beekeeper and farmer in his off-time. My mother managed the household and the honey business. The values they instilled in us were those of participation, helping others, and working hard as an everyday way of life.

After high school, I left the farm life for Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. Soon after graduation, I spread my wings a little further and joined the Peace Corps, which landed me in Tunisia, in North Africa. In a place and culture completely unlike my upbringing, I learned humility as I continued to carry the values of participation, helping others, and hard work that I had learned at a young age. Tunisia is also where my passion for housing and community development took root. I was placed in a new self-help housing & community development program, though, at 22 years old, I didn't know much about community development. In helping families build their homes as I also built mine in Tunisia, I began to viscerally understand the security that having a home can bring to a family and gained a passion for housing issues, seeing first hand how essential housing is for every other element of life. 

After 3 years, I returned to the U.S. and was accepted to a graduate program at Illinois State University for Urban Community Development. Shortly after graduation, I started managing a downtown redevelopment program in central Illinois.

In 1998, my long-distance partner–and future wife–Anne, and I needed to make a decision about where to live if we were to remain together. I was in a  small city in central Illinois. She was in St Paul, MN. Five hundred miles apart. Madison was our compromise, 250 miles in each direction.

In 2000, we bought a small house on the near east side of Madison and in 2003 had a son. Almost immediately, I started work in serving marginalized and low-income populations, with an emphasis on shelter and affordable housing. From Porchlight, to Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS), to Housing Initiatives, this has been the arc of my professional work for the past 20 years.

Meanwhile, I became very active in the near east side neighborhoods of Madison. I joined the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara (SASY) Neighborhood Association and became actively involved in the wave of development that has been transforming that neighborhood ever since.  The projects I have been directly involved in, from Union Corners, to Linden Cohousing, to the Garver Feed Mill, give just a sample of my experience in engaging neighbors in projects that were transformative for Districts 6 and 15.

Let's connect! brad4madison@gmail.com

Work Experience

Housing Initiatives, Executive Director, 2018-present

Non-profit organization dedicated to providing permanent supportive housing to individuals and families in Dane County who are formerly homeless with serious mental illness.  


Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS), Director of Operations 2016-2018

The only domestic violence shelter in all of Dane County. 


Porchlight, Inc., Director of Operations 2004-2016

Non-profit organization that strives to reduce homelessness in Dane County by providing shelter, affordable housing, and supportive services that eliminate barriers and empower the individuals and families. 


Community Housing and Services, Inc., Director of Program and Fund Development 1999-2003


Mead & Hunt, Inc., Technical Editor 1999


Mattoon, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Information Coordinator 1997-1998


Midtown Mattoon, Program Manager 1996-1997


U.S. Peace Corps, Tunisia, Field Support Officer Jan 1994-Sept 1994

Peace Corps staff and volunteer intermediary liaison. Volunteer trainer. 


U.S. Peace Corps, Tunisia, Urban Development Agent in the Self-Help Housing Program 1991-1993

Project leader for the Self-Help Housing and Urban Development project.

Education

Master's of Arts (M.A.) in Political Sciences at Illinois State University

MA in Political Science, Class of 1997

Bloomington/Normal Stevenson Center for Community & Economic Development educational and work program focused on community development in the U.S.


English Language & Literature Studies at Carroll University

BA in English & Philosophy, Class of 1991