Charles Edson is a founding Director of The Campaign for Affordable Housing and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board. A long-time advocate for affordable housing resources and supportive governmental policies, he is Senior Counsel for the national law firm, Nixon Peabody LLP, with an extensive practice in all phases of law related to housing development, management, finance and taxation, including legislative activity

Mr. Edson is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Housing and Development Reporter, a news and information service published by The West Group and serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. where he teaches a seminar on federally assisted housing programs.

Mr. Edson has previously held a number of government positions, serving as Transition Director for the Department of Housing and Urban Development on President Carter’s transition staff, as Chief of the Public Housing Section in the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and as General Counsel to the Kappel Commission on Postal Organization.

Charles Edson is the author of several publications in the affordable housing field including A Practical Guide To Low And Moderate Income Housing (1972), A Leased Housing Primer (1974), Co-Author of A Section 8 Deskbook (1976), Guide To Federal Housing Programs (1982), Secondary Mortgage Market Guide (1985), and Affordable Seniors Housing Handbook, (2000).

Mr. Edson serves his local community as well. He was a Board member of the District of Columbia Legal Clinic for the Homeless (1987-2001), a Councilman for the Town of Somerset, Maryland (1976-78), has chaired several committees for the District of Columbia Bar Association and currently serves as a gubernatorial appointee on the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Historical Trust.

Mr. Edson was awarded his B.A. degree in Government from Harvard College earning the magna cum laude distinction and becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Law degree from Harvard University in 1959. Mr. Edson is married and the father of three children.