Gloria Sanderson left a sixteen year real estate banking career for the nonprofit sector in January 1999, when she left Bank of America, FSB where she was a Vice President of the Community Development Bank’s Houston Office. She specialized in providing financing for affordable housing in south Texas, both multifamily and single family. A large part of her responsibilities included doing business with nonprofit community developers who often needed her technical assistance and mentoring.

Seeing an opportunity to bridge the specialized kind of knowledge she had of real estate and financial markets, with the grassroots organizations of the community development industry, Ms. Sanderson first served on the advisory board of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a nonprofit that supports the work of community based nonprofit developers with the technical assistance, business acumen and capital necessary to do their work. But when the long time Program Director chose to retire, he was able to convey to her the entrepreneurial opportunity and the satisfaction that leading the Houston LISC program could bring. Currently, Ms. Sanderson is the Program Director of Houston LISC, and works with over 25 community based development organizations in the Greater Houston area. Their services help to ensure that nonprofit developers form appropriate business strategy plans, create solid financing strategy, and secure the right human and capital resources (from LISC and other sources) before new projects are launched. Ms. Sanderson also shares her insight with the City of Houston, Harris County and other group agencies that seek input on affordable housing and economic development issues in the Greater Houston area, through her service on task forces and roundtables.

She has a B.S. from Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, is an adviser to the board of Texas Interfaith Houston Corp. (a CDC) and Texas C-Bar (Volunteer Attorneys). She serves on the Housing Advisory Committee of Rebuilding Together/PSI (a Senior Home Repair Program), the Community Impact Committee of The United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast and is a board member of Covenant Community Capital (a CDFI), Aspiring Youth of Houston (a middle school focused after school program servicing two of Houston’s poorest school districts) and was appointed by Harris County to the Board of Directors of the Houston-Galveston Area Council Workforce Board.