Marty Kooistra is the executive director of the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County, a 180-member association focused on affordable housing.
Marty began his career as founder and CEO of a successful diversified construction business and, after earning a degree in social work, discovered the affordable housing sector offered a natural fit for his twin passions. He has been a champion of community revitalization, strategic alliances, and affordable housing for 30 years, serving in staff and board leadership roles both domestically and globally.
When awarded an Archibald Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship for study at the Joint Center for Housing in the Graduate School of Design and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the early 2000s, he worked with a kindred spirit, Professor Jane Wei-Skillern. Her research on networked nonprofits struck a chord, and Marty has been sharing the value of, and leadership principles for, networked nonprofits ever since.
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” - John Wesley