Join CommonBondz for a discussion on racism and the impact on housing inequality in America with Willie M. Jones, retired Senior Vice President and Director of The Community Builders, Inc and Christine Channels, Head of Community Banking and Client Protection at Bank of America. The discussion will be facilitated by Finale Norton, CommonBondz Board Member and candidate for VA House of Delegates District 100.
Scroll down to read their bios.
In September 2014, Willie M. Jones retired from his position as Senior Vice President and Director of The Community Builders, Inc. (TCB) after nearly 29 years with the organization. Mr. Jones was responsible for new project and program development across 16 states and the District of Columbia.
In 2009, Mr. Jones led the project team in winning a $78 million NSP2 award. This funding supported the development of over 1,500 units of housing. Mr. Jones managed the loan program. In 2012, he led another project team in securing nearly $30 million in funding for a revitalization program in Cincinnati, OH.
Mr. Jones has received multiple awards for his work in affordable housing and community economic development, particularly his work against redlining in urban minority neighborhoods. He was one of the architects behind creating the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation and served as the first community Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Community and Banking Council. Because of this work, he completed a three-year term on the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board. In 2015, Mr. Jones was inducted into the Affordable Housing Finance magazine’s Hall of Fame for his contributions to the field of affordable housing.
Mr. Jones moved to the Charlotte, North Carolina area after resigning from the Board of Directors of the Urban Edge Housing Corporation after serving four years. He previously was on the boards of two other CDCs serving the Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. He was an officer at the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he served as a Senior Steward, board chair of the Pastoral Residency Program (funded by the Lilly Endowment to help new pastors in transitioning from seminary student to full-time pastor), and the Pastor’s Advisory Team that led a Chapter 11 Restructuring.
Since retiring, Mr. Jones has focused on strengthening the intersection between the faith community and community economic development and fighting for racial equity. He is the Board President of a church-affiliated CDC in Charlotte, NC. He assisted in closing the financing on a 112-unit family and 72-unit elderly affordable housing projects, both in rapidly gentrifying African American neighborhoods. He helped a local Presbyterian church draft an RFP and select a development partner to invest $2 million from its capital campaign to produce affordable housing.
He is one of the founders and current board member of Unity in Community (UiC) North Mecklenburg. UiC is a multiracial organization committed to achieving racial equity in North Carolina’s North Mecklenburg area.
Mr. Jones is a 1974 graduate of Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology concentrating in Urban Planning. Before joining The Community Builders, Inc., he served as an assistant to the Dean at the College of Engineering at Northeastern University. While employed at The Community Builders, he also served on the faculty at Tufts University’s Urban and Environmental Policy Program and the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s Professional Development Institute. He was a guest lecturer at graduate urban planning programs nationally, at the Urban Land Institute, and Harvard’s Kennedy and Divinity Schools. In May 2016, he graduated from Hood Theological Seminary with a Masters in Theological Studies (Magna Cum Laude), concentrating in History and Theology. He is an ordained Minister of the Gospel.
Christine Channels is Head of Community Banking and Client Protection, serving Consumer & Small Business clients at Bank of America.
Christine is responsible for Bank of America’s Community Banking, which aims to increase financial resilience and create economic mobility by making investments that align with the Community Reinvestment Act, Hispanic-Latino priorities and technology initiatives. The Community Banking team also strives to provide jobs as well as access to core banking products and services, loans and capital to help communities grow and thrive.
Leading Client Protection, Christine oversees operations related to fraud prevention, detection and resolution, ensuring clients’ finances and information are kept safe and secure. This includes fraud detection and prevention, claims, recovery, billing, disputes, anti-money laundering, controls, operational excellence and employee conduct.
Christine and her leadership team are also responsible for designing and implementing Operational Excellence efforts in support of the 70,000 employees in Consumer & Small Business to drive responsible growth, deliver client care and foster a strong risk culture in an operationally sound environment.
Christine joined the company in 2002 and has held various leadership roles within Consumer as well as Compliance and Global Technology & Operations.
She currently serves as chairman of the board for the Consumer Bankers Association and on the boards of the American Red Cross and the Charlotte Ballet. She also actively supports Junior Achievement, devoting time to volunteer in local schools.