Foundation for the Future: Advancing Housing Solutions in NW Arkansas

Join us for Foundation for the Future: Advancing Housing Solutions in Northwest Arkansas, Groundwork’s Annual Housing Summit. This event brings together elected officials, planners, business leaders and residents to explore bold, practical solutions for the region’s housing needs.

Utah and Northwest Arkansas (NWA) share a similar story. Three decades ago, Utah was at a pivotal growth inflection point, much like NWA is today. To address these challenges, Utah's communities united around a grassroots-developed regional vision. They formed strong coalitions that helped reduce anticipated urban sprawl by 140 square miles and led the nation in per-capita transit investment. Ted Knowlton, who was the Director of Planning at Envision Utah at the time, played a key role in building these new structures. Now the Chief Planner for the Wasatch Front Regional Council, he has dedicated his career to strengthening them. Ted will share the strategies they used and the valuable lessons they learned.

About Ted Knowlton

Ted is the Chief Planner at the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC), the Metropolitan Planning Organization for greater Salt Lake City, Utah. Ted has dedicated his career to forging strongly supported, coordinated plans among communities, the private sector, and government agencies, aiming to enhance shared quality of life and sustainability. While serving as the Planning Director at Envision Utah, Ted created humanizing engagement practices now used in an estimated 80 regional planning efforts around the country. Envision Utah is estimated to have reduced sprawl by 140 square miles within Utah. Ted also launched and scaled WFRC's Transportation and Land Use Connection program (TLC) for communities. TLC has implemented 150 projects and is enabling 50,000 new housing units to be built near public transit. His innovative work has garnered significant recognition, including two prestigious Daniel Burnham awards from the American Planning Association. Ted holds a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Utah. He is also a City Councilor for the City of North Salt Lake.

This panel brings together a city planner, modular builders, and a modular nonprofit to explore how leadership and innovation are opening the door to faster, more affordable housing solution

About the Panelists:

Jonathan Curth, Development Services Director, City of Fayetteville

Jonathan joined the Fayetteville Planning Division nine years ago from the Kansas City metropolitan area where he worked as a planner after graduating from the University of Kansas. As senior planner for Fayetteville, Jonathan was integral to development review, long-range planning, and management of various projects, including process evaluation and the adoption of City Plan 2040, the City’s current comprehensive plan. Beginning in 2020, Jonathan entered the role of Development Review Manager for Fayetteville, overseeing Planning’s development review staff and playing a seminal role in the Development Service Department’s continued functioning during COVID-19. More recently, he assumed the position of Development Services Director for Fayetteville, overseeing, development review, long-range planning, permitting, inspections, and code compliance.

Audra Butler, Area Director of Rural Housing for Communities Unlimited

Audra Butler is the Area Director of Rural Housing for Communities Unlimited, a non-profit rural development hub and CDFI serving seven states in the South. While at Communities Unlimited, Audra has developed a portfolio of impactful initiatives that help rural communities identify and address their housing needs, leading efforts to help close the information gap between urban and rural housing issues and solutions that address the unique challenges and opportunities within rural areas.

For almost 20 years, Audra has worked with nonprofits and organizations focused on creating pathways out of poverty. Audra formerly served as the Interim Director and Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Fayetteville Housing Authority. While there, Audra led the organization through leadership transitions and organizational restructuring, stabilizing operations and ensuring continuity of service to thousands of residents in Northwest Arkansas. Audra also served as the Chief Operations Officer for Community Programs at ARVAC, a community action agency in central Arkansas, directing operations in nine counties and expanding the organizations homeless services and transitional housing program. Audra previously served as the President of the Arkansas Balance of State Continuum of Care and is a current member of the Board of Directors for the Arkansas Coalition for Housing and Neighborhood Growth for Empowerment (ACHANGE) and Co-Chair of the ACHANGE Public Policy Committee. Audra is also a member of the Board of Directors for Partners for Better Housing.

Genger Charles, Head of External Affairs and Impact Strategies, Amherst

Genger Charles, Head of External Affairs and Impact Strategies, spearheads Amherst’s engagement with government entities and other housing stakeholders to help identify scalable housing solutions, with a focus on the creation and preservation of affordable and workforce housing. Additionally, Charles leads efforts to implement social impact and sustainability principles across the Amherst portfolio, including oversight of Amherst’s Client Assessment Resources and Empowerment Services (CARES) team. Prior to joining Amherst, Charles served in a number of roles at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, including as general deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Housing and deputy commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration. She also previously served as a director of banking and capital markets at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

All conference participants will join this interactive session, where you’ll have the opportunity to engage in an in-depth discussion about housing challenges and solutions, share your perspective, and help shape the path forward. CHATS is a community engagement initiative that allows residents to host a guided conversation about how housing challenges affect all of us

Michael Saadine, Senior Advisor to the National Housing Crisis Task Force, will provide Northwest Arkansas leaders with an insider’s update on the Task Force’s national strategy and what it means for advancing housing solutions locally. The National Housing Crisis Task Force was formed to identify and scale the most promising innovations in housing production and preservation.

The Task Force focuses on five key segments of housing interventions: land, construction, capital, regulation and policy, and governance. By holistically evaluating these areas, the Task Force aims to ensure a brighter future for America’s housing. Since its creation, the Task Force has released a federal housing policy agenda and the State and Local Housing Action Plan highlighting the most promising and scalable housing solutions from cities and states across the country.

About Michael Sadine

Michael Saadine is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Invisible Group, an interdisciplinary real estate investment platform. In this role, he has led real estate investments, technology investments, and the launch of a data technology business. Previously, Michael co-launched UrbanView Capital, a pioneering real estate impact investing platform. He also worked in institutional private equity at Northwood Investors and investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Over his career, Michael has worked on over $2.5 billion of real estate acquisitions, dispositions, and developments. He has served as an advisor and co-authored pieces with Bruce Katz and the Drexel Nowak Metro Finance Lab. Michael holds a master’s degree in management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Spanish from Georgetown University.

Join Dr. J. H. Cullum Clark, Director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, for a compelling deep dive into how housing policy can serve as a catalyst for broad economic opportunity. As a nationally recognized voice on housing and economic development, Dr. Clark brings a wealth of expertise on the intersections between housing supply, affordability, and long-term regional growth.

His perspective bridges research and practice, making this session both highly informative and directly relevant to leaders and communities navigating today’s housing challenges. Drawing on insights from his April 2025 report, Build Homes, Expand Opportunity: Lessons from America’s Fastest-Growing Cities, Dr. Clark will explore what thriving cities across the country can teach us about expanding housing options while fostering inclusive economic growth.

About Dr. J.H. Cullum Clark

Dr. J.H. Cullum Clark is the Director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative where he is responsible for managing various aspects of the new partnership between the Department of Economics and the Bush Institute and leads the Initiative's work on domestic economic policy and economic growth. His chief research interests are macroeconomic policy, economic geography and urban economics, and modern economic history.

Dr. Clark worked for 24 years in the investment industry, serving since 2002 as President of Prothro Clark Company, a Dallas investment firm. In addition to his time in the PhD program, his involvement with SMU includes serving since 2008 on the University’s Investment Committee, since 2010 on the Tate Lecture Series Board of Directors, and since 2017 as a Tower Center Fellow. He also serves on the boards of the Eugene McDermott Foundation and Uplift Education and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Dallas Assembly

Be among the first to get an inside look at Big Emma in downtown Springdale — Groundwork’s very first investment property. This brand-new 77-unit community includes 30 workforce units reserved to support our region’s growing housing needs.

After the summit, join us for this exclusive tour and see how Big Emma is shaping the future of attainable housing in Northwest Arkansas. Space is limited

REGISTER HERE: Big Emma Tour

Questions? Reach out to Isabel Gamarra at Isabel@nwacouncil.org.