Cindy Holler

Cindy M. Holler is the President of Mercy Housing Lakefront. She is responsible for overseeing the implementation of a Chicago and Milwaukee regional strategy for creating a continuum of affordable housing options. Under her leadership, Mercy Housing is working with hundreds of partners to fulfill the ten year Moving Forward Together campaign to build or preserve 7,500 affordable homes, create 8,000 jobs, and ultimately prevent homelessness for 20,000 people. Prior to joining Mercy Housing Lakefront, Holler was a National Director for Housing and Community Development for Fannie Mae. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Holler was the Chief Operating Officer at Shorebank Development Corporation in Chicago and President of Shorebank’s real estate development company in Cleveland where she was directly responsible for development of four major development projects, resulting in the new construction of more than 300 units of housing and more than $65 million in capital investment in projects in Shorebank’s targeted communities. Prior to Shorebank, Holler was the Executive Director of New Cities Redevelopment Corporation in Harvey, Illinois, and was the former new project director of Progress of People's Development Corporation, a part of Brooklyn Catholic Charities. In both Chicago and NYC, she developed more than 1,595 units of low- and moderate-income rental and ownership housing, and a series of commercial projects for underserved neighborhoods. Holler received a bachelor's degree in political science/rhetoric and communications from Kent State University and her master's degree in City and Regional Planning/Real Estate from the Pratt Institute in NYC. Her honors include a Henry W. Miller Fellowship from the Urban Land Institute, the Robert S. Weinberg Award for Academic Excellence in Urban Planning, and from the American Planning Association, New York Metropolitan Chapter. She lives in St. Charles, Ill., with her husband, Rev. Mark Larson, Senior Pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church.