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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 25 A U G U S T 7 , 2 0 2 3 units. We have been able to provide them with stable housing. Around 99% of them have been successful in that they've completed that year long lease. MB: How have you been a mentor to your staff? VM: It means everything to me to have an inclusive workplace culture understanding and that truly tries to develop the skills and talent of each of our staff members; it is critically important to me as the leader of Quality House Coalition. It is a testa- ment to how effective our services are that we invest heavily in our staff as best as we can to make sure they are doing well. We always try to be there for our residents, landlords or prop- erty managers. MB: You have also been involved in immigration work. VM: e pro bono immigration work I did for the Immigration Legal Advocacy Project represent- ing clients through the asylum application, hearings and trial pro- cesses. During this time, I worked at ompson & Bowie LLP han- dling state and local government litigation cases. It was an interesting time working within local systems, state systems and federal immigra- tion systems. I learned a tremen- dous amount about how challeng- ing it is for lower-income earners to survive and thrive, given the many barriers to success facing them in each system. MB: From your work as a state rep, what were some of the laws you were most proud of? VM: at's a tough one because there are so many. When I started, there was no committee of the legislature with the word 'housing' in it; my goal from the beginning was to highlight the very seri- ous issues we were facing in 2018, which I knew from the work I was doing. I am an attorney and had previously been with the city of Portland and MaineDOT to look at land use, transportation and hous- ing but understood the extreme lack of affordable housing. With the Housing Coalition taking off, I knew that we needed to focus on housing and the housing insecuri- ties of Maine workers and families. I created a housing legislative group where we discussed housing issues across the state. We formed a plan and came up with policies that were bipartisan and statewide to increase our budget for housing initiatives. We have seen a rise in budget every year, with this year being the highest of $100 million. A l e x i s W e l l s , M a i n e b i z s t a f f w r i t e r , c a n b e r e a c h e d a t a w e l l s @ m a i n e b i z . b i z I have worked in the nonprofit sector, local government sector, state sector, and private sector. I have learned how systems can be redesigned to create better health, equity, and prosperity for those in need. As [executive director] of QHC, we use this knowledge of systems to build bridges between people and their communities, which ultimately create environments where everyone thrives. Dudziak's Gymnastics, Biddeford sbsavings.bank | (207) 284-4591

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