Staff Bios
Senior Leadership
Caroline Blakley
President and CEO
As president and CEO, Caroline is responsible for guiding the strategic direction of Rebuilding Together.
Caroline Blakely joins Rebuilding Together from Cassin & Cassin LLP, where she was a partner in the Real Estate Finance Group. Prior to joining the firm, she served as vice president in Fannie Mae’s multifamily business, where she defined its strategic direction for growing asset management and counter party responsibilities. Early in her career, she practiced real estate, banking, and corporate law at firms in the Washington, D.C., area, including a woman-owned firm she co-founded to specialize in matters related to the Resolution Trust Corporation.
Active in business and community service organizations, Caroline was a member of the Board of Governors of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC). She was recently elected to the board of directors of the public mortgage real estate investment trust ARES Commercial Real Estate (ACRE). She is active in the Urban Land Institute, where she is a member of the Responsible Property Investment Council, and on the steering committee of the Women’s Leadership Initiative. She volunteers on the boards of trustees for Global Communities, a nonprofit organization and its subsidiary, Vitas, which specialize in international development and micro-finance.
Caroline received her Juris Doctor degree cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and her Bachelor of Arts with high distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Virginia. She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and in the state of Maryland.
Sandra Henriquez
Chief Operating Officer
As chief operating officer, Sandra is responsible for all aspects of Rebuilding Together’s administrative operations, including finance, human resources, IT, strategic planning and procurement.
Prior to joining Rebuilding Together, for five years Sandra was a United States Senate-confirmed appointee in the Obama Administration as the Assistant Secretary of Public and Indian Housing, where she, with a national staff of 1,500, oversaw regulatory and statutory compliance of more than 3,200 public housing authorities and tribal housing entities, administering more than $27 billion in public housing, Native American, Native Hawaiian and Native Alaskan and rental assistance programs that assisted 3.3 million low-income families and 562 federally-recognized tribes across the U.S. Before coming to D.C., she spent 13 years as the chief executive officer of the Boston Housing Authority, where she was responsible for an 850-person workforce, a $280 million budget, $1billion in redevelopment activities, with nearly 25,000 units of public and other affordable housing serving 10 percent of the city’s population.
Sandra was formerly President of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), served on the Board of the Boston YWCA for 10 years, two of them as its Board Chair. She also served on other boards, and was employed in real estate property management by Maloney Properties, Inc., and by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Boston YWCA’s Racial Justice Award is named in her honor in recognition of her work to desegregate Boston’s public housing. Sandra is an alumna of Boston University.
John White
Senior Vice President of Business Strategy
As senior vice president of business strategy, John is responsible for working with the senior management team on the build-out and implementation of the organization’s Community Revitalization Partner business re-engineering process and the achievement of the plan’s five key outcomes. In addition, he supports the organization’s corporate sponsor relationships, activities, and events that intersect development, affiliate services and communications & marketing. He is also responsible for the oversight of the Program Department and the organization’s Safe & Healthy Housing agenda, partnership development as well as Aging in Place, Veterans Housing, Energy Efficiency/Weatherization, Rapid Response/Emergency Repair, and Disaster Recovery impact areas.
Prior to joining Rebuilding Together, John spent time working in the private sector and during that period held a variety of positions involving sales, product development and marketing. In addition, he has partnered in a residential real estate investment and rehabilitation venture and has worked in the past with housing officials, developers and subcontractors.
John holds a B.A. from Marquette University and a master’s degree in General Administration from the University of Maryland, Graduate School of Business & Technology.
Susan Hawfield
Vice President, Affiliate Services
In her role as vice president of affiliate services, Susan oversees all aspects of the relationship between Rebuilding Together’s national office and the affiliate network.
Susan spent more than nine years with Rebuilding Together Montgomery County, first as director of programs, then as executive director. In her role as executive director, Susan served on the National Affiliate Council and as a NAC Representative to Rebuilding Together’s national board. She has served on the Washington Adventist Hospital Corporate Sponsorship Board, is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery County and has served in many positions of leadership on the governing board of her congregation. Susan has a background in Information Systems, working at both the Highway Loss Data Institute and GEICO.
Susan holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Shana Fajardo
Vice President, Resource Development
In her role as vice president of resource development, Shana oversees all aspects of fundraising, individual giving, and corporate relationship management and stewardship.
Shana brings more than 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and has worked extensively on issues relating to housing and health. As Rebuilding Together’s vice president of development, she is responsible for shaping and directing the organization’s fundraising strategy. Throughout her career, she has worked to help build organizational capacity while fostering relationships with corporations, individuals and foundations. Shana has also served as a fundraising strategist – helping small and mid-size organizations to develop and launch comprehensive fundraising plans.
Shana holds a B.A. in Public Relations/Communications from Florida State University.
Robin Pence
Senior Director, Communications and Marketing
Robin is a senior communications executive with more than 25 years of experience leading international communications and brand strategy for Fortune 500 companies in diverse industries.
Her expertise is repairing and building the reputation of companies and brands in some of the most competitive, complex and challenging business sectors during periods of intense market change and scrutiny. She led the strategic rebranding of media giant Gannett and international power company AES and communications for consumer-facing brands including Sprint and Choice Hotels. She also worked as a Congressional Press Secretary and senior media advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Robin most recently worked as the Director of Marketing and Communications at Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia.
Robin holds a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.