I am pleased to announce that Tiyesha Watts has joined the California Housing Partnership as our new Associate Director of Policy Advocacy. Tiyesha previously directed government relations strategy for the 11,000-member California Academy of Family Physicians and worked as a legislative aide to former Senator Dr. Richard Pan. Tiyesha holds a bachelor’s in political science from UC Davis and a master’s in public administration from the University of the Pacific.
For anyone planning to attend the SCANPH Conference this week, the October 3rd NPH Conference or the California Coalition for Rural Housing Summit, I encourage you to introduce yourself to Tiyesha in person. For those of you unable to meet Tiyesha in person, her email address is twatts[at]chpc[.]net.
Tiyesha assumes the lead policy role in the wake of Mark Stivers leaving to become Chief Of Staff for Assemblymember Avila-Farias. We thank Mark deeply for all his contributions to the affordable housing field while he led our advocacy work over the past six years and wish him the best in his new role
I also want to thank Senior Manager of Policy Advocacy Andrew Dawson not only for his great work during the past three years under Mark’s guidance but also for supporting Tiyesha during her transition period this year. Andrew will continue to lead our advocacy on behalf of the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities program during the Cap-and-Invest reauthorization process. Andrew’s email address remains adawson[at]chpc[.]net.