Explore the intersection of housing and democracy with Connecticut policy experts, including Karen DuBois Walton (Executive Director of the Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of the City of New Haven), Jacqueline Rabe Thomas (Reporter for The CT Mirror), and Alexis Highsmith Smith (Executive Director of New Haven Legal Aid).
Presented in partnership The CT Mirror
Karen DuBois-Walton currently serves as the President of the Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of the City of New Haven, President of The Glendower Group, LLC (the development affiliate of ECC/HANH) and President of 360 Management Group, Co. (the property management affiliate of ECC/HANH) responsible for administrative, programmatic and policy direction of the public housing, housing choice voucher program, low income housing tax credit program, finance and planning and development activities. Prior to assuming this role, Dr. DuBois-Walton served as the Chief Operating Officer for HANH. Previously, she served as Chief of Staff and Chief Administrative Officer for Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. in the City of New Haven, CT. A trained clinical psychologist, prior to assuming positions with the Housing Authority and the City of New Haven, she served in positions with the State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and Yale University Child Study Center. Dr. DuBois-Walton earned her BA from Yale University and MA and Ph.D. from Boston University. She serves on numerous Boards and Commissions and is an active member of the New Haven community where she resides with her husband and two sons.
Jacqueline, CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, is an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012 – one in beat reporting for her overall education coverage and one for an investigative series exposing questionable monetary and personnel actions taken by the Board of Regents for Higher Education. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. She has also worked for Congressional Quarterly and the Toledo Free Press. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College. She and her husband, two sons and two dogs live in Hartford.
Alexis Smith is currently the Executive Director at LAA. Alexis served as LAA’s Deputy Director from 2012-2017 and prior to joining LAA she was a staff attorney at Greater Hartford Legal Aid, where she practiced in the education and employment units. Alexis obtained her B.A. from Duke University and her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Alexis is admitted to practice in Connecticut, the District of Connecticut and the U.S. Supreme Court. She has served as president of the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association and Secretary of the Connecticut Bar Association. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (CONNCAT), New Alliance Foundation, Discovering Amistad, Highville Charter School, The YMCA, and Elm City Internationals. In her spare time, Alexis enjoys running, refereeing youth soccer and basketball, and keeping up with her three small children.
