Elinor Bacon ’63 has more than 30 years experience in housing, real estate development, and community development in the public and private sectors. In 2002, she formed E.R. Bacon Development, LLC, a real estate development and consulting firm that focuses on urban infill; mixed-use, mixed-income development; affordable housing; and adaptive reuse of historic buildings.

In 2001, as the first president and CEO, Bacon launched the National Capital Revitalization Corporation, a public real estate development corporation established by the Washington, DC, Council, with the mission to spur economic development throughout the District, primarily in neighborhoods of need. From 1997 through 2000, Bacon served as deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Public Housing Investments. In this capacity, she administered the $4.2 billion HOPE VI Program to transform severely distressed public housing and the lives of residents, and other Public Housing Capital Programs with annual appropriations of approximately $2.5 billion.

Before joining HUD, Bacon had a private real estate development and consulting firm, Bacon & Company, for 12 years in Baltimore. Earlier, she worked in the public sector in housing and community development, on the city and federal levels of government, and for The Johns Hopkins Hospital as community development director. She also served as legislative assistant to Congressman Parren J. Mitchell, Maryland’s first African American congressman.

Bacon studied at Bennington College, earned a bachelor’s degree from The New School for Social Research, New York City, and a master’s degree in Chinese studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a member of The Urban Land Institute and The Congress for The New Urbanism. She co-chairs a task force for the Reauthorization of HOPE VI, established at the request of Senator Barbara Mikulski, Maryland, and serves on the DC Historic Preservation Review Board and the Development Industry Advisory Council to the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development.