Flint Township View

Freeman named new Genesee County Land Bank director


Michael Freeman

Michael Freeman

FLINT — The Genesee County Land Bank Authority is pleased to introduce Michael Freeman as the organization’s new Executive Director.

After conducting an exhaustive search with many qualified applicants from across the United States, the Land Bank’s Board of Directors selected Freeman, a long time Flint resident with more than 26 years of experience in community and economic development, to lead the organization.

Freeman most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer and Associate Director of Programmatic Underwriting for the City of Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department. In this capacity, he directed and oversaw departmental operations and the Community Development Block Grant program for the City of Detroit.

Freeman, a graduate of the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor, began his career as a community organizer with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)/ AmeriCorps program in 1994, where he worked to facilitate dialogue and consensus amongst community stakeholders, enable neighborhood planning, and promote neighborhood advocacy in Flint, Michigan. He later consulted directly with LISC in Michigan, administering HUD-supported technical assistance and training programs for community housing development organizations across the state.

In 2000, Freeman became the Coordinator for Training and Technical Assistance at the Michigan Community Service Commission where he provided assistance to Michigan’s national service programs. Technical assistance included strategic planning, financial/ grant management, facilitative leadership, fund development, program reporting, media planning, logic model and other organizational development trainings. He went on to become the Program Officer for Michigan’s AmeriCorps Statewide program, responsible for a portfolio of 26 programs, 1,000 AmeriCorps members and $7 million of federal funding each year. — B.G.