Leadership
Our board of directors is a working board, which means they are actively involved in day to day operations. For ongoing counsel and as-needed support, we also lean on our development partners.
The board is composed of experienced housing organizers, development professionals, and writers and researchers, many of us seasoned cooperative housing residents. Some members of the board are active residents of projects, and others are experts and community advocates. Together, we bring a wide variety of skills and experiences that we offer to our collaborative consultation and development projects.
Patricia Basile, Ph.D. —President
Patricia Basile is a researcher and teacher of housing, specializing on collective models of housing such as community land trusts, housing justice, solidarity economies, and housing displacement. With a background in designing social housing and urban planning, she is currently an assistant professor of Geography at Indiana University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on housing, community organizing, solidarity economies, and research methods.
She earned an undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning and a professional master’s degree in building and urban sustainability from the Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, Brazil, and an interdisciplinary doctoral degree in the constructed environment from the Department of Urban Planning at the University of Virginia. Before moving to the US, Patricia worked for several architectural and urban planning firms, working on projects of social housing and favela upgrading in São Paulo.
Jana Pereau —Vice-President
Jana Pereau is a retired architect and a fierce community advocate. After studying Affordable and Community Housing at the Harvard School of Design, Jana went on to teach Sustainable Design at St. Louis’ Washington University. She worked for more than 20 years as a registered architect through New City Builders, and brings a range of development experience and conceptual knowledge to the land trust’s work. In retirement, when she’s not with family, you’ll find her at government meetings, advocating for a range of social and environmental issues.
Liz Stolz-Elias — Treasurer
Liz Stolz-Elias is a non-profit development, grants, and finance professional specializing deeply in cooperative housing operations. For the past five years, she has immersed herself in the movement both personally and professionally, living in co-operative communities while serving in pivotal financial roles from the grassroots house level to the organizational board.
As Treasurer for Avalon Community Land Trust, Liz anchored the organization’s fiscal health by engineering its foundational QuickBooks architecture and managing its inaugural tax filings. Her track record in community development includes securing and administering major renovation grants for local housing assets as well as grants for other grassroots organizations' staff, programs, and overhead.
Hugh Farrell — At Large
Hugh is the executive director of the Indiana Cooperative Development Center. His current focus is on strengthening Indiana communities by supporting emerging ag co-ops, farm stops, and affordable housing cooperatives.
Passionate about Indiana and its cooperative potential across both rural and urban communities, Hugh brings a deep commitment to fostering cooperative development. He earned a degree in history from Indiana University in 2013 and is also pursuing a PhD focused on the 20th-century history of zoning, development, and family structure in the Midwest.
Eavy Barbieux — At Large
For the past decade, Eavy has researched and engaged in a diversity of projects related to cooperative housing and our food system. After spending time in Berkeley Student Cooperatives as an undergraduate, she came to Bloomington in 2021 to complete her graduate degree at IU, focusing on how sustainable urban planning and agriculture can be used as tools for social and environmental resilience.
Along the way, she has worked as a farmworker, grantwriter, and food justice advocate, managed educational programs for Indiana's small-scale farmers, and led workshops on using community land trusts and cooperative models to expand land access for young and underrepresented farmers.
She can usually be found outside, growing, processing and sharing produce with neighbors, playing music, and creating with friends.
Kay Weinberg - At Large
Kay Weinberg (they/them) is a writer, media tech, and organizer with a passion for resident-controlled affordable housing and political advocacy.
Kay grew up in Bloomington, and spent much of their young adulthood in a Bloomington Cooperative Living house, where they served in the organization’s first staff position, and later on the Board of Directors. Kay co-wrote much of BCL’s early organizational policy and procedure, participated in innumerable meetings (many of them productive), and helped steward the organization’s stabilization and transition toward expansion.
As a board member at Avalon Land Trust, Kay is passionate about offering their skills and experiences to support projects’ legal viability, administrative efficiency, and political voice.