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Department of Housing and Community Development

Secretary Jake Day Announces New Deputy Secretary, Leadership Hires at Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development

Two New Divisions to Enhance Agency’s Effectiveness, Thought Leadership, and Equity Work

NEW CARROLLTON (December 11, 2023) – Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day announced Julia Glanz is the Department’s new Deputy Secretary. Glanz served as an Assistant Secretary and was appointed to Deputy Secretary. Since July, Glanz has been transitioning into the role prior to former Deputy Secretary Owen McEvoy’s departure this month.

In addition to Glanz’s new role, Secretary Day announced two new divisions at the Department: The Division of Policy, Strategy and Research and the Division of Just Communities. Assistant Secretary Scott Gottbreht oversees the Division of Policy, Strategy and Research, which leads the Department’s legislative affairs, policy creation and data-driven insights to housing and community development programs. And Assistant Secretary Cat Goughnour will oversee the Division of Just Communities, which is responsible for developing, implementing, and accelerating strategies to lift up communities that have experienced historical and ongoing socio-economic marginalization.

“The additions to our leadership team and creation of the new divisions mark a crucial chapter for the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development in ensuring every Marylander has access to a safe, affordable home,” said Secretary Jake Day. “With these appointments and initiatives, we are dedicated to being data driven and heart led, implementing effective policies, and applying equitable solutions in all our endeavors.”

Julia Glanz, Deputy Secretary

Julia Glanz

Prior to her appointment to Deputy Secretary, Julia Glanz served as an Assistant Secretary in the Department responsible for shaping new initiatives to achieve the policy objectives of the Department and the Governor’s Office. Previously, she served as the City Administrator for the City of Salisbury, managing day-to-day operations across all the city’s departments. She also served as Acting Mayor and led Salisbury forward through challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Glanz is originally from New York and moved to Salisbury in 2007 to study at Salisbury University. There, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and Political Science, and a Master’s Degree in Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution. She worked for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees before she was hired by the City of Salisbury in 2015 as Assistant City Administrator. Glanz became City Administrator in 2017. Glanz recently moved to Greenbelt, MD with her wife.

 

Scott Gottbreht, Assistant Secretary of Policy

Scott Gottbreht

Scott Gottbreht joined Maryland DHCD as Assistant Secretary of Policy, overseeing the Division of Policy, Strategy and Research, in August 2023, bringing with him nearly two decades of expertise in the areas of policy advocacy, community organizing, academic research, and housing program management. Prior to coming to Maryland DHCD, Gottbreht worked at United Way of Central Maryland, where he worked for 10 years to help build a diverse portfolio of innovative housing stability programs and led a team of 40 staff. While at United Way, Scott worked with partners to co-create a new model for eviction prevention (the STEP Program) that distributed more than $100 million in rental assistance to keep more than 10,000 avoid eviction during the pandemic. In 2015, Gottbreht received the Innovator of the Year Award for Nonprofits in Maryland from the Daily Record, and in 2018, he received his PhD from the Department of Comparative Thought at Johns Hopkins University, where he championed interdisciplinary approaches to homelessness and housing insecurity. 

 

Cat Goughnor, Assistant Secretary of Just Communities
Cat Goughnour

Cat Goughnour will serve as the Department’s Assistant Secretary for Just Communities. Previously, she served on the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative, headed the Racial Wealth Equity Strategy team, and was Racial Wealth Equity Fellow at Prosperity Now, a 45-year old national nonprofit focused on asset-building for low- and moderate-income people. In addition to building capacity to design, develop, operationalize, and evaluate multi-stakeholder human-centered solutions, she has a background in social science, community economic development, design thinking, and public health.

Before joining the department, she served as both a human rights consultant, specializing in technical assistance, human and civil rights strategies and system change expertise to support placemaking and positive economic mobility for communities and individuals. She established Right 2 Root, a community-centered system for equitable development for which she received awards from the American Planning Association and the City of Portland’s Human Rights Commission.

Goughnour is originally from Oregon where she served as Housing Committee Chair of the Oregon Chapter of the NAACP and trainer at the Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference five years running. She worked in coalitions to revise the City of Portland’s Comprehensive Plan, establish and design the N/NE Housing Strategy, including its Community Benefits Agreement and Preference Policy, while concurrently serving on the Metro Regional Government’s Equitable Housing Advisory Committee and Equitable Framework Advisory Group.

Assistant Secretary Goughnour received a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts: Social and Political Philosophy from Portland State University and a master’s degree in Sociology: Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies from the University of London.

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