About US

Mary Tingerthal

Mary Tingerthal led the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency from 2011 to 2019 and she has spent her professional life working to provide families across the country with better access to homes they can afford. Working as a volunteer, Mary organized the 2019 Construction Revolution Summit, recruiting sponsors to make the Summit possible. Following the Summit, she continues to lead the Construction Revolution core team and conversations with stakeholders in the offsite construction field to find the support to implement the action plan developed at the Summit. Mary has focused on bringing the innovation of modular construction to the attention of developers, lenders and policymakers in the field of affordable and workforce housing, with the goal of helping more communities develop the housing they need — quickly, and at a lower cost.

• Since 2022, Mary has served as an advisor to MODX as they have worked with stakeholders across the country to develop the Research Roadmap and the Comparative Study and Action Plan published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

• In 2024, Mary attended HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase, presenting on the scattered site modular project developed in Minneapolis.

• In 2026, Mary is serving on the technical committee supporting the National Institute for Building Sciences (NIBS) as they work to develop a Housing System Certification Program Standard.

Sarah Berke

Sarah Berke is Senior Manager of Livable Communities and Housing Policy at the Metropolitan Council, where she advances regional housing goals and drives thinking on housing, affordable housing, development, and placemaking in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. She previously served as a program officer at the Family Housing Fund, facilitating Fund's support for the Construction Revolution Summit and Innovation Cohorts. 

Sarah has more than twenty years of experience in affordable housing, social enterprise, and community development finance, including as director of strategic partnerships at the Minnesota Housing Partnership and director of research and development for the national Housing Partnership Network’s Innovation Lab. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, a Bachelor of Arts in Russian and Political Science from St. Olaf College, and is an alumna of the U.S. Fulbright Program in Russia.

Stephanie Brown

Stephanie Brown is the Principal of Yellow House Ideas, a consultancy working to develop cross-sector solutions to pressing civic and urban challenges. Previously, Stephanie spent four years with McKinsey & Company, focused on infrastructure development and public sector transformations. With the McKinsey Global Institute, she co-authored Reinventing Construction: A route to higher productivity (2017) and was a member of the core team for A Blueprint for Addressing the Global Affordable Housing Challenge (2014). She holds an a MUP and MPA from Harvard University.

John Micevych

John Micevych is an independent strategy consultant based in Minneapolis. John served as project manager for the Construction Revolution during the design and execution of the Construction Revolution Summit. He has previously worked as a policy aide covering housing and economic development at the City of Minneapolis and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

John holds a Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, Master of Arts in Psychological Science from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Micah Norman-Pace

Micah Norman-Pace is a Program Manager at Family Housing Fund, where he manages projects across all program areas to work towards a stronger housing system. Micah brings his experience working in various housing and prevention programs to inform systems change, having worked in programs in Boston and in the Twin Cities. Prior to joining Family Housing Fund, Micah supported the Stable Homes Stable Schools program with Minneapolis Public Housing Authority and administered the RentHelpMN rental assistance program at Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. Micah holds a bachelor of arts in music from Hardin-Simmons University and a master of divinity from Boston University School of Theology.

John Patterson

As the Director of Planning, Research & Evaluation at the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, John is responsible for making sure the Agency makes strategic, data-driven, evidence-based decisions. John leads the Agency’s strategic and housing planning and manages a research staff that analyzes housing, economic, and community conditions and trends and evaluates the performance of Minnesota Housing’s programs. He has spent the last decade and a half analyzing housing costs and strategies to manage them, leading to his involvement in the Construction Revolution.

Prior to this position, John had been the Director of Planning and Performance Measurement at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, a Manager and Principal Evaluator at the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, and a Budget Analyst with the Congressional Budget Office. John received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Middlebury College in Vermont and a Master of Public Affairs degree from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Jamie Stolpestad

Jamie Stolpestad is a real estate finance and investment specialist with over 30 years of experience nationally and internationally. He served as an investment officer and member and chair of investment committees for institutional real estate investors including private equity firms, insurance companies, and public and private REITS. After his corporate institutional real estate career, he returned to his home in Minnesota to pursue opportunistic real estate projects with a family business, including with full volumetric modular and panelized housing technologies.

Jamie has successfully advocated land use, building code and environmental policy change at the local and state level. He holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree from Northwestern University, an MBA from the Kellogg School, and served as an adjunct professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business where he taught MBA and Executive MBA level real estate finance courses for 7 years.

Cathy Bennett

Urban Land Institute Minnesota

Nichol Beckstrand

YardHomesMN

Gina Ciganik

Healthy Building Network

Scott Ewing

Dominium

Richard Graves

UMN Center for Sustainable Building Research

Maureen Kavanagh

3M

Harry Melander

Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council

Scott McKown

Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry

Paul Mellblom

MSR Design

Jud Murchie

Wells Fargo

Mary Schumacher

Habitat for Humanity and Andersen Windows (Fmr.)

Cecil Smith

Minnesota Multi Housing Association

Remi Stone

Builders Association of Minnesota

Chris Wilson

Project for Pride in Living