Welcome, Teslim Ikharo!

SHCLA is excited to announce that Teslim Ikharo has started as SHCLA’s founding Executive Director. Teslim is an urban strategist, community convener and impact investor who uses finance, real estate development, social services and policy to produce positive change. Prior to starting his new role as Executive Director, Teslim offered his skills of collaboration, strategic thinking and versatile communication to SHCLA through his work with the the advisory and website committees.

In addition to his vast mosaic of knowledge and experience, Teslim possesses a commitment to beauty and believes that when working in the realm of affordability, it’s important to bring in elements of luxury. Just as a small example, Teslim started his first day as the SHCLA Executive Director bearing sunflowers. 

Welcome, Teslim! Thank you for bringing symbols of good fortune, warmth, and peace to SHCLA. And many thanks for welcoming collaboration, engagement and communication as you begin your leadership with SHCLA.

Here are some examples of direction we may expect to see with Teslim’s leadership:

• Creating a positive work culture;
• Exploring collective leadership;
• Encouraging participants from all levels of organization to engage authentically with members of the target population;
• Eliciting involvement from neighborhoods before creating housing units with the intention of collaborative planning;
• Researching models across the country and tailoring them to the local conditions;
• Using evidenced based research to create permanent supportive housing with person centered care and services that are tailored to each person’s need. (For more on this, see the video below.)

Connect

If you'd like to reach us by mail, we are at 490 Lake Park Avenue #10896, Oakland, CA 94610. To contact us via email, you can reach us through our website. To join our mailing list for information as it develops, please scroll down to the bottom of our website to sign up for the SHCLA mailing list. You can now also follow SHCLA on Linkedin.