Who We Are

Anthony Simpkins joined NHS as President and Chief Executive Officer in November of 2020.

Mr. Simpkins is a leader in Chicago’s affordable housing community and has held multiple roles serving the City of Chicago. As Managing Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Housing, he administered housing and community development policies, programs, and strategic investments. In 2014, he was appointed a Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County by the Illinois Supreme Court, and served until 2016.

Previously, he was Deputy Commissioner for the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD), focusing on asset management, intergovernmental affairs, housing preservation initiatives and economic development policy. While at DPD, he helped to develop and administer many groundbreaking programs focused on revitalizing struggling communities, including the Troubled Buildings Initiative and the Micro-Markets Recovery program.

Mr. Simpkins earned his law degree and a Master’s in Political Science from Loyola University and began his legal career as a Skadden Foundation fellow at the Legal Assistance Foundation and Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, where he represented renters who were victims of illegal evictions called “lockouts.”

After graduating with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois, he worked for the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, the Chicago fair housing organization founded by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Anthony maintains an active civic life as well. As a 2011 Emerging Leader for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, he co-authored a published report on immigration. He is a board member and past-president of the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago, the first association of Muslim lawyers organized in the United States, and a former board member of the Cook County Bar Association, the country’s oldest association of African-American lawyers. He is also a Board member of the Downtown Islamic Center, the RTW Veterans Center, and former Managing Editor of the Journal of Islamic Law and Culture.

Donna Clarke joined the NHS staff as Chief Operating Officer in November of 2017. In this role, she has been instrumental in driving operational efficiency throughout the entire organization. She is responsible for achieving the overall goals and coordinating activities for NHS including identifying key sources of funding.

Ms. Clarke has always been attracted to transformative and socially responsible projects.

Originally from New York, Ms. Clarke went to El Paso, Texas where she took on the monumental task of managing the rehabilitation and revitalization of the city’s entire public housing program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) initiative.

Ms. Clarke has also held leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company and Time Warner, primarily in print media and digital operations. While at Time Inc., she moved from the print to digital platform to run daily operations at Money.com. She was subsequently tapped to launch and sunset revenue operations for CNNMoney.com, a 13-year partnership between Turner Broadcasting and Time Inc.

Ms. Clarke comes to NHS with a strong background in operations and the ability to bring together different lines of business to optimize strategy and impact, along with her substantial experience creating, launching, and incubating new products and platforms.

She holds a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.

Robin Coffey joined the NHS staff in February 2009. As Assistant Deputy Director, Ms. Coffey’s responsibilities include the oversight its state-licensed nonprofit mortgage company, Neighborhood Lending Services and the Full-Cycle Homeownership Programs. She also oversees the numerous loan portfolios’ financial reporting, investor relations and loan servicing, in addition to the required reporting on all of the homeownership and foreclosure mitigation counseling contracts.

Before joining NHS, Ms. Coffey spent over 21 years in community development banking, culminating as the Senior Vice President and CRA Officer with Harris Bank. After earning a B.S. in Architectural Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ms. Coffey began her career as a VISTA volunteer at the Chicago Architectural Assistance Center. She continues to volunteer her time on the board of directors of the North Lawndale College Prep Charter High School, and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest.

Karen has been with NHS since 2009 and is responsible for diversifying NHS’ revenue sources through prospecting, vetting, and coordinating major public and private initiatives. This role also seeks catalytic strategic relationships to generate organizational revenue through public grants and contracts.

In her previous role as Director of Homeownership Services for NHS, she was responsible for partnership and program development and led a team of housing counseling professionals in the delivery of services that support the creation of new homebuyers and sustainable homeownership opportunities. She has over 25 years of experience working in affordable housing, community investment and real estate development.

Prior to joining NHS, she worked for General Growth Properties in its Urban Retail Development Group tasked with bringing retail amenities to underserved communities across the country. Throughout her career, she has been committed to advancing affordable housing.

As an attorney, she started her legal career representing multi-family community lenders and then transitioned to representing affordable housing developers serving as legal counsel for the developers of for-sale housing as part of the CHA’s Plan for Transformation Madden-Wells redevelopment.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration in marketing and real estate finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Notre Dame.

As RC Director, Linda oversees NHS’ rehab programs, including acquisition, development and sale of our property portfolio. She works closely with all staff to achieve impact targets for the Redevelopment Corporation and identify activities for NHSRC that help advance NHS’ neighborhood revitalization mission in our target areas. She leads the RC team and their program operations, including the Troubled Building Initiative II Program (TBI2), the Growth program, the LISC development initiative, providing vacant building strategies in the City of Chicago’s Micro Market Recovery Program (MMRP) areas, and the Historic Chicago Greystone & Vintage Home Program® Initiative.

Linda was most recently the Principal at Lucas Greene Associates, where she performed an array of professional services including real estate development consulting, technical support, training, and program planning and evaluation to a diverse client base. Previous to that experience, she worked at the Chicago Neighborhood Institute in positions of increasing responsibility culminating as their Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Linda holds an MBA in Finance and Real Estate from Columbia University in New York.

Danielle joined NHS Chicago in 2007 as the Associated Director responsible for managing HUD certified housing counselors, homebuyer education and foreclosure prevention programs. Prior to joining NHS Chicago in 2007, Danielle previously worked in student loan and credit card finance services where she managed department activities to ensure productivity, quality, and client satisfaction; assists in resolving escalated cases; and built strong relationships with partner organizations

Danielle’s previous career experience also included working in real estate development. Danielle holds a B.S. degree from Louis University in Business Management.

Gordon possesses over 25 years of experience with multiple senior level roles in consumer and residential lending. He is responsible for driving loan originations from a variety of sources in targeted areas through the organization’s outreach, counseling, and educational efforts. He also supports existing relationships with public and private partners and correspondent lending entities serving the greater Chicagoland area.