DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Raven currently serves as Director of Development in the real estate development department for The Benoit Group, LLC and formerly Project Manager of Quest Communities, Inc. Overall, she has been working in the affordable housing industry for over 9 years.

Her responsibility includes overseeing affordable housing development deals totaling over $200 million in 4% LIHTC Bond funded developments with layered subsidies & soft financing.  As Director of Development, she has closed & developed several multi-phased, mixed-use, mixed-development sites like the revitalization of Englewood Manor, a 30.4 acres real estate development in Chosewood Park Neighborhood. Other sites include Edgehill at Southtown, a 22-acre master redevelopment site in Birmingham, AL, and Astoria at Crystal Lake, a 10.90-acre residential development located in Douglasville, Ga and Hillcrest II in Eastpoint, Ga.

Prior to her tenure at the Housing Finance Agencies, Miss Thompson served in the role of a Property Manager managing LIHTC multi-family housing units with a portfolio income size of (15 million).   She later served as Housing Tax Credit Specialist for two housing finance agencies in Mississippi and Georgia.  She has been involved in the financing and development of more than 1124-housing projects in Mississippi and over 5,000-housing projects in Georgia alone.

In that capacity, she managed the 8609 Cost Certification process, ten percent test, carryovers and 8610 IRS reporting.  As it relates to both positions, her job responsibility included serving as a member of the feasibility team underwriting and scoring of the 9% competitive round AND 4%/Tax-Exempt tax credit applications, as well as deals layered funding with HOME, National Housing Trust Funds and Community Development Block Grant programs.  In addition, she has been an intricate part in policy development and strategic planning efforts for both agencies qualified allocation plans.  While serving as Housing Tax Credit Specialist at Mississippi Home Corporation and Georgia Department of Community Affairs, she helped to establish processes and policies published in the agency’s Qualified Allocation Plan and served and participated in several Qualified Allocation Plan workshops and attended affordable housing Conferences in Washington, DC and San Francisco, California.

Lastly, Raven is a proud native of Mississippi, undergraduate degree from University of Mississippi, graduate of Delta State University & Georgia Institute of Technology with a Master’s in both Real Estate Development and Business Administration. She is an active member of Zeta Phi Beta, Incorporated with a zeal for mission-based projects that encompass the concept of live, work, play and thrive.