Meet Our Team
Philip Burns Executive Director
As the Executive Director of Congregational Land Partners, Phil comes as an experienced Managing Principal of The Arroyo Group, a 48-year-old planning and urban design firm based in Pasadena, CA. Before his role as the Executive Director, Phil served as Chair of the Congregational Land Committee, a multidisciplinary group of professionals dedicated to advising religious congregations that seek to develop affordable housing on their campuses, bringing approximately 35 new affordable housing projects on religious land to market. As a planner, Philip wrote the first Congregational Overlays in California and served as a technical advisor on SB4, the State bill that allows affordable housing on congregational land statewide; he has shared his experiences as a contributing author to “Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition.”
Margaret Munoz Urban Planner
Margaret’s work involves writing housing elements, writing specific plans, and working on affordable housing initiatives such as congregational land overlay zones. Margaret studied Urban Studies at Haverford College, including a semester studying in Berlin. At the University of Southern California, she concentrated in housing and real estate development, through which she developed a strong background in policy that incentivizes affordable housing development. Margaret has experience organizing in communities across Los Angeles County to help address Southern California’s housing crisis.
Lucero Garcia Program Associate
Lucero holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Irvine. Lucero supports the coordination of the affordable housing cohorts and apprenticeship program, conducts zoning reviews for congregational sites, and leads the distribution of Requests for Proposals (RFPs). She is an experienced community organizer with a demonstrated history of working in diverse communities, including with interfaith communities, and coalitions. For nearly five years, Lucero sat on the board of THRIVE Santa Ana, the first community land trust in the City of Santa Ana in Orange County, California, designed to ensure local residents are involved in equitable community-driven land development.
Allied Professionals
Ian Dickenson
Living in Los Angeles since 2010, Ian has been an active member of the academic, arts, and design communities, having contributed to numerous exhibitions and events. He has worked with The ArroyoGroup on planning and urban design projects in Vernon, Norwalk and Inglewood, as well as conceptual design for religious congregation affordable housing projects around the region. With a long track record designing commercial and residential (market rate and affordable) projects in the Southern California region, Ian contributes his technical expertise, as well as his sensibilities based on the essence, culture and needs of a place, to urban design strategies, zoning and design standards, and similar efforts in the firm’s work.
Richard Gentilucci
Richard is a 25 year veteran of the affordable housing industry and worked for a variety of well-known affordable housing developers. He holds a Master of Real Estate Development from USC and has developed over 2000 units of affordable housing and 30,000 SF of retail in submarkets throughout California, Arizona, and Texas. He is now a partner at Western Pacific Housing, LLC and GHK Properties, LLC where there are 605 affordable units in various stages of predevelopment. He provides policy support and advice to the Church Land Committee.
Officers
Dr. Jill Shook Chair
Jill holds degrees from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Denver Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Bakke Graduate University in Transformational Leadership for the Global City. After years of serving as a campus minister and coordinating teams from Berkeley to Harvard to support sustainable community development led by local communities in developing countries, she founded STARS, an afterschool program at Lake Avenue Church. Through these experiences, she recognized the high cost of housing as a root cause of poverty. Since 2000, Jill has been a passionate advocate for stable, decent, and affordable homes that enable people to remain rooted in their communities.
In 2001, she helped craft an inclusionary housing policy that has produced over 1,000 affordable units at no cost to the city, with hundreds more in the pipeline. Between 2011 and 2022, Pasadena’s homeless count dropped by 56%, in part due to the beloved community of collaborators in Pasadena of which she is an integral part. Dr. Shook is the Co-Founder, along with her husband Dr. Anthony Manousos, of Making Housing and Community Happen. She is the author and editor of Making Housing Happen: Faith-Based Affordable Housing Models, a book used on campuses across the U.S. She leads Housing Justice Workshops and Institutes nationwide.
Andre White
Andre serves as a development advisor/owner’s representative to local churches through the Church Land Committee. He has spent the last fourteen years working on the development of and investment in affordable and market-rate housing in California and four other states. In 2019 Andre started his firm, Mitchelville Real Estate Group, due to his realization that often non-profit and institutional organizations do not have a representative to advise and help them navigate through all of the nuances and particulars of a complicated real estate development and investment partnership.
Jose Manuel Marquez Office Administrator/Bookkeeper
In his role as office manager, Jose aids in the everyday tasks around the office. He also specializes in graphic design content, assisting with touch-ups and document preparation. Jose is a lifelong California native and enjoys learning about the ongoing development of communities he lives in and has been surrounded by his entire life. He is also currently a student at California State University Los Angeles, where he is studying biology in hopes of providing medical care and assistance to communities like the ones served by The Arroyo Group.
John Oh
John is the Project Manager for Faith in Housing at LA Voice. His role is to facilitate the building of affordable and permanent supportive housing on congregation and denomination-owned land. He comes from over fifteen years of parish ministry in LA County and has “the soul of an organizer” stemming from his Wesleyan roots of social justice and spirituality. He is passionate about reducing environmental impact and designing greener buildings as a LEED AP with a background in construction engineering and management. John has a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Maura Chen
Maura is an artist, architectural designer, educator, and writer from tovaangar (Los Angeles) with roots in the East Bay, San Francisco, New York, and West Philly. Chen is the housing project associate with LA voice, where they work between community organizers and developers on designs for affordable housing types to be built on congregation-owned land across LA county.
Hugh Martinez
Hugh is a 25 year veteran of the affordable housing industry and worked for a variety of well-known affordable housing developers. He holds a Master of Real Estate Development from USC and has developed over 2000 units of affordable housing and 30,000 SF of retail in submarkets throughout California, Arizona, and Texas. He is now a partner at Western Pacific Housing, LLC and GHK Properties, LLC where there are 605 affordable units in various stages of predevelopment. He provides policy support and advice to the Church Land Committee.
Rev. Victor Cyrus-Franklin Secretary
Victor Cyrus-Franklin is the Lead Pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles and supervisor of the affordable housing development project of Inglewood First UMC . Since 2019, he has shepherded the Inglewood congregation through the transformation of its property into a church and community center with affordable housing.
A native of Nashville, TN, Victor received his Bachelor of Arts from Tennessee State University , Master of Divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, GA and is a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Social Transformation from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL
Victor also serves on the Lead Team for L.A. Voice, a multi-faith, multi-racial community organizing coalition in Los Angeles.
Dan Davidson Treasurer
Dan is a nonprofit leader, social entrepreneur, and pastor committed to reimagining the role of the church in community development and social impact. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Coffee With A Cause, a nonprofit that provides job training and employment access for young people facing systemic barriers such as foster care, homelessness, and justice system involvement. Dan also founded Rosebud Coffee, a social enterprise café in Pasadena that serves as a training ground for youth interns.
In addition to his work in the nonprofit sector, Dan is a former church planter and the founding pastor of Rose City Church in Pasadena, where he led city wide efforts to address systemic barriers for neighbors experiencing homelessness. He formed the Faith Community Committee as a model for faith-based partnerships with local governments. He also supports Southern California’s startup ecosystem through his role with the Alliance for SoCal Innovation, connecting early-stage founders to venture capital.
Dan holds a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary, with a focus on church economics and property redevelopment. He brings a passion for innovation, community impact, and collaborative leadership to every board he joins.