Our Staff
Jack Jensen - Executive Director
Jack Jensen is a nationally-recognized writer and instructor in affordable housing who brings a diverse background and multiple talents to the community development field. Master carpenter from the Chicago Carpenter’s Union and a graduate of Cornell University’s College Scholar program, he ran his own design-build construction company from 1978 to 1992. As his skills and reputation as a builder grew, so did project budgets, and Jack found himself working for an increasingly-wealthy clientele. In 1992, he had a crisis of conscience, and went to work as construction coordinator for Better Housing for Tompkins County, a Rural Preservation Company. There he got the community development religion, and has never looked back. He developed multifamily housing and literally moved their office across the street for Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services from 1994-1997. He was promptly beamed up to the Mother Ship of NeighborWorks®, and was flown around the country for 6 years as a real estate development and housing production specialist.
Jack's current consulting practice includes writing and curriculum development on construction and development topics as well as technical assistance and training to non-profits nationally. He is on the faculties of the NeighborWorks® Training Institute, LISC, and the prestigious Chautauqua Institute, and recently trained his 10,000th participant. He has built volunteer homes in Syracuse, Mississippi and Ecuador and in 2004 got his second master certification in masonry. In 2006, he and Sheila Squier co-founded Community Building Works! Inc.™ together—a non-profit dedicated to building green affordable housing, locally and internationally. For every affordable home they build in Ithaca, they build one in a disadvantaged country such as Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, etc., helping spread peace, knowledge, and fun. In 2008 Jack was named a Cornell Civic Fellow, and received the 2010 Debra Newman Foundation Leadership Award for his efforts. He is currently developing a 19-lot green mixed-income reforestation subdivision, four of which will be donated to Commnity Building Works! Inc.
Sheila Squier - Program Director
Sheila runs a successful consulting business, SASquier Consulting, focusing on support to non-profit organizations. Current projects include coordinating national foreclosure intervention events, project management of training activities for affordable housing practitioners in the state of New York, support to organizations receiving HUD Housing Counseling funding and assistance to agencies applying for the National Industry Standards for Homeownership Education and Counseling.
NeighborWorks America, (specifically NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling and the NeighborWorks National Homeownership Programs), Mortgage Keeper and the Texas Foreclosure Intervention Task Force are among Sheila's clients.
Volunteerism is also an important aspect of Sheila's life. Sheila is co-founder with Jack Jensen of Community Building Works! whose mission is to build community capacity by providing green, affordable housing, locally and internationally, using volunteer labor. For every house built locally one is built in a developing country.
In addition, Sheila is Treasurer of Acropolis Cooperative and the Ithaca Triathlon Club. For fun she teaches SPIN and aerobics classes.
Nate Litwin - Project Coordinator
Nate is one of two project coordinators building affordable housing with Community Building Works! and is a member of the 2Good2BTru Crew, which contracts with private homeowners and helps fund CBW!’s affordable housing projects. Nate joined CBW! last summer. Previously he worked in Ithaca as an independent green builder for two years. He’s had the pleasure of helping with timberframe, double stud, and straw bale homes. He was even able to help build and then caretake an “Earthship” for six months, an earth bermed residential house with a foundation of rammed earth car tires and an indoor secondary water system. Nate has completed law school and spent three years working as a real estate attorney in Connecticut before deciding he wanted to spend more time working with nonprofits, being outdoors, and working with his hands. Nate has held a lifelong passion for working in the public interest and sees his work with CBW! as a continuation of that passion. Nate is an active member of the Ithaca Green Building Alliance and helped organize the local Green Building Home tour last October.
Robb Johnsrud - Project Coordinator
Robb Johnsrud has been in the Ithaca area since 1984, and brings 25 years of building and affordable housing experience to Community Building Works! After finishing a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz he moved to Ithaca and took an apprentice position with Equity Builders. He quickly discovered he had an affinity and love for building.
Following the demise of the cooperative Equity Builders, he helped to start Coy Glen Construction, a partnership of three, in 1989. Along with construction of some Jack Jensen-designed homes, Coy Glen developed a reputation for high quality work and congenial client relations. Robb assumed sole ownership of Coy Glen in 1994 upon the departure of one of the partners. He spent the next years learning drawing and design, developing his building skills, and discovering the joys and headaches of running a business alone.
Offered a position as “rehabilitation specialist” – affordable-housing-speak for construction manager - at Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, Coy Glen was put to bed from 1999-2005. Robb quickly discovered that wearing the hat of affordable housing specialist requires many heads. In addition to developing work plans for small loans through extensive client consultation, attending meetings, performing structural assessments, and finding builders instead of being one, he also learned computer-based drawing, attended meetings, and designed and oversaw construction of many new and renovated houses. Along the way he also wrote up the program’s construction guidelines, taught lead-safe work technique courses, remembered birthdays, and caught a terminal case of the house recycling bug.
Missing building, Robb started up Coy Glen again in 2005, and has been focusing on high quality, personal and congenial service, and as much recycling-type work as possible. Robb has been a member of EEBA, the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance, an advocate for resource- and energy-efficient building, and is certified as a lead sampling technician. Married to Jen Ross - a soon-to-be-practicing Nurse Practitioner - he has three sons, two cats, one dog; loves to cook; is part owner of Elk Creek Café and Aleworks, a local foods restaurant and brewpub in central PA, and tries to do all these things when he’s not riding his bike.
Sandy Haaf - Administrative Assistant
Sandy Haaf is CBW!'s administrative assistant, volunteer coordinator and website developer. She has lived in Ithaca for the past 8 years with her husband and 2 daughters. Prior to being a Mom she worked for 5 years doing computer support and software/database development for an architecture firm in Madison, WI. Followed by a year at a construction company in Lancaster, PA as an Analyst/Programmer. Recently she has been working with Fortis Wind Energy, a local wind turbine company doing database customization and bookkeeping. She has a BS from Ithaca College in Computer Information Science - which in short means a computer science degree focusing on how companies can utilize technology. She is happy to be working for an organization that she feels good about.