Healthy Homes: The Public Housing Preservation Trust's Vlada Kenniff on Bringing Teams Together and Rebuilding Public Housing
By Julia Gamolina
Vlada Kenniff, Ph.D., is a climate leader and advocate for affordable housing and community development, currently serving as the President of the Public Housing Preservation Trust, overseeing critical initiatives, strategic decision-making, and partnerships essential to the success of the Trust. Before assuming the role of President, Vlada served as the Senior Vice President for Sustainability in NYCHA’s Asset and Capital Management Division. In this role, she led NYCHA’s comprehensive Sustainability Agenda, steering the nation's largest public housing authority towards a decarbonized future and healthier homes.
Vlada previously worked at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, where she rose to become Managing Director. In this role, she led capital programs and initiatives related to water conservation, demand management, rate studies, green infrastructure, and climate resiliency projects. Dr. Kenniff holds a Ph.D. in information studies from LIU Post, an M.S. in city and regional planning from the Pratt Institute, and a B.A. in environmental studies from Pace University.
JG: I understand that there is a personal story that connects you to the work you are doing today as President of the Public Housing Preservation Trust. I'd love to hear it.
VK: When my family immigrated to the United States, our apartment and building—where I spent my teenage years—was on Nostrand Avenue, close to Nostrand Houses, a public housing development located in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn. It had many of the same issues I’ve been trying to address at NYCHA. Later, when I got married, my husband and I moved to Marine Park, just a few blocks away from Nostrand Houses. When I first came to Nostrand Houses it felt like coming home—that’s when I knew I had to finish the work I started first at DEP, and later at NYCHA.
May 2023: LIU Post Graduation Day family photo with Vlada’s parents, two children and husband.
Going back, take me through your education — at Pace, Pratt, and LIU. What were the decisions ahead of each degree, and what were you looking to do with each?
Looking back, I couldn’t tell you if I had any good reasons for how I ended up at Pace. The first few years after immigration were riddled with housing insecurity and my parents trying to keep stable incomes and jobs. Pace was an inexpensive commuter school that also offered me a small scholarship in the first year and as a product of two engineers, I was going to college—I didn’t even have to ask. My parents found their footing in programming in Cobol supporting mainframe systems, and I was going to follow in their footsteps. However, after my first semester, I came home and told them I’m changing my major to Environmental Studies. My poor immigrant father had a reaction, which I now understand since I have a kid who will be making these kinds of choices soon. My father did not understand what Environmental Studies was—he asked if I was majoring in Green Peace and how I would ever be employable.
The need for climate action was clear to me since my freshman year in college. I managed to pay my tuition by running the yearbook and making it profitable. I also started an environmental club that became very active. One of the visiting scholars that I invited to speak at Pace must have said something to Aysa Yonder who was heading the Pratt Urban Planning program. She invited me for an interview.
I remember taking my last final at Pace and making a splurge to take a taxi over the bridge to Pratt. Aysa tried to convince me to come to Pratt in the Fall—she even threw in a scholarship—but my plans were to travel and be a hippie. When I came home, I fully expected my dad to say, “I don’t know what urban planning is,” but he printed a City Environmental Quality Review Manual and told me, “This is urban planning and you would be silly not to take this opportunity.” That changed my life. Then eventually the PhD was something I always knew I wanted to get, partially because both of my parents wanted to but never had the opportunity.
“Our mission is so important—rebuilding public housing so that our residents and New Yorkers can take pride in their homes again—I deeply believe in this . . . This is complex work and the team that we’re assembling backs into the Trust’s capabilities around resident partnerships, capital delivery, financing, and asset management. ”
Tell me about your start at the DEP.
I started as an intern at DEP, first working on Gowanus Canal environmental review related projects, as well as the Environmental Impact Statement for Shaft 33B, a project to improve New York’s water supply. Because of my grad school thesis, my first real job focused on hazmat and remediation, but after a year, I got pulled into planning and analysis where I got to see a little bit of everything. I think those were also the golden years of Geographic Information Systems when lots of really good quality data were available, I really mastered the ESRI products and SQL and was able to tell many kinds of stories with data about water quality, water demand, stormwater management, etc. We produced a few very impactful plans and executed them.
I also got to build my first team for a newly created Water Demand Management department—that’s when I learned that I love doing that—building programs, hiring the right talent, keeping everyone motivated and excited. I got to do that two more times at NYCHA when I was recruited to build out a sustainability program and team, which I got to lead twice in different capacities. At DEP, I was working to implement a plan to reduce NYC’s water demand by 5% when we discovered at DEP that NYCHA had significant leaks. This drew me to NYCHA: it seemed like a huge part of the challenge and the solution.
Tell me about the rest of your time at NYCHA.
At NYCHA, I took an unexpected turn, when at the request of the Chair and General Manager, I was asked to build a response to the Baez consent decree-related mold and leaks. I took the job for the same reason I took my first job at NYCHA—ultimately, I thought I was coming over to fix the plumbing. I thought that if I rewrote the standard operating procedures and better deployed the NYCHA plumbers, we could truly fix the massive plumbing issues—only to realize that these are deeper problems that require something like the Public Housing Preservation Trust to raise the necessary amounts of capital funds for large scale modernizations.
Before coming over to lead the Trust, I was recruited back into sustainability. While during my first two years at NYCHA, I focused on developing water conservation, solar, and stormwater programs, during my second stint in sustainability, I was leading a larger team that also included the energy team. This is when I really dug into opportunities for decarbonization, and how we can use NYCHA’s scale to shift markets. I’m most proud of the Clean Heat for All Challenge.
August 2023: Last photo with the NYCHA Sustainability team. I am holding up the NYCHA 2021 Sustainability Agenda, while the rest of the team is holding a ”baseball card” of a project(s) they are working on.
What's most exciting to you about the work that you're doing now? What have you also learned in the last six months?
I get to build a team again! Already, we’ve got incredible talent that I feel tremendous pride in. And our mission is so important—rebuilding public housing so that our residents and New Yorkers can take pride in their homes again—I deeply believe in this. I learned that the two properties that voted for the Trust in the last six months believe in this too, and we are gearing up to deliver. This is complex work and the team that we’re assembling backs into the Trust’s capabilities around resident partnerships, capital delivery, financing, and asset management.
I also learned that with every new person that came onto the team, our anxiety has eased, as we’ve become more confident in our team of specialized professionals who can truly deliver on the mission of the Trust. In partnership with NYCHA, we’ve now released our first Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to source a Design-Build team that will be responsible for modernizations of Nostrand Houses and Bronx River Addition—interested partners can find out more at the June 11 Industry Event. I also appreciate the true partnership Nostrand Houses Resident Association President Barbara McFadden and Norma Saunders have given both NYCHA and the Trust—it makes a huge difference.
“I’d like to make sure no one has to live the way my family did in our first immigrant years. While my career in sustainability is what taught me the means and methods to get there, my focus is on residents and healthy homes first. If I get to decarbonize, reduce waste, and waste less water along the way, it’s a huge bonus.”
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
I think every step in my schooling and work had moments of fear and anxiety. Not being able to speak the language in high school while trying to keep up with curriculum; my big falling out with my family in college when I switched my major; my first year at Pratt—I was the only one without any job experience in the program and wanted to drop out in the first six months; giving up an opportunity at the United Nations Development Corporation as an executive assistant to the President to take a job as an intern at DEP; these have been moments where I’ve questioned my choices. But today, I go to sleep and wake up every morning knowing that all of my work has been connected in some way, focused on climate action and affordable housing. Knowing that gets me through the toughest days.
Who are you admiring now and why?
My entire board—how lucky am I to be guided by such amazing women? I’ve been a fan-girl of Maria Torres-Springer for years and now she’s on our Board—it’s pretty amazing; also Rit Aggarwala—if you had asked me a decade ago who I’d like to get an autograph from, these would have been the names. Deborah Goddard—I am not sure who I would be today without her, as she’s one of the smartest, strongest, clear-minded people I’ve ever met, but most importantly she’s been a phone call away literally my entire career at NYCHA and now at the Trust. Lisa Bova-Hiatt! Either I'm super lucky, or the universe conspires. What are the chances of having the Chair of the Trust Board, who is also the CEO of NYCHA, who's also one of the handful of people who got to build a new government agency from scratch? Her experience and guidance are indispensable to the Trust.
Today, I get to see some dear friends propelled into positions of leadership and have the ability to make a huge difference—like Rory Christian at the Public Service Commission, or Susanne DesRoches at NYSERDA. One more—Daphany Rose Sanchez—she was my intern at DEP and a NYCHA resident. All of these amazing people are at the intersection of climate action and affordable housing and have been for years.
August 2022: NYCHA announces the winners of the Clean Heat for All Challenge at Woodside Houses. Photo by Ron Adar.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And what does success in that look like to you?
I’d like to make sure no one has to live the way my family did in our first immigrant years. While my career in sustainability is what taught me the means and methods to get there, my focus is on residents and healthy homes first. If I get to decarbonize, reduce waste, and waste less water along the way, it’s a huge bonus. Success to me would be ten years from now, looking back at all 25,000 rehabbed NYCHA homes—our ceiling under the State Legislation— that are healthy and part of thriving communities.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Do something that you deeply care about, and develop strong networks of people you trust and admire, especially the team you get to be on or that you’re responsible for hiring. Never stop learning. And for all those historically disadvantaged—not just women—there’s never been a better time to step into much-needed and important work, especially in affordable housing and climate action, with courage and confidence.