Tireless. Persuasive. Dedicated. These are all words used to describe Teresa Brice, LISC executive director in Phoenix. We can now add “winner” to that list after the Arizona Department of Housing honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award this fall. Brice retires at the end of the year after 35 years of helping neighborhoods grow and low-income families build a better quality of life in the Valley.
When people in Arizona describe Teresa Brice they often use the same words. She’s a tireless advocate. She’s a persuasive partner. She understands what communities need because she listens to the people who live there. She drives impact.
They can now add Lifetime Achievement Award winner to the list. The Arizona Department of Housing recently honored Brice for her 35 years of work to help low-income families build a better quality of life—including her efforts during eight years as executive director of LISC Phoenix.
Under her leadership, LISC Phoenix has pioneered a brand of community development that reflects the unique challenges and opportunities in the sprawling Valley. Brice helped the region navigate the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country during the economic downturn—and, in the process, helped build model for other parts of the country to use as well. She led a collaborative effort to drive transit-oriented development all along the region’s new light rail line. She is a policy leader, and an innovator whose efforts have touched everything from affordable housing and jobs to transit and health.
All told, Brice helped LISC direct $200 million to some of the state’s most disadvantaged areas. That has meant 8,000 homes that low-income families can afford and 222,000 square feet of retail and community space for new businesses, athletic fields, schools and more.
Brice is retiring at the end of this year—though her friends and colleagues don’t expect her to quietly sit on the sidelines for long. “I’m lucky,” she says, “that I’ve been able to build a professional life that so clearly reflects my personal values. The Valley is my home, and I love the neighborhoods that give it so much character. It has been a great privilege to spend my days making them stronger, healthier places for all of us to live.”