Board Members
Nicole Nosek,
Chair of the Board
Nicole Nosek grew passionate about housing while she worked as a paralegal making just below $50,000 per year, where she could only afford to live with a family with a baby along with another roommate in a small space. She recognized the role limited supply had on not only on the lower income, but the missing middle as well. This led her to work for a housing organization whose mission was to pass laws to encourage more housing to accommodate the growing population and drive down costs through supply and demand approaches. In 2018, she graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a B.S. in Political Science and B.A. in Rhetoric.
She is the Chair of the Austin Habitat for Humanity Advocacy Committee and an Executive Committee Board Member where she has the privilege of helping more Americans access the American Dream of home ownership. She resides in West Lake Hills, TX with her two kids and husband.
Charles Blain
Charles is a public policy entrepreneur and the Founder of Urban Reform, an organization focused on promoting free market solutions to urban issues. Charles’ work focuses on policies that foster upward mobility for those living in major metro areas. He has also increasingly focused on bottom-up solutions that seek to restore a sense of community and rebuild social fabric in local neighborhoods.
He is a contributor to the American Enterprise Institute’s book The Future of Cities (American Enterprise Institute, 2023). In addition to many television and radio appearances which include CNN, Fox News, and CBS, Charles has been published in the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, Forbes, The Houston Chronicle, and Dallas Morning News. Charles currently lives in Houston and was named a Houston Business Journal 40 under 40 honoree.
He serves on the Governing Board of Prison Entrepreneurship Program and the board of Entre Capital, a second-chance lender for businesses started by ex-offenders. Charles is currently serving a 4-year term as an appointee to the Texas Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
John Mackey
John Mackey is an American businessman, and writer of the bestselling book Conscious Capitalism, which was released in 2013. He is the co-founder of Whole Foods Market and served as the CEO of the company from its inception in 1980 until 2022. Named Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year in 2003, Mackey is a strong supporter of free market economics. Mackey co-founded his first health food store, SaferWay, in Austin in 1978. They borrowed $10,000 and raised $35,000 more to start SaferWay. At the time, Austin had several small health food stores. Mackey built Whole Foods into a multinational organization, with outlets in major markets across the country, as well as Canada and the United Kingdom.
Mackey serves on multiple nonprofit boards of directors, including Students For Liberty, Global Animal Partnership, Conscious Capitalism, and the Humane Society of the United States. A Texas native, John still resides there with his wife Deborah.
Our Team
Brita Wallace, General Counsel
Brita Wallace is a contract attorney with Texans for Reasonable Solutions, where she supports the organization’s mission to reduce regulatory barriers and expand housing opportunities across Texas. Sheis also a land use attorney at McLean & Howard and the founder of Digs, her own infill building and development company.
Brita has longstanding experience in housing policy advocacy, including volunteer service as president of the Austin Infill Coalition, a nonprofit focused on advancing policies that support infill development and more housing choices. She has also contributed her time to local civic and nonprofit efforts, serving on the Austin Habitat for Humanity Advocacy Committee, the City of Austin Preservation Plan Working Group, the ULI Code Rewrite Workgroup, and the City of Austin Design Commission. She began her legal career in public service as the protective order attorney for the Williamson County Attorney’s Office, representing survivors of domestic violence.
A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Brita combines her background in public service, home building, and housing advocacy to help shape policies that make it possible to build more homes in Texas communities. Brita lives just south of downtown Austin with her corgi, Gus.
Wes Benedict, Vice President
Wes Benedict serves as Vice President of Texans for Reasonable Solutions, where he leads grassroots engagement and coalition outreach to expand housing and energy opportunities across Texas. He works with business leaders, community advocates, and policymakers from across the political spectrum to advance practical solutions that address the state’s housing affordability, grid reliability, and long-term economic growth.
With a background in public policy, nonprofit management, and community organizing, Wes has helped support successful efforts to reduce regulatory barriers, encourage home-building that meets the needs of Texas families, and promote policies that expand reliable and affordable energy. Wes recently led now Secretary Robert F Kennedy’s campaign as the Texas State Director. Originally from Louisiana, he lives in Austin with his family and enjoys exploring the Brushy Creek trail system in his free time.
Advisors to the Board
Greg Anderson
Greg joined the Austin Habitat team in January 2015 after spending five years at Austin City Hall as Policy Director for Mayor Pro Tem Cole. For six years Greg was a high school dropout working paycheck to paycheck but was eventually able to sneak into university thanks to being able to consistently find $400/mo rent in Central Austin. Greg now works to promote housing policies to legalize a diversity of housing types for a diversity of income earners.
He has more than 15 years of experience in real estate development, including the 360 Condominium Tower and the Austin Habitat for Humanity Community Home Center. He currently serves on the City of Austin’s Planning Commission and lectures at The University of Texas. Greg is tasked with expanding Austin Habitat’s product line to include multi- family and regional advocacy. Greg received both his MBA and his undergraduate degrees in Urban Studies and Geography and the Environment from the University of Texas in Austin.
Dr. Cullum Clark
Cullum Clark is Director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative and Adjunct Economics Professor at SMU. Cullum’s work focuses on creating prosperous, high-opportunity cities as a path to improving economic mobility in America and advancing the Bush Institute principle of private markets humanized by compassionate government. He co-authored the 2021 book The Texas Triangle: An Emerging Power in the Global Economy. Cullum’s work has appeared in City Journal, Real Clear Policy, and numerous other publications, plus the Freakonomics Radio podcast. He recently published an extensive report on the role of universities and academic medical centers in local and regional economies and is currently working on a report on housing supply and affordability in U.S. cities.
Cullum worked in investments for 25 years, founding two firms. He serves on the Board of the Texas charter school network Uplift Education and on several foundation and endowment boards. He earned a B.A. in History from Yale, a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in Economics from SMU.
Dr. Salim Furth
Salim Furth is a nationally recognized expert in land use and housing economics. He has given testimony before numerous state legislatures, as well as the U.S. House and Senate, and he has worked with local officials to reform zoning. Furth’s research has appeared in Critical Housing Analysis, The City, National Affairs, and other journals. Among his current research projects are Regulating Without Zoning in Maine Towns, Single-Family Zoning and Race: Evidence from the Twin Cities, and – constructed on Texas data – Foundations and Microfoundations: Building Housing on Regulated Land. Furth appears regularly in national print and radio media. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester. He is not (yet) a Texan; he lives in Maryland with his wife and four children.
David Goswick
American entrepreneur David Goswick is focused on bringing scalable, sustainable, and responsible efficiencies and services to the $43 Trillion dollar residential real estate category. Goswick’s mission is to sell homes in a smart, healthier, zero energy home that costs less to own, operate, protect, and maintain.
Goswick teams with leading tech, energy and real estate companies to develop consumer focused solutions providing a single marketplace for all aspects of searching for, buying, and owning a home easing the way for making households smarter, more secure, efficient, and less to own.
Goswick has a visionary track record that has been recognized with over 400 marketing and innovation awards during his 40-year career resulting in over $140 billion in collective revenue. Goswick conceived and led the execution of the first master planned community in America featuring the ease of "one-bill" of services including telephony, data, entertainment, security, video conferencing and electricity.
Goswick is a Texan native and currently lives in Houston, TX with his family and grandchildren.
Heather Hubbs
Heather Hubbs is a University of Texas student from Floresville, Texas, a city south of San Antonio. After seeing the results of the housing crisis in her personal experiences, Heather decided to do something about it. She regularly volunteers at Habitat for Humanity builds, local food banks, homeless shelters, and organizes trash pick-ups around the City. Simply talking about housing affordability was not enough for her; she wanted to take real action making an impact to improve everyone’s life and possibilities in the State’s Capital. She harbors an overwhelming desire to see fairness around young people’s housing opportunities in Texas.
Heather experienced the lack of parity in the current housing market personally as a student at University of Texas, Austin. The lack of housing options for students and every day families has driven many Texans into substandard often-unhealthy circumstances because appropriate alternatives within their price range were not available. She is passionate about the creation of more Missing Middle housing.
Heather also regularly testifies in front of City Council advocating for housing affordability. She is an active member of the University of Texas, Habitat for Humanity and a member of the Austin Habitat for Humanity Advocacy Committees. Finally, Heather runs her own advocacy organization at University of Texas called ‘Let’s Talk about IT.’
She feels that through the study and application of economics she can improve everyone’s opportunities here in our City, State, and Nation for the better. Heather believes to do so it will take courage, commitment, and candor on her part. She is dedicated to making a difference and willing to put in the time and effort to do so regardless of the cost. Heather is from Floresville and goes to school at University of Texas, Austin.
Yamini Karandikar
Yamini Karandikar is a San Antonio resident with a professional background in the utility industry, specializing in data-driven process improvement and engineering. She has a strong passion for problem-solving, community building, and effective collaboration.
Yamini's interest in housing issues deepened during her own homebuying journey when she realized that the "missing middle" housing options she sought were in short supply compared to the abundance of large homes outside of her budget. As she delved deeper into the factors limiting housing options, she became an advocate for policies that promote a wider range of housing opportunities. Her goal is to create communities that accommodate people at every stage of life while driving down costs and better aligning supply with demand.
In her leadership role with Strong Towns San Antonio, a grassroots organization, Yamini champions housing reform and the development of financially resilient communities.
Luke Nosek
Luke co-founded PayPal and served as the company’s VP of Marketing and Strategy. After selling PayPal to eBay, Luke co-founded Founders Fund and led the first venture investment in SpaceX in 2008 and has served on the SpaceX board since then. Luke additionally co-founded Gigafund a venture capital firm backing the world's most ambitious and transformative entrepreneurs.
Luke is passionate about fixing governments and cities to work effectively for Americans. Luke is a proud husband and father in West Lake Hills, TX and enjoys kayaking on his free time.
Magatte Wade
Magatte Wade is the founder of SkinIsSkin.com, which sells skincare products. She’s a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum at Davos; a TED Global Africa Fellow; and “Leading Woman in Wellness” award winner by the Global Wellness Summit. In 2014, she was featured on the cover of Forbes Afrique. She also serves as director of the Atlas Network’s Center for African Prosperity; is a member of the board of Conscious Capitalism; on the John Templeton Foundation board of trustees; and serves on the advisory board of the Whole Planet Foundation of Whole Foods Market. She has written for The Guardian, Huffington Post, and Barron’s, and has been profiled by the New York Times.
Magatte Wade lives in Dale, TX with her husband.
Nick Walsh
Nick Walsh serves on the board of the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers. He serves as Vice President of Development with The NRP Group, a vertically integrated developer, owner, builder, and manager of best-in-class multifamily housing. He is responsible for sourcing and entitling new projects, comprising everything from origination to the start of construction. Additionally, Walsh works to build and foster relationships with public partners, government agencies and housing authorities.
Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Walsh develops affordable and mixed-income housing across the state of Texas. Since joining NRP in 2019, he has overseen the development of over 2,500 units at a total development cost exceeding $500 million.
Walsh graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the Ross School of Business.