Laura Craska Cooper, the managing partner of the Bend office of Ball Janik LLP, has been elected as the 2008 Chair of the Board of Commissioners for Housing Works, the regional housing authority. Chuck McGraw, the retired Madras Community Development Director, will assume the duties of the Vice Chair.
"We are so pleased that Laura and Chuck will be providing our Board leadership," says Cyndy Cook, Executive Director of Housing Works. "These two individuals bring a wealth of housing and land-use experience to the table."
Ms. Cooper is a practicing real estate, business and land use attorney. She received her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri in Columbia, with dual degrees in journalism and political science.
Ms. Cooper, who is appointed to the Board of Commissioners by Crook County, has been a Housing Works Commissioner since 2001. Ms. Cooper is very active in the communities of Central Oregon. She is currently president of the Deschutes County Bar Association. Ms. Cooper is also a member of the OSU Cascades Advisory Board. She is a former member of the Bend Rotary Club, a board member and past president of the Prineville Hospital Foundation and former secretary of the St. Andrews Episcopal Church Foundation in Prineville. She serves as legal counsel to numerous non-profit charitable organizations throughout Central Oregon. Ms. Cooper currently resides in Prineville with her husband, Crook County Judge Scott Cooper, and their three daughters.
Chuck McGraw, who is appointed by Jefferson County, has served on the Housing Works Board for more than 17 years, 15 of which he served as Chair. He is currently the Principal with McGraw and Associates Land Use Planning and Consulting. Mr. McGraw recently retired from his position as Planning Director for the City of Madras. Prior to joining the City of Madras, he was the senior planner for Deschutes County, the Planning Director for Jefferson County and the City of Madras, and the Senior Planner for the City of Redmond. He has also assisted Crook County and Harney County in completing a comprehensive plan and development code update through McGraw and Associate Planning and Consulting, LLC, along with obtaining land use approvals for both residential subdivisions and commercial developments in Central Oregon.
Mr. McGraw is a 1970 graduate of University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science Degree and a 1984 graduate of University of Oregon with a Masters Degree of Urban and Regional Planning. He currently resides in Madras with his wife, Marge.
Housing Works, Central Oregon's regional housing authority, provides affordable housing options, from homelessness to homeownership, in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson Counties. Annually, Housing Works serves an estimated 1,600 household in the region.
