January 31, 2019<\/p>\n
Governor Bryan Taps Adrienne L. Williams-Octalien to Lead Office of Disaster Recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n CHRISTIANSTED\u2014 Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. on Thursday named Adrienne L. Williams-Octalien Director of the Office of Disaster Recovery under the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority.<\/p>\n Williams-Octalien, a former Executive Director at the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority has more than 20 years\u2019 experience in the housing industry and has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) since November 2017. She most recently served as the Hazard Mitigation Branch Director and as FEMA\u2019s Program Operations Sector Chief of the Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation, and Environmental and Historic Preservation Programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bryan-Roach administration is committed to continuing the recovery and rebuilding effort and to precisely utilize the recovery funding as mandated through the Community Development Block Grant\u2014Disaster Recovery program to procure a more resilient infrastructure to support our economic development efforts,\u201d Governor Bryan said.<\/p>\n \u201cAdrienne\u2019s career history in the housing industry, her knowledge of urban development, and her successful management of hundreds of millions in federal grant funding over the years makes her the right person at the right time to serve in this capacity. Her office will be a key component in the rebuilding our Virgin Islands,\u201d Governor Bryan added.<\/p>\n Williams-Octalien also formerly served as the Regional Asset Manager and the Director of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Programs with the Virgin Islands Housing Authority. While at its helm, the HCV program was designated with the U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development\u2019s (HUD) premier distinction of \u201cHigh Performer\u201d and was removed from the troubled list.<\/p>\n Also during her tenure at the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority, she successfully led the development of seven homeownership and rental communities across the Virgin Islands that provided 332 new housing opportunities for families totaling $69 million in development costs.<\/p>\n The VIHFA is charged with administering the Community Development Block Grant\u2013Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program with a total allocation of $1.8 billion designated for housing, infrastructure and economic revitalization recovery initiatives, $779 million of which is mandated for mitigation- activities that reduce or eliminate the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters.<\/p>\n Williams-Octalien holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communications and a Master\u2019s in Degree Urban Affairs from Norfolk State University in Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 31, 2019 Governor Bryan Taps Adrienne L. Williams-Octalien to Lead Office of Disaster Recovery CHRISTIANSTED\u2014 Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. on Thursday named Adrienne L. Williams-Octalien Director of the Office of Disaster Recovery under the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority. Williams-Octalien, a former Executive Director at the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority has more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"project_id":"","notification":"","due_date":"","status":"","show_rebuild":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-viodr-news"],"yoast_head":"\n