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Laura Buxbaum is the SVP of Public Policy and Resource Development at Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), a Maine-based community development financial institution with a mission to build just, vibrant and climate-resilient futures for people and communities in Maine and rural regions by integrating finance, business expertise and policy solutions in ways that make the economy work more equitably. Laura serves on many national and local boards, including the National Rural Housing Coalition, the CDFI Coalition, and Four Directions Development Corporation in Orono, Maine. She is chair of the Housing Assistance Council in Washington, D.C. She serves on the National Advisory councils for both KeyBank and M&T Bank, and is a Commissioner at MaineHousing, Maine’s housing finance agency.

 As CEI’s of Public Policy and Resource Development, Laura oversees state and federal policy and advocacy activities at CEI, and coordinates federal resource development initiatives.

Laura has 30-plus years of experience in non-profit and community development work, in roles including community organizer and planner, program director, deputy director and executive director. Before moving to Maine in 2007, Laura lived in Massachusetts, where she most recently was principal of a consulting firm specializing in executive assistance to organizations in transition. She served as interim executive director of the North Shore Housing Trust in 2007 and, from 2004-2006, as executive director of the Coalition for a Better Acre, a community development corporation in Lowell, MA.  Laura and her husband raise dairy goats on a small hobby farm in Waldoboro, and she sometimes shares her homemade goat cheese at meetings. She sings and plays the cello with her husband in a local folk/rock band, Finntown Road.

Education:

• Princeton University, A.B., English Literature
• Tufts University, MA, Public Policy