hallmark
community solutions
meet our team
Executive Director
Mardie Oakes combines experience in architecture, development and finance with a passion for making the places people live places to thrive. After earning her architecture degree from Rice University, she spent five years developing affordable housing and commercial buildings to revitalize the Fifth Ward, Houston’s lowest income neighborhood. During that time, she co-created 16 Houses: Owning a House in the City in partnership with Rice School of Architecture and DiverseWorks Artspace, a leading interdisciplinary arts organization. Through this project, Mardie recognized the need for creative financing solutions – and for building bridges across disciplines - to make cutting-edge projects a reality. This led her to Harvard Business School where she earned her MBA and became a Harvard Service Leadership Fellow at Boston Community Capital, one of the nation’s leading community development financial institutions. Mardie moved to the Bay Area in 2003 to become the Director of Real Estate Lending for Opportunity Fund (formerly Lenders for Community Development) where she invested $20 million in lending capital in affordable housing and community facilities projects throughout Silicon Valley. Through her work with LCD, she was introduced to the many organizations and individuals invested in creating a brighter future for the residents of Agnews Developmental Center.
As the founding Executive Director of Hallmark Community Solutions, Mardie was awarded the highly selective Echoing Green Fellowship in 2006. Since 1987, Echoing Green has provided seed funding and support to nearly 450 social entrepreneurs with bold ideas for social change in order to launch groundbreaking organizations around the world.
Program Director
Jennifer Richer brings 10 years of experience pioneering new models of housing and service delivery for individuals with developmental disabilities. After receiving her Masters in Social Welfare at the University of Kansas, Jennifer worked as a leader in the field of developmental disabilities at Community Living Opportunities, Inc. (CLO). CLO is a nationally recognized private service corporation, based in Eastern Kansas and affiliated with the University of Kansas. At CLO, Jennifer perpetuated the mission to help adults and children who have severe developmental disabilities achieve personally satisfying and fulfilling lifestyles in their communities.
Throughout her career, Jennifer has researched and disseminated effective management and service technologies to assist people with developmental disabilities and other challenging conditions (including severe medical, behavioral, physical and cognitive conditions), allowing them to live successfully in their communities. Her work has involved coaching and training new executive teams in Kansas, Tennessee and California to build successful service-driven agencies, which strive to provide breakthroughs in care, inclusion and independence.
Project Manager
Nesreen Kawar, a graduate of University of California at Berkeley, brings seven years of experience in affordable housing development and project management to HCS. In her role as Project Manager at Housing Consortium of the East Bay, Nesreen developed the award-winning Lincoln Street project, a HUD 811 project serving individuals with developmetal disabilities.
Board President
Chuck Gardner is co-founder of The Hallmark Group, LLC, a program management company that specializes in the management of highly complex and time critical capital improvement projects. Chuck has a child with autism leading to a personal interest in helping individuals with developmental disabilities. Mr. Gardner is credited with the being the visionary behind the MIND Institute. Since 1998 he has worked closely with public and private entities to create a monumental collaboration between scientists, clinicians, educators, the State of California, and the community. Mr. Gardner assembled a team of University administrators and scientists who wrote the business plan for MIND, convincing the Governor and State Legislators that MIND was the solution to the state’s autism epidemic. The result was a $28 million one-time appropriation from the State of California and over $9 million in annual on going funds. He continues to work with MIND Institute researchers to streamline the scientific process for developing a cure for autism.
contact info
Hallmark Community Solutions
1242 Market Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel. 415.863.3036
Fax 415.449.6488
job postings
HCS postings
There are no postings at this time.