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Marilyn Melkonian

Posted: Jul 02, 2013
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Marilyn Melkonian is the president and founder of Telesis Corporation, which plans, finances, and builds urban communities that are livable, beautiful, and diverse. She also founded the National Housing Trust and currently serves as its chairperson emerita. She serves on the boards of Common Cause, the Eisenhower Foundation, and the Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. Her former positions include deputy assistant secretary for housing at the Department for Housing and Urban Development under President Carter; general counsel for Lucasfilm, Ltd.; and counsel to the architecture firm of John Carl Warnecke & Associates. Ms. Melkonian practiced law for fifteen years in New York City and Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of the Stanford University School of Law. One of her closest friendships and collaborations was with James van Sweden and the firm Oehme, van Sweden Landscape Architecture.