Traveling Back to 2007: Meet Frank Stampf!
An Interview with Partners in Housing’s past Executive Director, Frank Stampf
After retiring as a colonel from his 23-year career in the US Air Force, followed by seven years in senior management in the corporate world, Frank joined Partners in Housing as the Volunteer Coordinator in 2000. He later moved to the Operations Director position, and in 2007, he was selected to be the Executive Director!
We had the wonderful opportunity to catch up with Frank and have shared our Q&A session below!
Q: What was the biggest challenge when you moved from Operations Director to Executive Director?
A: “Dick Conn was going to be a tough act to follow! Over a span of more than 14 years as the first PIH Executive Director, Dick (my immediate predecessor) had developed an extraordinary network of professional relationships throughout the community. These included (among many others) numerous governmental agencies; educational institutions; housing industry entities; financial corporations; charitable foundations; faith-based groups; as well as many other nonprofit organizations. As a result, PIH was an acknowledged leader in developing many successful collaborations to benefit those experiencing homelessness in our community.
I felt my greatest challenge was going to be maintaining that demonstrated level of success. PIH enjoyed a high level of credibility as an organization focused on helping those in need. It was imperative that we sustain and even grow that level of credibility and trust if we were to continue serving families experiencing homelessness.”
Q: What were you most excited about?
A: “I thoroughly enjoyed my time as the Operations Director. Over those seven years, I learned more about housing development and its associated disciplines such as financing, real estate acquisition, property management, building codes, etc. than I would have ever thought possible when I first started with PIH! And they were all important things to know if we were to continue our ability to provide safe, affordable housing for our Partner families. However, when I moved into the ED position, in addition to remaining involved with operations, I also became more directly in touch with the more “human” elements of our mission. I had more direct interaction with the Partners as they worked their way through their issues and roadblocks to self-sufficiency. I watched with great pride as our Partners overcame those difficulties and progressed steadily toward their goals. Who couldn’t be excited about that?”
Q: How do you see Partners in Housing’s efforts as we move past our 30th anniversary?
A: “Through the efforts of Mary Stegner, together with her incredible staff and volunteer group, PIH has already vastly improved the types and quality of services available to Partner Families. I see PIH continually evolving to better serve the needs of families experiencing homelessness. Moving away from its earlier heavy reliance on unpredictable government funding to more community-based funding models was a tremendous move in the right direction, and it was long overdue. I see even more innovation on the way. Keep it up!”
Q: What are you most proud of from your time as ED/Ops?
A: “Several years before I assumed the ED position, PIH had embarked on an ambitious “Capacity-Building” initiative to increase our inventory of transitional housing for the families in our program, as well as affordable housing for low-income families and individuals. It was a collaborative, multi-year effort, and required the dedicated support of many community partners, literally too numerous to list here for fear of unintentionally leaving one or more out. The result was ten brand-new single-family townhomes and 14 apartment units. During this time, we also joined the Myron Stratton Consortium and added apartments on the campus. These projects spanned my time both as the Operations Director and ED, so it was particularly rewarding for me to see it through from concept to completion. I still get nostalgic whenever I drive by any of those homes!
