Our Team

Lucy is a tireless affordable housing advocate with more than 35 years of leadership experience in residential real estate and media. Her hands-on experience with housing development, property leasing programs and communications gives her an invaluable understanding of the challenges and opportunities of the Twin Cities affordable housing market.

Lucy is currently a trustee of Carthage College and has served as a board member at ArtSpace, Inc. and the Inland Press Association. Throughout her career, Lucy has supported various nonprofits devoted to helping youth rise above their circumstances including YouthLink, Northside Achievement Zone and Summit Academy.

Stephanie Hawkinson has served as the affordable housing development manager for the City of Edina for more than four years. Her extensive experience spanning the nonprofit, public and private sectors includes a three-year tenure at Project for Pride in Living, eleven years with the City of Saint Paul as a senior project manager and more than six years as the director of housing development with a private consulting firm.

She brings her knowledge of both the developer and public funding procedural process to her work to help move the dial on affordable housing.

Sam Dagit is a commercial relationship manager at Great Southern Bank, with 10 years’ experience underwriting financing for commercial real estate loans valued at over $1 billion. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa, earning a bachelor’s degree in real estate and finance, with an emphasis in financial institutions.

Sam has a deep passion for enriching his community by engaging in many platforms to support others. He participates in multiple organizations, including ULI Minnesota, MSCA, RMA, Minnesota Commercial Association of Realtors, MNCREW, and MHP's Investors Council. He first became aware of the significance of housing for everyone when his parents offered housing for individuals with special needs.

Wendy Ethen is the president and founder of Guaranty Commercial Title as well as an attorney and a Certified Real Property Law Specialist. Wendy’s nearly two decades of experience and expertise spans multifamily, affordable, senior, office, industrial and retail commercial real estate transactions.

Wendy is passionate about the fight for affordable housing, especially in the Twin Cities. She champions this cause by being a supporter of area organizations and encouraging the entire GuaranTEAM to get involved. She serves on the board of directors for SPEDCO to promote local economic development and for Rethos Places Reimagined to encourage the reimagining, revitalization and rehabilitation of historic buildings.

A founding partner at architecture and interior design firm Tanek, Inc, Ken’s career spans over twenty five years with experience in corporate, retail, industrial, non-profit and mixed-use multi-family residential design. An accomplished designer and architect, Ken’s strong concepting, project management and group skills help create better design solutions every day for communities across the Twin Cities.

Born in Nigeria, West Africa, Ken has lived in England and The Commonwealth of Dominica in the Caribbean. Arriving in Minnesota in the 1970’s to study architecture at the University of Minnesota, Ken sincerely found his place in the Twin Cities, which has been home ever since.

Karla Arceo is the president of Frida Drywall Systems LLC., a professional drywall, plastering and finishing services enterprise serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. As a minority owned business and disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE), Friday Drywall is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where its employees can thrive and build wealth in their communities.

Karla’s strategic planning, project management and trades expertise make her a leader in the Twin Cities construction and contracting industries. Our commitment to the new generations is to give them the opportunity to learn a trade so they can face the challenges of their lives, buy their home, and most importantly start their family to continue building a more prosperous and healthy community. She is proud to support local nonprofits that invest in growing communities in the Twin Cities, one building at a time.