NEWARK--Governor Chris Christie has tapped Lori Grifa to head the Department of Community Affairs.
Grifa, a partner at the law firm Wolff Samson and a Board Member of Habitat for Humanity Newark, will oversee a number of crucial state agencies, including the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).
“She is a great choice to lead the Department of Community Affairs,” said David Zurheide, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity Newark. “She has compassion and the desire to make a difference in people’s lives but she will set high standards and a level of accountability that will be good for the state.”
Grifa has not only worked on Habitat Newark’s board of directors, she has put on her boots to work on Habitat for Humanity construction sites in Newark, NJ as well as in Biloxi, Mississippi and St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
“I think that being a volunteer and a board member for Habitat for Humanity Newark has given me a sensitivity to people’s need for safe, decent, affordable housing,” Grifa said. “Habitat requires each homeowner to put in at least 400 hours of ‘sweat equity’ but much of it may be spent working on a neighbor’s home. At the end of the day, Habitat for Humanity isn’t just building homes, they’re building neighborhoods.”
Grifa is a resident of Montclair and a former prosecutor who was named one of New Jersey’s Best 50 Women in Business in 2008 by NJBIZ magazine. A graduate of Rutgers University and Boston College School of Law, Grifa is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the category of administrative law.
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