Who We Are

The Purpose Built Communities Team

Our staff offers deep, successful experience in community revitalization, quality education and affordable housing.

Shirley Franklin Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer	Luz Borrero Vice President
Greg J. Giornelli President and Chief Operating Officer	Kathleen R. Brownlee Community Development Advisor
Carol R. Naughton Senior Vice President	Laura M. Bollman Community Development Advisor

Shirley Franklin
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Ms. Shirley Franklin was Mayor of the city of Atlanta, Georgia from 2002 to 2009. Prior to 2002, she served the city in various executive positions culminating in her service as Chief Officer for Operations. Franklin served as an executive with the Atlanta Committee of the Olympic Games after which she founded a small public affairs firm. Mayor Franklin has served on a special task force for the Department of Homeland Security and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Her civic contributions include her service as the Co Chair of the Atlanta Regional Commission on Homelessness and as Co Chair of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Since January 2010, Franklin has held the William and Camille Cosby Endowed Chair at Spelman College.

Franklin's record of civic involvement spans three decades in a variety of fields including digital advocacy for underserved communities as Senior Advisor to the Alliance for Digital Equality. During her term in office Franklin served as an active member of the United States Conference of Mayors, as Secretary of the Atlanta Regional Commission and as the President of the Georgia Municipal Association.

Greg J. Giornelli
President and Chief Operating Officer

From 2002-2009 Mr. Giornelli worked for the City of Atlanta in various capacities including Chief Operating Officer, President of the Atlanta Development Authority and Chief Policy Officer.

From 1994-2001 Mr. Giornelli was the Executive Director of the East Lake Meadows public housing project into a mixed income community that also included Atlanta's first charter school; a new YMCA; a child development center; the East Lake Junior Golf Academy and a number of programs for neighborhood children.

Mr. Giornelli also is an attorney who has worked in private practice as an Assistant District Attorney for Dekalb County in Atlanta.

Carol R. Naughton
Senior Vice President

Ms. Naughton helped found Purpose Built Communities in 2008. She previously served for seven years as the Executive Director of the East Lake Foundation, a neighborhood-focused organization that developed and continues to implement a bold, innovative and successful model of community revitalization that helps families break the cycle of poverty.

An expert in public/private partnerships, Ms. Naughton has crafted innovative alliances in housing and education. Prior to joining the East Lake Foundation, she was General Counsel and Deputy Executive Director for Legal and Nonprofit Affairs for the Atlanta Housing Authority. Prior to joining AHA, Ms. Naughton was engaged in the private practice of law with Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan's real estate group, where she primarily represented developers, lenders and asset managers. She is a graduate of the Emory University School of Law and was Executive Editor of the Emory Law Journal. She graduated with honors from Colgate University.

Ms. Naughton serves on the Board of the Charles R. Drew Charter School and the Board of Progressive Redevelopment, Inc., a regional developer of affordable housing. She is a former president of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, a member of the State Bar of Georgia and a former member of the Board of Governors of that organization. She serves or has served on the boards of several community and national organizations.

Luz Borrero
Vice President

Luz Borrero joined Purpose Built Communities in December of 2010. She previously served as Deputy Chief Operating Officer for the City of Atlanta for seven years. As a key member of Mayor Shirley Franklin’s leadership team, Luz oversaw several City departments and directed large scale business transformation projects.

Projects completed under her direction included the planning and implementation of the Oracle Enterprise Resource system, a $65 Million city-wide business and technology platform linking Procurement, Finance and Human Resources functions; the Digital Radio Communications project, a $41 Million digital technology and business operations upgrade of the Public Safety Communications system, and the Assessment and Technology Upgrade of the e911 Call Center. She played a central role in coordinating Homeland Security and Emergency Response functions for the City and developed and implemented the plan for expanding Metro Atlanta’s Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI). Luz was in charge of the city’s transportation strategy and lead the successful effort to plan for and secure a $47 Million Federal transportation grant to implement the first phase of the Atlanta Streetcar.

From 1999 to 2002 Luz was the Executive Director of Cool Girls, Inc., an organization that provides after school education programs for girls in low-income communities. Before that, she was the Vice President of Finance and Administration for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, a position she occupied for eight and a half years.

Luz Borrero is a former Board President of the Atlanta Women’s Network, and has served in numerous non-profit boards including the Georgia Conservancy, the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, Columbia Northlake Regional Hospital and CIFAL Atlanta. She currently serves on the Boards of Visiting Nurse Health Association, ACT (WABE- Atlanta), and the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Luz obtained a degree in Law and Political Science from the University of Santiago de Cali, in Colombia. She did postgraduate studies in Agricultural Economics and International Economics at the University of Montpellier and at the Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéens de Montpellier in France. Luz is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Kathleen R. Brownlee
Community Development Advisor

Affiliated with Purpose Built Communities since 2009, Ms. Brownlee has extensive experience in affordable real estate financing, development and asset management. For two years prior to joining Purpose Built Communities, she led the CF Foundation’s real estate initiatives in Atlanta, focusing primarily on planning and developing mixed-use, mixed-income developments in and around the East Lake community.

Prior to joining the CF Foundation, Ms. Brownlee was the first President of Mercy Housing Southeast, a subsidiary of Mercy Housing, Inc, a national not-for-profit affordable housing developer, manager and financer of affordable housing. She initiated and administered a community development information program to introduce the Mercy Housing System in the southeastern region, the first such venture by the corporation east of the Mississippi. She led a team of developers, and in less than five years, successfully secured the financing of over $40 million for affordable housing for low-income families and seniors. Prior to her appointment as President of Mercy Housing Southeast, she served as Mercy Housing, Inc.’s Director of Portfolio Risk Management. She was responsible for underwriting housing developments and portfolio asset management of the entire Mercy Housing system. She also supervised audit and tax management and was responsible for insurance oversight of corporate assets in excess of $500 million.

Ms. Brownlee graduated with honors from Agnes Scott College. She is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta’s Advisory Council and serves or has served on boards of several community and national organizations.

Laura M. Bollman
Community Development Advisor

Ms. Bollman joined the Purpose Built Communities staff in 2009, where she works with community leaders across the nation to realize the power of educational equity and create communities of hope and opportunity.

Prior to joining the Purpose Built Communities team, she was selected as a Teach For America corps member and taught Sixth Grade Social Studies at East Lake's Drew Charter School. During her tenure at Drew, Ms. Bollman was the Social Studies Department Chair and a member of the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Committee; she also served on the Georgia Performance Standards Alignment Task Force. After the classroom, she transitioned to the Teach for America Atlanta regional office and worked on the Development Team, raising funds and awareness to support more than 700 Teach For America corps members and alumni in the Metro Atlanta area.

Ms. Bollman earned her bachelor's degree with a double major in History and Fine Arts from Wellesley College. She is the Vice President for the Atlanta Wellesley Alumnae Club and serves as a District Advisor for the Junior League of Atlanta.

Purpose Built Communities is governed by its Policy Committee:

Shirley Franklin, Chair of the Purpose Built Communities Policy Committee
Thomas G. Charlesworth, Board of Directors, Cousins Properties, Inc.
Thomas G. Cousins, Chairman Emeritus, Cousins Properties, Inc.
Alexander T. Robertson, Trustee, Robertson Foundation
Robert "Bobby" Vagt, President, The Heinz Endowments
William (Billy) C. Wren, Chief Executive Officer, Cousins Family Office

“The answer to a successful school is to make the school part of the community — a place where parents, teachers, administrators, volunteers and community members all dedicate themselves to each child’s success.”

Charles B. Knapp
Former President
Purpose Built Communities