Gabrielle C. Powell

I started in LIHTC (Low Income Housing Tax Credit) back in 2011 when my daughter was 6 months old. I always tell people that this career path saved my life. I was a young mother and young wife, and I didn't pick the best husband the first go-round. But being able to learn tax credit and property management was something I just fell into without knowing what I was doing. Phyllis Johnson, who hired me and is still a mentor to me today, took a chance on me, and I started and never looked back. I began as a leasing consultant, was promoted to assistant manager within a few months, and was preparing to become a manager when I moved to Texas and stepped back to leasing in a conventional role. During that time, I became a licensed real estate agent because in Texas you have to have those licenses to manage real property. A few years later, Phyllis called and asked me to move to Louisiana to turn around a property that had been through three managers in a year. I got that property back up and running, and while there, I obtained my associate's degree and met the man I was supposed to marry. We moved back to Texas, where I worked in assisted living as an executive director before returning to affordable housing in Denton. In 2024, I took 15 classes in 6 months and graduated magna cum laude with my bachelor's from East Texas A&M, then went right back to school for my Master's in Organization Learning and Technology. The Housing Authority hired me a month before graduation. It has been a very circling and humbling experience. It took me a little while to get here, but I wouldn't change my path for anything.