Habitat for Humanity Announces New Board Members

Posted on 7-28-2021

Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity is excited to welcome four new board members: Lisa Jossart, Marla Maney, Cecilia Valentin, and Ben Zellner.

Lisa Jossart

VP Community Investment and Partner Distribution for CONNECT, Powered by American Family Insurance. Lisa is a member of CONNECT’S senior leadership team. She is responsible for the development and oversight of strategic partnerships, and the engagement and execution of CONNECT’S community investment strategy. She has worked there for 28 years serving in various roles across the business including Partnerships, Marketing, Service, and Sales. Lisa resides in Green Bay with her husband and two daughters. 

Marla Maney

Marketing for Prevea Health Marketing. At Prevea, Marla works on marketing for HSHS and Prevea Health. She has spent most of her 20+ years in the marketing arena for agencies and helping brands such as WPS, Tyco, Kimberly Clark, and Jack Links. Martha is also engaged in numerous events in the community including the Cellcom Marathon, Bellin Women’s Half, Festival Foods Turkey Trot, Door County Triathlon, and the Fall 50. Marla recently competed in a 50-mile ultra. Marla and her husband, Brain, enjoy concerts, running, travel, and hiking with their Doberman, Lenny. 

Cecilia Valentine

Mortgage Lending for Nicolet National Bank. Cecilia moved from Mexico City in 1993. She studied Hotel & Restaurant Management and began in the banking industry in 2000. Cecilia has worked for multiple areas and divisions of banking and always has been passionate to help the community focusing on those that need that help the most. In her 20-year banking career, Cecilia has worked with BayLake Bank, Chase Bank, Associated Bank, Community First Credit Union, and most recently Nicolet Bank where she focuses on Mortgage lending to mainly low to moderate-income customers and provides assistance to grants and specialty programs.

Dr. Ben Zellner

MD, OSMS- Orthopedic Hand to Shoulder Specialist / Owner. While growing up in Waunakee, Ben often visited Northeastern Wisconsin with his family. He started his training at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, then traveled to Texas to complete his orthopedic surgery residency at Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his hand surgery fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Ben has traveled to Spain, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Columbia on mission work that has helped him become fluent in Spanish. Ben and his wife (a family medicine physician) have two children and enjoy biking, hiking, and cross country skiing. 

The Executive Committee includes newly appointed Board President, Vern Peterson (retired – WPS), Vice President, Jim Klug (The Stiegler Company, Treasurer, Steve Arps (Denmark State Bank, and Board Secretary, Matt Gelb (Wipfli).

Habitat for Humanity

Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity builds new construction homes in the Green Bay area and sells them to qualified families at no profit. The Habitat program provides benefits to our partner families and the Green Bay community. Families benefit from decent, affordable housing while the community benefits from the redevelopment of neighborhoods and an increase in tax revenue. The Habitat program does not give houses away. Families must spend “sweat equity” hours helping to build their home, pay a $900 down payment and make monthly mortgage payments. Homes are made affordable due to the volunteer labor used to build the home and the 0% interest mortgage provided by Habitat. To see what we’re working on now, check out our Current Builds page!

Habitat homes are build according to these three standard principles:

  1. Simple:
    Habitat houses are modestly-sized. They are large enough for the homeowner family’s needs, but small enough to keep construction and maintenance costs to a minimum.
  2. Decent:
    Habitat for Humanity uses quality, locally-available building materials. Habitat house designs reflect the local climate and culture.
  3. Affordable:
    The labor of volunteers and partner families, efficient building methods, modest house sizes and no-profit loans make it affordable for low-income families to purchase Habitat houses.

The first step in becoming a Habitat homeowner is to attend an informational Application Meeting. At the informational session, you will find out about our program, see what a typical Habitat home looks like, and learn how to accurately complete your application. Applicants and co-applicants must attend a meeting to receive an application; you will have 30 days from that date to turn in your completed application and required documents.  This meeting will take approximately 1 hour.  The application process takes approximately 60-90 days from the date Habitat receives your completed application. If you have additional questions or would like more information, please contact [email protected].

GPS 1967 Allouez Ave., Bellevue Wisconsin, 54311 Phone 920-338-1650 Visit Website
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