October 24, 2007 - Mayor Bill Haslam announced today that Becky Wade has accepted the position of Community Development Administrator for the City of Knoxville.

Wade, currently manager of the city's Neighborhood Codes Enforcement Office, will begin work in her new role on October 29 where she will report to Madeline Rogero, director of the Community Development Division.

As part of her duties Wade will manage federal grant programs including community development block grants.

Those grants are aimed at revitalizing low- to-moderate income neighborhoods by removing blight and providing affordable housing. They help fund a variety of city programs including ones devoted to helping moderate-income families and individuals buy their own homes - or renovate the ones they already own.

Other programs include ones designed to help individuals or organizations acquire substandard lots with the goal of renovating the existing structures or building new, affordable housing on the sites, improving parks and sidewalks and façade improvement efforts that seek to build up business districts in the central city.

Rogero said Wade has an extensive background working with neighborhood and housing issues in Knoxville

"Becky brings a wealth of knowledge about community development, federal grant compliance, revitalization strategies and constraints, program management, the empowerment zone, housing issues, Knoxville neighborhoods, historic preservation and much more to this position," Rogero said. "She is a great addition to the talented team here in Community Development."

Wade began working for the city in early 2007 after retiring from Knoxville's Community Development Corporation. During her 31-year career there she rose from an entry-level position as a counselor to become KCDC's Hope VI Director for nearly a decade before coming to the city.

She is a 1974 graduate of the University of Tennessee.

The City of Knoxville's Community Development Division is dedicated to making Knoxville's neighborhoods stronger and better places to live, work and raise families.