Laura Settlemyer

                                      
Commissioner- The Housing Authority of the City of Hartford
Laura Settlemyer is the Director of Blight Remediation for the City of Hartford.  She brings nearly a decade of experience working with communities in the field of reclaiming vacant, abandoned, deteriorating, and foreclosed properties.  Laura moved to Hartford from Detroit, where she worked with Michigan's land banks and cities, particularly Detroit and Flint, on strategies for shaping and implementing efficient, effective, and equitable policies to revitalize properties and neighborhoods.  Prior to Detroit Laura lived in New Orleans where she worked in the City Attorney’s Office under Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu.  While there she served as counsel to the Department of Code Enforcement, the Department of Housing Policy & Community Development, and the Capital Projects Administration.  Laura also spent three years in private law practice in New Orleans, working on commercial litigation matters, including federal government contracts, title insurance, and commercial mortgage foreclosures.  Laura first became engaged in her field when she traveled to the Gulf Coast in January 2006 as a first-year law student to volunteer as part of the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.  She earned her J.D. from Emory University School of Law and her A.B. in Economics from Harvard University.  Laura has moved around all her life, growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, but she was born in Boston and is happy to be back in New England.