Tracey McCartney, Executive Director
Tracey McCartney joined the Tennessee Fair Housing Council in February 1998. Tracey is an attorney, admitted to the bars of both Alabama and Tennessee. She received a law degree from the University of Alabama in 1995. While in law school, she worked for 2½ years as a clerk/advocate for the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, where she gained valuable fair housing experience dealing with group homes/zoning and reasonable accommodation issues.
In September 1995, she became one of the inaugural employees of the Central Alabama Fair Housing Center, which was established in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1995 under a FHIP grant to the National Fair Housing Advocate to start three new fair housing groups. Tracey’s duties at the center included complaint intake and investigation, testing and education and outreach.
During her time at the Central Alabama Fair Housing Center, Tracey coordinated 516 individual testing visits in the areas of rental, sales and mortgage lending and assisted with 48 individual insurance tests. She also handled 141 individual complaints of housing discrimination (in addition to the hundreds of inquiries that implicated landlord-tenant or some other non-discrimination issue and were referred elsewhere), providing counseling on the law, testing, other types of investigation, conciliation, referral to HUD for investigation and referral to attorneys for litigation. She recruited and trained 90 testers for the center's enforcement program.
Since joining the Tennessee Fair Housing Council in February 1998, Tracey has overseen the day-to-day operations of the office. Her duties include setting the broad direction of the agency; supervising the enforcement staff on testing, case intake and litigation; and supervising the operation of the National Fair Housing Advocate web site at http://www.fairhousing.com. She has received extensive training in fair housing from the National Fair Housing Alliance and at conferences sponsored by HUD and the John Marshall Law School.
Tanya Gorham, Fair Housing Specialist
Tanya Gorham joined the Council staff in February 2009. She moved here from Chicago, Ill., in 1993 and has been involved in the real estate market in Nashville since 1998.
Tanya, who is English/Spanish bilingual, has been a member of several boards, including the Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Nashville Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals and the Williamson County Board of Realtors. Her involvement has helped her further educate the growing Hispanic community of Middle Tennessee on available resources and on purchasing and lending practices.
Josette Chambers, Staff Attorney
Josette Chambers joined the Council as its staff attorney in March 2009. Presently a member of both the Illinois and Georgia bars, her application for reciprocity in Tennessee is pending. She is a graduate of Fisk University (B.A., economics) and the University of California, Hastings College of Law where she received her law degree.
She started her legal career in 1983 as a Reginald Heber Smith Community Law Fellowship recipient, representing indigent clients in welfare and social security matters for the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Services Foundation. During the 25-plus since, among other things, she has served as Assistant City Attorney for the cities of Springfield, Illinois and Atlanta, Georgia, representing both municipalities in matters concerning employment discrimination.
Since joining the Council, Josette has expanded her area of expertise with extensive training in fair housing discrimination from the National Fair Housing Alliance and active participation in housing discrimination cases. She is quickly building an impressive track record having successfully helped Council clients resolve a myriad of problems ranging from race, sex, familial status and handicap/disability discrimination to group home zoning matters.