Meet Our Team

Ms. Jiggetts currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Park Heights Renaissance, Inc, where she works with residents and stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of the Park Heights master plan. She has over 20 years of experience with local, state government and non-profit organizations all with the focus of servicing communities and residents in Baltimore City and the State of MD. She previously held the position of Director of Operations with Bon Secours Community Works, a placed based nonprofit serving the residents of West Baltimore.

Some of her other work has included serving as Deputy Mayor & Assistant Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Operations for the City of Baltimore; Chief of Staff of Operations at the State of Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Director of Planning and Statistics at the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services; and Special Assistant at Recreation and Parks.

She has also held numerous management positions in housing and community development, covering the spectrum of acquisition, disposition, code enforcement, demolition, administration, and grassroots community organizing, as well as legal work at numerus law firms in the Baltimore area.

Yolanda Jiggetts is a graduate of the University of Baltimore with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

With over 35 years of experience administrating Human Services programs in Baltimore and the District of Columbia, Dedra Layne has a unique blend of leadership, vision, and knowledge. Currently, she isthe Chief Operating Officer at Park Heights Renaissance, working to support the revitalization and re-engagement of the Park Heights Community in West Baltimore.

Prior to this assignment, Dedra worked in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice as the Director of Safe Streets Baltimore for over six years. Safe Streets is an evidence-based health approach used to address violence by reducing shootings and homicides and is the first and longest running replication of the Cure Violence model. She was responsible for leading a diverse and expansive team to provide leadership,oversight and technical assistance to the 8Community Based Organizations sponsoring the 10Safe Streets community sites in targeted areas of Baltimore City. She also led the implementation of a Hospital-Responder component that currently operates in 5 area hospitals.
She has also performed in roles including Director of Roberta’s House Family Grief Support Center, Director of Homeless Services and Community Support for the University Of Maryland’s Division of Community Psychiatry, Division Director for Casey Family Services,and Director of Homeless Programs with Volunteers of America Chesapeake. Dedra holds an Associate’s degree in Gerontology with a specialization in Death and Dying, a Bachelor of Social Work from Coppin State University and a Master of Social Work with a specialty in mental health and substance abuse from the University of Maryland. Her areas of focus include Death and Dying,Grief and Loss, End of Life Care, Trauma-Informed Care, Leadership Development and Violence Prevention.

Dedra is the principal consultant of Sound Mind Consulting, LLC., where she provides life coaching,leadership development, and organizational support.In her spare time, Dedra enjoys cooking, reading and engaging the practice of silence. Dedra has committed herself to perpetual self-reflection as a practice of “being still and knowing.” Dedra is a native Baltimorean and a city resident as well.

Will Pass is armed with years of knowledge and experience in the affordable and public housing arena. He began his career in public housing with the Baltimore Housing Authority as a Senior Accounting Manager. Mr. Pass has since grown his career and has gone on to hold positions ranging from Chief Financial Officer to Executive Director at numerous Housing Authorities across the country. During his time and tenure at these various authorities he has directly brokered numerous redevelopment deals by solidifying the complex capital stacks within affordable financing transactions. Will is known for being an industry connector that fosters creative partnership to meet the needs of the stake holders.

He understands that profit runs the business but helping people achieve more is what drives him. Will holds both an MBA in Finance and a Masters of Science in Management from the University of Maryland. Will has is also certified in Low Income Housing Tax Credits (Tax Credit Specialist) and Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), and has completed the Executive Directors Certification Program sponsored by PHADA and Rutgers University.
Mr. Pass is also part of the Urban Land Institutes Fall 2021 Project REAP Course and has just wrapped of a Real Estate Development Certification through Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Wendi Redfern-Curtis has over 25 years of transformational community development, affordable housing development, and organizational change management experience.

Prior to joining PHR, Mrs. Redfern-Curtis was Senior Vice President of Single-Family Lending at the District of Columbia’s Housing Finance Agency. In this capacity, she was responsible for leading the agency’s Homeownership and Down Payment Assistance efforts. During her tenure, Mrs. RedfernCurtis oversaw the distribution of more than $45 million dollars in down payment assistance in a 12- month period; an unprecedented act for the organization.

Mrs. Redfern-Curtis also served as Chief Operating Officer for ReBUILD Metro Inc., (formerly TRF Development Partners, Inc.) overseeing the organization’s daily operations, including real estate development, construction, property management, sales divisions. While at ReBUILD Metro, she restructured and brought to scale the organizations Path to Own Program. This initiative worked to transition ReBUILD Metro rental residents to homeowners by providing housing counseling, financial counseling, and other wealth building resources to help residents reach their goals of homeownership.

Prior to joining ReBUILD, Mrs. Redfern-Curtis held the positions of Deputy Commissioner & Assistant Commissioner for Land Resources at Baltimore City’s DHCD, where she was responsible for leading property acquisition, disposition, and asset management efforts on behalf of the City of Baltimore. Mrs. Redfern-Curtis also played a vital role in developing and implementing the City’s Vacants-toValue Initiative to address blighted, vacant, and abandoned property in Baltimore. From 2008-2011,

Mrs. Redfern-Curtis served as Director of Permits, Licensing, and Registration at the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development, where she oversaw the generation and collection of $12 million in annual revenue, digitized permitting and registrations systems and streamlined the One Stop Permit Shop.

Mrs. Redfern-Curtis received her J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law.