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Board of Directors

Current FHC Board Members

2022-2023

Ann L. Routt, President

Ann is the Executive Director of the Michigan Advocacy Program (MAP) where she began her legal career as a staff attorney in 1985, representing survivors of domestic violence and low-income tenants. In 2013, Ann was recognized as a Champion of Justice by the State Bar of Michigan for her commitment to ensuring access to justice for low-income and other vulnerable populations. Ann is a past president of the state and Washtenaw Region of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan. She has served on many committees of the Washtenaw County Trial Court and Bar Association, including serving as co-chair of the Race, Ethnic, Gender Bias Awareness Committee. Ann is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Ohio State University College of Law. She is a founding member of the Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan and has served on the Board of Directors since 1992.

Michael Appel, Secretary/Treasurer

Michael serves as Senior Developer at Avalon Housing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he has worked in various capacities for over 25 years and, since 2016, he has also worked as Senior Project Manager at Develop Detroit, a non-profit real estate development organization in Detroit. He has over 30 years of experience in the fields of low-income and supportive housing development, efforts to end homelessness, tenants rights, and housing advocacy. In his previous employment at the Housing Law Reform Project of Student Legal Services, Michael worked with Pam Kisch on the initial community organizing that laid the groundwork for the formation of the Fair Housing Center. Michael has a Masters in Social Work (1986) and an MA in Anthropology (1988) from the University of Michigan and graduated with a BA from Oberlin College (1983). He has served on the Board of Directors of the Fair Housing Center since 1992.

Kim Moore

Kim Moore is an attorney in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Kim has served on the Board of Directors of the Fair Housing Center since 1998.

Edward L. Moorman, Ph.D.

Dr. Moorman joined the Board of Directors of the Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan in 2012. He brings 36 years of corporate experience and 18 years of board experience to the FHC. Dr. Moorman retired from General Motors on January 1, 2011, after serving 16 years in U.S. market analysis and strategic planning in addition to twenty years in Africa. He resided in Cairo, Egypt during his last ten years in Africa where he served as GM Corporate Director and GMODC Vice President of African Operations. Dr. Moorman’s board experience includes the U.S. Corporate Council on Africa in Washington, D.C., GM Nigeria in Lagos, Nigeria, and the GM Africa Dealers Franchise Board encompassing twenty-two countries. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Ph.D., M.S., and M.A. in mathematics and mathematics education. He also graduated with an MBA from Eastern Michigan University and a B.A. in mathematics from Fisk University. He recently retired from teaching mathematics at Eastern Michigan University and motivational speaking to high school students. Dr. Moorman is married and has one son and three grandchildren.

Alexandra Murphy, Ph.D.

Alexandra Murphy is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and a Faculty Associate of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. She received her B.A. in Urban Studies from Barnard College and her Ph.D. in Sociology & Social Policy from Princeton University. Before joining the Sociology Department, Alex was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Poverty Center at UM. One line of Alex’s research draws on ethnographic methods to understand the new suburban poverty. Another line examines transportation insecurity among low-income Americans. She teaches courses on urban inequality, poverty, social policy, and qualitative methods. Alex joined the Board of Directors of the Fair Housing Center in 2015.

Gayle Rosen

Gayle Rosen is a Staff Attorney with the University of Michigan’s Student Legal Services. Gayle graduated from the American University’s Washington College of Law in 1988 and represented tenants while working for Legal Services in New Jersey and represented individuals with disabilities as a staff attorney at the Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services. Gayle joined the Board of Directors of the Fair Housing Center in 2009.

Delphia T. Simpson

Delphia T. Simpson was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received her BA. in English from Spelman College and then a JD from the University Of Maryland School Of Law. After her admission to the State Bar of Maryland, she served as the Chief Attorney for the Family Law Unitat the Legal Aid Bureau of Maryland until she returned to Michigan. Ms. Simpson then joined the Michigan Poverty Law Program as their state-wide family law attorney. While working with MPLP, Ms. Simpson was elected and served two terms on the State Bar of Michigan Family Law Committee. In 2001 she began working with the ACLU of Michigan as their Racial Justice Staff Attorney. In that role, she focused on solving racial profiling issues and she was co-counsel on the Eastpointe, MI “Bicycling While Black” case. In 2003, Ms. Simpson joined the Office of the Washtenaw County Public Defender in Ann Arbor as their Managing Attorney. In February 2016, she was asked to become the Interim Public Defender and in 2017 she was promoted to the Chief Public Defender for Washtenaw County. Ms. Simpson is very active in the community and serves on several non-profit boards including the Chair of the Michigan Advocacy Program, and the Chair of the Ann Arbor NAACP Legal Redress Committee and has served on the Board of Directors of the Fair Housing Center since 2000.

Diane Rosenblum

Diane is a retired Teacher Consultant who worked in education for forty years. Diane graduated from the University of Michigan with an M.A. in Education. She has taught students of all ages in Ferndale, Seattle, Boston, and Ann Arbor. While living in Seattle, Diane was an Educational Consultant who helped write policies and procedures ensuring that students with disabilities would receive free and appropriate public education and provided teacher training so that the school districts would be in compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Act. In Boston, Diane taught special education at Needham High School and at Brookline High School. When Diane and her late husband, Mark Mitshkun (who served as a Board Member of the Fair Housing Center for over 20 years), moved to Ann Arbor in 1989, Diane became a Teacher Consultant at Huron High School where she worked for 20 years. In addition to her direct teaching and counseling duties in special education, Diane was also involved in staff development. She assisted teachers, staff, and students in confronting issues around race, equity, and the achievement gap. Diane joined the Board of Directors in 2023.

Previous FHC Board Members

1992-2019

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