Board of Trustees

Vincent Alvarez is President of the New York City Central Labor Council (NYCCLC), having been elected as the organization’s first full-time president in 2011. He is also the NYCCLC’s first Latino president. He had previously served as Assistant Legislative Director of the New York State AFL-CIO, spearheading various worker-related policy initiatives throughout the state. From 2007-2009, Mr. Alvarez was Assistant to the Executive Director and then Chief of Staff of the NYCCLC. A member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) since 1990, Mr. Alvarez began his career with IBEW Local 3 in Flushing, New York, where he worked for the local union’s Street Lighting and Traffic Divisions. He was active in a number of programs on behalf of the union, serving on numerous political campaigns, grassroots initiatives, and negotiating committees.

Mr. Alvarez serves as board chairman for the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University as well as a board member of the AFL-CIO State Federation CLC Advisory Board and the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies at City University of New York. He is also a board member of the Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America. He joined the HIT Board of Trustees in 2012.

He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Oneonta.

Timothy J. Driscoll is the 26th and current President of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC), the oldest trade union in North America that today proudly represents the most highly skilled bricklayers, tile setters, cement masons, plasterers, stone masons, marble masons, restoration workers, and terrazzo and mosaic workers in the U.S. and Canada.

As International Union (IU) President, Driscoll’s responsibilities include formulating and supervising the IU’s programs and activities consistent with the policies established by the IU Convention and in accordance with the Union’s Constitution. President Driscoll previously served as International Union Secretary-Treasurer beginning in 2017, and as an International Union Executive Vice President from 2010 to 2017.

Prior to being elected to the International Union Executive Board, President Driscoll served as BAC Director of Trade Jurisdiction and worked in the IU Government Relations Department. For many years, President Driscoll led the International Union’s efforts to address new and emerging products and systems in our industry, enhancing work opportunities for signatory contractors and BAC members alike.

In addition to his BAC Executive Board responsibilities, President Driscoll serves as Co-Chair of the International Masonry Institute, the training and industry development arm of the organized masonry industry. He is also Co-Chair of both the Bricklayers and Trowel Trades International Pension Fund and the International Health Fund, as well as Co-Chair of the IU Canadian Congress. President Driscoll is a member of the Governing Board of Presidents of North America’s Building Trades Unions and serves on the General Presidents’ Committee on Contract Maintenance and the National Joint Heavy and Highway Committee. He has previously served on the National Maintenance Policy Committee, the Stack & Chimney Labor Management Committee, and the AGC Basic Trades Committee.

President Driscoll holds a BS in Economics from the University of Maryland and is a graduate of the Harvard Trade Union Program.

Kevin Filter is a proven veteran of the multifamily housing industry who has developed highly respected and creative financial solutions for multifamily housing, affordable housing, senior housing and healthcare nationwide. Currently, Mr. Filter is Managing Principal of GFW Equities LLC and Mud Duck Capital LLC, privately held entities that specialize in commercial real estate in the Twin Cities. He is also Managing Principal of Los Cielos LLC, a land acquisition and development firm in Costa Rica. Previously, Mr. Filter was International Director of JLL, Principal and President of Oak Grove Capital (which he co-founded in 2009), and Principal and President of Glaser Financial Group (which he co-founded in 1986). Under Mr. Filter’s leadership, these companies provided more than $20 billion in financing.

Mr. Filter received a bachelor’s degree from Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota and is a Member of their High Winds Funds Committee.  He joined the HIT Board in December 2019.  In addition, he maintains several notable professional affiliations, including: Chair, Fannie Mae DUS Technology & Innovation Sub Committee; Fannie Mae DUS Advisory Council; NMHC Workforce Housing Committee; Fannie Mae DUS National Multifamily and Affordable Housing Advisory Board; and, MN Governor’s Task Force on Affordable Housing.  He also serves on the Board of both the MN Multi Housing Association and the MN Mortgage Bankers.

Bridget Gainer is a Cook County Commissioner, representing the County’s 10th district. She has served as Commissioner since 2009. Her work as Commissioner includes founding and chairing the board of the Cook County Land Bank Authority, which addresses the large inventory of vacant residential, industrial and commercial property in Cook County. She chairs the Cook County Board’s pension committee as well as its Workforce Housing Community Development Committee. Ms. Gainer is also Vice President of Global Public Affairs for Aon, a global risk management firm. Ms. Gainer is a Board member of Women Employed, The Center for Economic Progress, and St. Gregory’s High School. She joined the HIT Board of Trustees in 2018.

She graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned her MBA at the University of Chicago.

Paul A. Noble was appointed International Secretary-Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (“IBEW”) in 2023.  Secretary-Treasurer Noble has been an member of the IBEW since 1986, completing a five-year apprenticeship with Local 702 (West Frankfort, IL) and Contel Telephone.  He remained active in Local 702 for many years, serving as organizer, business representative, JACT instructor and, ultimately, business manager.  During this time he also served as NECA-IBEW Decatur Plan Trustee, Egyptian Building Trades Officer and president of the Southern Illinois Central Labor Council.  In 2010, then International President Edwin D. Hill appointed Secretary-Treasurer Noble as an international representative in the 6^th District, where he served as the Illinois state political coordinator and serviced local unions in southern Illinois and southwest Indiana.  In 2015, then-Sixth District Vice President David Ruhmkorff asked Secretary-Treasurer Noble to serve as his administrative assistant in the district office.  He was appointed – then unanimously elected – as Secretary-Treasurer of IBEW in 2022.

Secretary-Treasurer Noble is a lifelong resident of Southern Illinois.  Throughout his career has been committed to grassroots union political action and promoting a pro-worker and pro-jobs agenda in his home state.

Terry O’Sullivan served as General President of LIUNA for nearly 24 years. During his tenure, Mr. O’Sullivan restructured and refined the union’s goals, programs, and services by increasing its commitment to member activism, capital strategies, grassroots politics, labor management cooperation, apprenticeship, training and education. In doing so, he propelled LIUNA to become one of the fastest growing, most aggressive and progressive unions in North America. Prior to his election as General President, Mr. O’Sullivan served as LIUNA Vice President, Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager, and Assistant to the General President.

He was elected to the Trust’s Board in December 2019. He is a proud native of San Francisco, California, where he joined LIUNA in 1974, and is a long-time member of LIUNA Local Union 1353 in Charleston, West Virginia.

Fredrick D. Redmond is the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO. He was elected to the position by the AFL-CIO Executive Council on Aug. 20, 2021, and is the first African American to hold this office in the history of the labor federation. He had previously served on the federation’s Executive Council since 2008.

Redmond’s path to the federation’s second-highest office began in 1973, when he went to work at Reynolds Metals Co. in Chicago and became a member of the United Steelworkers (USW). He was active in his local union almost immediately, serving as shop steward and eventually vice president. He served three terms as local president.

In 1996, Redmond joined the USW staff, working with local unions in the Chicago area before accepting a position at the international union’s headquarters in Pittsburgh in 1998. For decades, Redmond served the USW in various staff and leadership roles, assisting local unions, developing and conducting training programs, and bargaining contracts.

As international vice president for human affairs, a position to which he was first elected to in 2006, Redmond oversaw the union’s Civil and Human Rights Department and worked with USW allies across the country in responding to attacks on voting rights and in combating economic inequality.

Redmond has spent his entire life fighting for racial justice in the workplace and throughout our communities. In 2016, he was appointed to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s Advisory Commission on African American Affairs, and in 2020, Redmond was tapped to chair the AFL-CIO Task Force on Racial Justice, a body focused on taking concrete action to address America’s long history of racism and police violence against Black people.

Redmond has served on the board of directors of Working America, the TransAfrica Forum, the Workers Defense League, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Interfaith Worker Justice and, since 2007, has served as chair of the board of directors of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. In 2021, Redmond was elected president of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, a prestigious international post.  He joined the HIT Board of Trustees in September 2021 and is a member of the Audit Committee.

Deidre Schmidt is the President & CEO of CommonBond Communities. She is responsible for maintaining the organization’s programmatic, administrative, and financial health. Ms. Schmidt has worked in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors in consulting, project and enterprise-level management, real estate development, investment analysis, and underwriting. Her career path has taken her to other mission-driven organizations including Artspace Projects, the National Equity Fund, Brighton Development Corporation, the Affordable housing Institute, and One Roof Global Consulting.

Ms. Schmidt was the John T. Dunlop Lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and now teaches at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Ms. Schmidt was also a Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, and a Marshall Memorial Fellow for the German Marshall Fund. She joined the HIT Board of Trustees in 2018.

She graduated from the University of Minnesota.

Anthony Shelton is the International President of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union. He was elected to the position on April 16, 2020 by the BCTGM International General Executive Board.  Mr. Shelton previously served as the Union’s International Secretary-Treasurer.

Mr. Shelton has been a member of the Union since 1973. He joined Local 25 in Chattanooga, Tennessee when he took a job as a receiving clerk at the Holsum Bakery in Chattanooga. From 1986 to 1992, he served as a Local 25 Trustee and member of the Local 25 Executive Board.

In 1992, Mr. Shelton was appointed as a Southern Region International Representative, a position he held for 23 years. In 2015, he was elected by the BCTGM General Executive Board to serve as International Vice President of the Southern Region. He was reelected to the position by delegates to the 2018 BCTGM Constitutional Convention.

William C. Thompson Jr. is the Senior Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer for Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., LLC. He previously served eight years as the Comptroller for the City of New York—from January 2002 to December 2009. As Comptroller, Mr. Thompson served as custodian and investment advisor to the five New York City Pension Funds, where he managed a combined portfolio amounting to more than $100 billion at the close of his tenure. In this role, Mr. Thompson invested hundreds of millions of dollars in affordable housing and commercial real estate in New York City. Prior to his work as Comptroller, he served as Brooklyn Deputy Borough President and as a Member and five-term President of the New York City Board of Education.

He is a graduate of Tufts University.

James A. Williams, Jr. currently serves as the General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT). He is a fourth-generation glazier from District Council 21/Local Union 252 (Philadelphia, PA). President Williams began his career with the IUPAT in 1998, was appointed Assistant to the General President in 2002, and served as the Regional Organizing Coordinator for the IUPAT Eastern Region. In 2011, he was appointed to the position of Organizing Director and remained in that role after being elected as General Vice President At Large in 2014.

President Williams’ vision for the IUPAT is as a union where workers of all races, genders, homelands, and economic backgrounds can come together to support one another and fight for the well-being of themselves, their coworkers, and their communities. President Williams is Co-Chair of the U.S. Industry Pension Fund, Labor Management Cooperation Initiative, and International Finishing Trades Institute. In addition, he is a member of the North America’s Building Trades Unions Governing Board of Presidents and a member of the Executive Council and the General Board of the AFL-CIO.