Telesis

Marilyn Melkonian is the president and founded Telesis Corporation in 1985. She has over 30 years of experience in housing policy, neighborhood regeneration, planning, development, and finance. She serves on several boards, including the Eisenhower Foundation, the Brookings Institute’s Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, and Common Cause. She founded the National Housing Trust in 1987 and currently serves as its chair. Former positions include Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Carter; General Counsel for Lucasfilm Ltd; and counsel to the architecture firm of John Carl Warnecke & Associates. She practiced law for 15 years in New York and Washington, D.C. and is a graduate of Stanford University Law School.

George Weidenfeller is Executive Vice President/General Counsel at Telesis Corporation. In that capacity, he is responsible for legal representation of Telesis relating to the nationwide finance, development, and management of affordable and mixed-used housing projects. Activities include new construction and/or substantial rehabilitation, as well as a variety of funding sources, including FHA, GSEs and the newly enacted Opportunity Zones. George comes to Telesis with considerable experience in both the public and private sectors.

Immediately prior to joining Telesis, George was in house Counsel at the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT). In that capacity, his focus was on the finance, development, construction and/or rehabilitation of multifamily and single family housing.  He was particularly involved in transactions involving HUD and FHA, as well as projects involving the Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit programs and the GSEs.

Prior to joining HIT, George was a Partner in the law firm of Reno & Cavanaugh, PLLC.  He represented owners, developers, managers, lenders, and public housing authorities on residential development; FHA transactions; asset management; program, regulatory and fair housing enforcement; Federal procurement, ethics, and personnel law. George was previously a member of the Goulston and Storrs Real Estate group, with a particular focus on Affordable Housing and Economic Development. 

George served for over 16 years as Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel, in the HUD Office of General Counsel in Washington D.C., under six HUD Secretaries.  During that period, he provided substantive legal advice on all HUD programs, supervised a staff of over 700 professionals and managed a budget over $75,000,000.  Before becoming Deputy General Counsel, he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Housing, Assistant General Counsel for Assisted Housing and a staff attorney for HUD in Boston and Boston Redevelopment Authority.

George is Chair of the American Bar Association Affordable Housing and Community Development Forum Governing Committee; is a member of the ULI Workforce Housing Council, is on the National Housing Conference Board of Trustees and is on the Board of Directors of both the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association and the National Leased Housing Association.

He holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts, JD from Suffolk Law, MPA from the University of Southern California, and an MLT (Tax) from Georgetown Law.

Prior to joining Telesis in 1998, Georgia worked in the legislative and executive branches of government. She has national and international public affairs experience, including implementation of legislative and managerial programs, conducting media relations, and coordinating conference and travel projects. She has a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Pittsburgh.

Schuyler is Deputy General Counsel at Telesis Corporation. In this role, she represents the interests of Telesis and its affiliates in real estate, affordable and tax credit transactions, as well as in their day-to-day operations. Prior to joining Telesis in 2020, Schuyler worked as an associate at the law firm of Katten Muchin Roseman LLP, where she represented developers and owners in all types of real estate matters, including affordable housing and commercial transactions. Prior to joining Katten, Schuyler worked as an associate at the law firm of Reno & Cavanaugh, PLLC, where she represented owners and public housing authorities in the development of affordable housing. Schuyler is a Governing Committee Member for the American Bar Association Affordable Housing and Community Development Forum and is also Co-Chair of the HUD Practice Committee for the Forum. She is a graduate of Tufts University and American University Washington College of Law.

Catherine has over 20 years of real estate development and community development experience, including public and private and non-profit experience. At Telesis, she is responsible for the Company’s Development activities including the new construction and preservation of affordable housing. Catherine has the management several RAD redevelopments as well as a large scale, multi-phase neighborhood redevelopment project comprised of both homeownership and multifamily rental development. Catherine has responsibility for projects throughout the development life-cycle, from conception through lease-up or sale. She has extensive experience working with community partners and meeting with community groups and leads multi-disciplinary teams of design, finance and construction professionals on both single-family homeownership projects and mixed-income and mixed-finance redevelopment projects. Catherine came to Telesis from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) where she served as the Program Manager of HPD’s HUD Multifamily Preservation Loan Program. In this capacity, she was responsible for the direction of a new loan program targeted to finance the rehabilitation of large distressed multifamily buildings. Prior to that, she was a Project Manager in HPD’s Division of Special Needs Housing. From 2003 to 2005, she was a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). Catherine is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received her Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mauricia joined Telesis at the beginning of 2022 as a Project Manager. She currently manages substantial rehabilitation and new construction affordable housing developments through their predevelopment, public/private financing, design and construction, lease-up, and compliance processes. Prior to Telesis, she has worked in commercial property management, construction administration, and leasing in the DC area for over 15 years. She received her Master of Real Estate in Finance from Georgetown University and holds a B.B.A. in Finance from Temple University.

Alex has almost 20 years of real estate development and urban planning experience in both public- and private-sector roles. At Telesis, she is responsible for project management, with a focus on predevelopment projects in Baltimore City. Alex came to Telesis from the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) where she served as the Direct of Project Finance, leading underwriting of DHCD loans for affordable housing and administering the HOME block grant program. Prior to that, she was a Project Manager at Chesapeake Community Advisors and a Planner at the Baltimore City Department of Planning. Alex holds a MS in Real Estate from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and a BA in Economics from Reed College.

Sarah serves as Telesis’ administrative support and assistant to the President. She also dabbles in the environmental and housing policies applicable to the company. Before joining the Team, Sarah worked with FEMA, researching climate adaptation priorities in rural and Indigenous communities. She earned her Master’s of Science from the University of Denver in Environmental Policy, and has two Bachelor of Science degrees in Environmental and Political Science from Northern Arizona University. In her free time, Sarah enjoys climbing, skiing, and spending time outside.