Our Story

Tracy is the president and co-founder of Humanities Foundation, Inc. and has been a cardinal force in all aspects since its creation in 1992. Her hands-on experience in each facet of Humanities Foundation’s structure supports its vision, purpose, and future objectives. Under her leadership, Humanities Foundation has developed more than 2,500 units of affordable housing in twenty-seven communities throughout South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana. Her dedication also led to the Humanities Foundation’s designation as one of the Top 50 Affordable Housing Developers in the US in 2011, 2013, and 2016 by Affordable Housing Finance.

Robert “Bob” Doran is a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and CEO of James Doran Company, a Mount Pleasant-based developer and asset manager of commercial and multi-family real estate. He is also president and broker-in-charge of JDC Management, LLC. Bob has over fifty years of extensive real estate investment, development, and management experience and enjoys a strong base of contacts in debt, equity, and brokerage communities throughout the Southeast. He also has a broad range of experience in creative joint ventures that prove beneficial to all parties involved. He has overseen the development of more than three million square feet of retail space, office space, and 2,500 multi-family market-rate units throughout the Southeast, representing more than $1 billion dollars’ worth of real estate transactions. With a 120-year history of identifying opportunities and capitalizing on trends, James Doran Company is now one of the Southeast’s most notable mixed-use developers.

In addition, Bob is co-founder of Humanities Foundation, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit leader in providing affordable housing in the Southeast since 1992. Under Bob’s leadership, Humanities Foundation has developed twenty-eight Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties (family as well as senior) within four states, totaling approximately 2,500 affordable and workforce housing apartment homes. Alongside his mission to address the need for more affordable housing, Bob advocates for a wide range of health and human services for residents living in Humanities Foundation communities, including a free food delivery program called Marketplace, senior telemedicine clinics, and summer camps. To date, Marketplace has delivered over five million meals to food-insecure areas, absolutely free of cost. Bob attended the University of South Carolina, majoring in Banking, Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate. He is a South Carolina licensed real estate broker-in-charge.

Cheryl is a certified public accountant with more than twenty-five years of experience in accounting and financial management. Cheryl earned a Bachelor of Science from the College of Charleston, and she serves as board member and treasurer of Humanities Foundation and the Charleston Redevelopment Corporation. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the South Carolina Association of CPAs.

Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Rosie has served in all facets of the Doran family companies, especially in real estate and investments. With a skillful mindset and a broad array of talents, Rosie exhibits herself best with a modern and innovative approach. She is on the cutting edge of technology and social media. Her knowledge of the latest marketing trends provides the vision needed in all restoration and rehabilitation development projects of Humanities Foundation. Rosie studied economics at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina and is licensed by the South Carolina Real Estate Commission. She also collaborates in fundraisers benefiting nonprofit organizations, including Humanities Foundation.

Robert LaChapelle is vice chairman for CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance Group in Atlanta, Georgia. Upon graduating from Tulane University in 1983, Mr. LaChapelle began his career with CBRE in New Orleans, Louisiana, as an apartment broker. For twenty years, he worked in multi-family finance, developing relationships across sectors and organizing new sources of debt and equity for clientele.

Since 2002, Mr. LaChapelle has been awarded the Coldwell Colbert Circle Award—which recognizes the top 3 percent of commissioned salespeople worldwide—a total of thirteen times. In 2011, he was among the top twenty-five producers within the entire CBRE platform. Mr. LaChapelle’s transactional experience is extensive, totaling in excess of $22.5 billion.

Mr. LaChapelle is a founding board member of the Atlanta Real Estate Collaborative (AREC), a 501 (c)(3) organization whose mission is to reduce houselessness in metropolitan Atlanta to functional zero. He is also a founding board member of 3 Star Communities, an organization that purchases and transforms blighted apartment communities and further collaborates with local partners to bring educational, medical, and community-building initiatives to residents. Lastly, he is a Member of the Board of Directors of Atlanta’s Bobby Dodd Institute (BDI), whose mission is to connect people with disabilities and disadvantages to jobs.

Melissa Maddox-Evans has over seventeen years of experience in the affordable housing industry and over thirty years in community development initiatives. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University, her law degree from the University of Georgia, and she is licensed to practice law in the state of South Carolina and the District of Columbia. She served as both Director of Housing and as General Counsel for The Housing Authority of the City of Charleston and as CEO of the Charleston County Housing & Redevelopment Authority. She is currently CEO of The Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis (HACA), Maryland. Ms. Maddox-Evans has formed several nonprofits, including The Charleston Redevelopment Corporation, an affiliate nonprofit which created The Palmetto Community Land Trust, and served as the first president & chair of its Board of Directors. She recently created the Annapolis Housing and Community Redevelopment Corporation to facilitate grant funding for resident programs and housing redevelopment in urban communities in Annapolis. She is a national speaker on affordable housing and nonprofit/corporate governance, she is an advocate for domestic violence victims, disability, education, and social justice issues, and she was a featured speaker for TEDxCharleston. She also helped form the Social Justice Racial Equity Collaborative—formed after the racial-hate-motivated Charleston shooting massacre of 2015—to promote racial equity and social justice policies and programs.

Ms. Maddox-Evans has received several awards from housing, government, and industry groups for her leadership and advocacy. Prior to working in the housing industry, she spent several years working in early intervention programs for developmentally delayed children and as a grassroots organizer for nondenominational churches throughout the Southeast. Ms. Maddox-Evans believes in being active in her community and serves on several boards and commissions, including the Anne Arundel County and Maryland Affordable Housing Coalitions as well as The Housing and Development Law Institute of Washington, D.C.

Patty grew up in northern New Jersey, enjoying countless hours on the Jersey Shore with her parents. She attended University of South Carolina Williams Brice College of Nursing before embarking on her thirty-five-year career as a neonatal and pediatric intensive care nurse, first working in New Jersey before moving to Isle of Palms, South Carolina in 1981. She continued her nursing career at Medical University of South Carolina in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. She was also the pediatric nurse coordinator for the Medical University South Carolina Pediatric Surgery Clinic for twenty years. She presently works at Roper Mt. Pleasant Hospital in the newborn nursery. Patty enjoys biking, walking (after many years of running marathons for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society), and sewing.

As president of Utopia Marketing, a Greenville, South Carolina-based creative marketing agency, Anne has over twenty-five years of marketing and branding experience. Anne previously served as Assistant Director for the Humanities Foundation from 1994–1999. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Business Administration from The Citadel College of Graduate and Professional Studies.