George Goehl is the executive director of National People’s Action. National People’s Action, founded in 1972, exists to create a society in which racial and economic justice are realized in all aspects of society, resulting in more equity in work, housing, health, education, finance, and other systems central to our well-being.

A community organizer, strategist, and trainer for 15 years, George has crafted national campaigns on affordable housing, predatory lending, and immigrant justice issues. He began his career as the founding president of the Coalition of Low-Income and Homeless Citizens, an organization that won the first Housing Trust Fund in the state of Indiana and the first Housing Trust Fund campaign in the country run by low-income and homeless people. Then, as an organizer at Blocks Together, a multicultural organization on the Westside of Chicago, George led several successful campaigns to address inequalities in housing, safety and municipal services.

George came to National People’s Action for the first time in 1996 and designed a national campaign to pressure HUD to address fraud and abuse within the FHA home loan program. This three-year organizing effort resulted in the Credit Watch Program, which holds lenders accountable for excessive defaults on FHA-insured mortgages. Later, as organizing director, George supervised the team that forced statewide anti-predatory lending regulations and legislation in Illinois.

In 2004, George moved to the Center for Community Change to work as a strategist and field organizer for the organization’s Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM). His work there included the launch of a national summit of immigrant and allied organizations from more than 30 states, and culminated in the implementation of the national “Stop the Raids” movement, in response to a wave of immigration raids that separated young children from their parents.

Returning to National People’s Action in 2007 as the third executive director in its 35 year history, George has led the organization through a forward thinking reorganization and transformation. As a result, the organization has significantly expanded its affiliate base, built a new and talented staff team and opened the organization’s first Washington DC office.

George lives in Chicago, with his wife, Julienne, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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