On February 26th, MSRED '07 students Nadia DiCarlo, Marianne Ganster, and Katie Nash were named to receive this year's Heather Smith Memorial Fellowship.
Awarded to female students at MIT/CRE, the Fellowship honors the memory of Heather Smith, a member of the Boston real estate community who was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001.
The Fellowship is awarded each year, and is based on financial need, career objectives, and academic standing. Awards are presented annually at a benefit for the Heather Smith Foundation.
To date, approximately $100,000 has been awarded to MIT/CRE students, who have gone on to work for prestigious real estate firms and investment banks that have included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Forest City Ratner.
The Fellowship was created by Heather's family, friends, and real estate community to provide "a living legacy and a message of hope" in tribute to Ms. Smith by helping women in financial need who show exceptional promise.
Nadia Di Carlo graduated from Wellesley College in 2001 with a B.S. in Economics and Italian. She began work at the Investment Banking Department of UBS Warburg in the Real Estate, Lodging, Gaming and Leisure Group in New York. In 2003 she joined the London investment team of Curzon Global Partners, a global real estate investment management firm, where she was responsible for the origination, underwriting, and execution of pan-European real estate investments in the office, retail, and logistics sectors. Nadia left Curzon in 2005 to manage a Boston-area residential development project backed by a private investment group.
Marianne Ganster graduated from Boston College in 2001 with a B.S. in Economics. She served for a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer with a non-profit economic development organization in Chicago, then began work as Assistant Project Manager at Affirmative Investments, an affordable development consultancy in Boston. Before enrolling at MIT, Marianne worked for three years at Boston Capital, a real estate investment firm specializing in equity investments for multi-family housing. She focused on the acquisition of multi-family properties, and was responsible for the deal structuring and underwriting of low income housing tax credit properties.
Kathryn Nash graduated from Wesleyan University in 1998 with a B.A. in Economics. She began work as an analyst at the Associates for International Resources and Development, a consulting firm specializing in international economics. She was then hired as an economist for McGraw-Hill Construction (MHC) Analytics, where she contributed to forecasting the building start activity for residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional structures on both national and metropolitan levels. She also analyzed the markets for different building types, and reported on macro construction trends within many of the nation's largest cities.
Heather Smith was a member of the Boston real estate community for five years. She started her career at Koll Bren Schrieber Realty Advisors, where she worked as an analyst, then progressed to Beacon Capital Partners in July of 2001. She was a member of New England Women In Real Estate (NEWIRE), and was also the fiancé of Mike Jammen, MIT/CRE Class of 1997. She was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001.
