Peter Skillern is Executive Director of the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina.

CRA-NC is a nonprofit agency whose mission is to promote and protect community wealth.  The agency is responsible for over $40 billion in community lending commitments from financial institutions in North Carolina.  Under the leadership of Mr. Skillern, CRA-NC has emerged as a national voice on the issue of predatory lending and the need for reforms in the subprime lending markets.

Mr. Skillern earned a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz with Highest Honors.  He is co-author of the book Too Much Month at the End of the Paycheck – Payday Lending in North Carolina and author of the paper “How Payday Lenders Make Their Money”.

Skillern has 15 years in the field of housing and community development, having previously worked with the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, DC.  He served eight years as Executive Director of the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition in Durham, North Carolina.  He holds an active North Carolina Real Estate Broker’s license.  Skillern is a founder and officer of the North Carolina Fair Housing Center.

Recognized for his leadership, he is a Fellow of both the William B. Friday Fellows Leadership Program for Human Relations and the Eisenhower Fellowship, which allowed him to study housing and community development in Ireland.  In the year 2000 he served as a member of the HUD/Treasury Task Force on Predatory Lending and the HUD GSE Advisory Committee.  In 2001, he testified before Congress on the secondary market and subprime lending.  In 2002, CRA-NC received the James Rouse Award for Excellence in Community Reinvestment from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.  In 2003, CRA-NC received the North Carolina Low Income Housing Coalition's Sister Barbara Sullivan Award for addressing affordable housing needs in North Carolina.  In 2004, Skillern received the National Fair Housing Alliance's Annual Award for exceptional contributions to fair lending in the United States.