George Goehl

George Goehl has been a community organizer, strategist and trainer for nearly 20 years. His efforts have helped to craft city, state, and federal campaigns on issues that range from outlawing predatory lending, advancing immigration reform and preventing foreclosures. Since 2007, he has been the Executive Director of National People’s Action, a network of metropolitan and statewide membership organizations dedicated to advancing economic and racial justice in all aspects of society. The organization was founded nearly 40 years ago, and its work has helped to gain equity in work, housing, health, education, finance, and other systems central to the well-being of less advantaged American citizens.

Goehl began his career as the founding president of the Coalition of Low-Income and Homeless Citizens. In 1996, he began working with the National People’s Action, and designed a national campaign to pressure HUD to address fraud and abuse within the FHA home loan program. As a result of three years of work on the issue, the Credit Watch Program was established to hold lenders accountable for excessive defaults on FHA-insured mortgages. Goehl then became an organizing director and supervised an effort that forced statewide anti-predatory lending regulations and legislation in Illinois. Goehl began working as a strategist and field organizer with the Center for Community Change in 2004. His work there included the launch of a national summit of immigrant and allied organizations from more than 30 states, and resulted in establishing the national “Stop the Raids” movement, in response to a wave of immigration raids that separated young children from their parents.