Our Team

Deborah B, Simon M.ED, NBCT, CEO The Simon Firm Inc.

Ms. Simon is a noted educator with areas of specialty in special education and student advocacy as a Learning and Behavioral Specialist student mentor. She has served as an adjunct professor and supervisor of student teachers at George Washington University, an assessor of the National Board of Professional Teacher Standards, and a support provider for Nationally Board-Certified Teacher candidates. She has served as a Delegate to N.C. Distinguished Teachers Forum III and Panelist at workshops promoting North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) membership in National Board Certification.

She has coordinated and led workshop groups of National Board Certification candidates for NCAE, Wake County Public Schools,  Meredith College, and George Washington University and was a member of the mentoring team for the State of Georgia promoting National Board Certification of Exceptional Needs teacher candidates.

Her teaching experience includes being Chairperson of the Special Education Department at East Millbrook Magnet Middle School, Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School, Millbrook High School, and Bunker Hill High School (N.C.). In these positions, Ms. Simon was a member of the leadership team charged with creating a new concept of technological high school: developed policy and curriculum, interviewed, hired, and trained teachers, and served as Lead team member to collaboratively review, recommend and implement changes toward strengthening and stabilizing magnet middle school special education department, and Team member on a county-wide study to restructure goals and policies for special education on the secondary level and to develop strategies for implementation of the program.

Deborah holds a Master of Education and Bachelor of Arts with certifications as a National Board-Certified Teacher-Early Childhood through Young Adulthood/Exceptional Needs Specialist. She is Certified to teach English Language Learners and English as a Foreign Language; she has Class A Certificate in Early Childhood, Mental Retardation, and Cross Categorical Education; Class M Certificate in Specific Learning Disabilities and Behaviorally/Emotionally Handicapped Education Mentor teacher; and Certified Covey Seven Habits Workshop Facilitator.

Morris Simon, APA, President of the Simon Firm Inc.

Mr. Simon is a senior management consultant with a stellar performance record serving Federal agencies such as (the U.S Department) Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and Health and Human Services (HHS), among others. He is a trained group facilitator and senior management consultant with over 40 years of experience in training/curriculum design and delivery, community engagement, and organizational/management analysis. In addition, he has experience in program management, technical writing, and onsite technical assistance as a housing and community development professional.  

As a national trainer for HUD, he was responsible for designing and delivering training on Economic Development policies and Homeownership programs. He was the lead author of the best practices Homeownership Compendium Handbook. Morris Simon has facilitated technical assistance efforts for more than 150 public housing authorities. An area of his expertise is in resident participation in development programs such as homeownership, Family Self Sufficiency/Community Self Sufficiency, and Economic Development programs. He was responsible for the HUD contract to develop web and satellite broadcasts of the Section 504/ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) national training program. Mr. Simon was the Program Manager on a recent HUD Energy Performance Contract to rewrite the Green Book, Federal Regulation 24CFR965, the Housing Conservation Workbook, and provide other short expert opinion documents. He was the project manager and primary investigator on the HUD-funded research project California State University Long Beach/U S Department of Housing and Urban Development, Research Study-Alternative Housing Design for Disaster Mitigation and Energy Efficiency. For the HUD Energy Performance Contract assignment, He has facilitated stakeholder meetings of industry experts to discuss appropriate procedures for improving the Energy Performance contract process.

He was the lead facilitator on a DOT Hazard Materials Section focus group problem/solution strategy session that addressed the controversial transport of hazardous material. This study mined ideas and priorities from 20 industry executives on the transport of hazardous material incident reporting and informed current prevention policies nationwide.

For the Maritime Administration  (DOT/MARAD), he provided group facilitation, meeting support, report writing, data collection, and analysis (data elicited during facilitation). The work involved consulting with program office staff at MARAD to assist with agenda planning for meetings, facilitating breakout groups to elicit action items, compiling the actions identified for tracking and follow-up, and summarizing the meetings results in an American with Disabilities Act [ADA] 508 compliant report. During the pandemic, he facilitated numerous virtual meeting platforms with more than 100 participants.

Mr. Simon co-facilitated several assignments supporting the realignment of responsibilities and services for the effectiveness of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Small Business program. After designing an assessment and fact-finding intervention format that relied on several focus group sessions, the result revealed an assessment of associated communication, organization, and change management practices and outcomes, with process recommendations to close performance gaps.

Mr. Simon is a member of the American Planning Association. Mr. Simon is a NAHRO (National Association of Housing Redevelopment Officials) certified HUD subject matter expert and qualified focus group facilitator. Mr. Simon holds Masters degrees in Architecture and Urban Planning.

Jesse Jones Jr., CHM, Lead Trainer, Community Engagement Subject Matter Expert

Mr. Jones is a nationally recognized HUD housing, planning, and development consultant, providing resident councils technical assistance and training services. Mr. Jones has designed and delivered several Board of Director training courses to the Resident Advisory Board (Housing Authority of Baltimore City). He developed and delivered management-organizational training for the LeClair Courts Resident Management Association for resident-centered housing development. He designed and trained the Nashville, Tennessee Public Housing Agency staff and New Edition Community Cooperative residents. He prepared an evaluation of the New Haven Housing Authority Community Self-Sufficiency program. He has provided technical assistance and training to the Housing Authority City of Prichard and the New York City Housing Authority.

He developed and delivered Leadership Development Training for housing authorities, non-profit organizations, HUD, and private sector management firms. He provided technical assistance to the Housing Authority of Baltimore City and Enterprise Homes, the co-developer, for a Revitalization Plan for Murphy Home/Julian Gardens. He assisted in developing a Resident Initiative Coordinator Training program for Public Housing and Indian Staff programs. He has provided training for the Louisiana State Housing Finance Agency to introduce the concept of and the "how-to" develop cooperative housing to state officials, developers, HUD Area office staff, lending agencies, and community groups and co-authored with the National Association of Housing Cooperative training manual for Tenant Sponsored Cooperative Development for the HUD and prepared a Management Systems Survey, Analysis, and Implementation Plan for a housing cooperative toward improving the resident-centered management team performance of their management responsibilities. Mr. Jones has a Masters degree in City Planning.

Ray Ocasio, Community Engagement, Non-Profit  Organizational, and Operational Assessment

Mr. Ocasio is a nationally recognized community development practitioner. Mr. Ocasio is fluent in Spanish. For more than 28 years, he was the Executive Director-La Casa de Don Pedro, Inc. (Newark, N.J.), a community-based development organization offering comprehensive social and economic development activities to low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

Before his work with the non-profit La Casa de Don Pedro, he was Program Vice president of Initiative Support Corporation -LISC (New York City, N.Y. ), where he directed activities contributing to the support of community development corporations and their expanded agenda of organizational development and broader community building.

He was Director of Housing - Department of City Planning of the City of New York, providing advice and counsel to the City Planning Commission on housing matters and reviewing, evaluating, and initiating housing policies for the City.

As HUD's Comprehensive Planning officer, Mr. Ocasio also served Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Buffalo.

Much of Mr. Ocasio's career was dedicated to housing and community development in New York City and internationally in several Central and South American countries and Jamaica.

Mr. Ocasio holds Master's degrees in City and Regional Planning and Public Administration National as an Urban Fellow Program in conjunction with Occidental College and Yale.

Georgia Collier-Bolling, Senior Consultant

Mr. Collier-Bolling has completed an assignment as the lead Subject Matter Expert (SME) in developing policies and procedures for their economic development program. Georgia has provided advice and consultations on federal procurement standards, Davis Beacon, and environmental regulations concerning cost and contract compliance per HUD regulations. In addition, Georgia is knowledgeable in FAR and CAS and is an SME in HUD regulation, oversight, and compliance.

Georgia has received certification and training in HUD CDBG and HOME programs and specializes in URA compliance. Georgia is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Association of Governmental Accountants, & the National Association of Women Business Owners. She has a B.A. in Accounting and a Master of Science in Accountancy.

Alicia Walls, Technical Support Specialist

Ms. Walls will be responsible for the remediation of documents and reports to be [American with Disabilities] ADA 508 compliant. Ms. Walls has more than 15 years of providing 508 compliant and remediation support services to DOT MARAD  and Mathematica Policy Research; she has coordinated resources for producing 508-compliant PDFs and was responsible for converting Word and InDesign files into PDFs, ran the Adobe compliance checker, fixed errors found by the checker, and submitted the file to a compliance reviewer for a final check. Ms. Alicia Walls is well qualified and experienced with Section 508 software applications, including Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access; Adobe; Acrobat Reader; Common Look; PDF Creator; Roxio, PCDOCS, iManage (DeskSite), Word Perfect, MacPac, Apple IIe, DTE, Elite. Ms. Walls passed the Prince George's County Administrative (M.D.) test and is 508 Compliant Certified.