Hermina Harold, Executive Director
Hermina is Trust Montana’s first Executive Director. She has been working at the North-Missoula Community Development Corporation (NMCDC), Montana’s longest-running community land trust organization, for the majority of the past decade — co-managing the development of NMCDC’s commercial food hub building, establishing Burns Street Center’s neighborhood food programs, and working with home owners in the 47-unit CLT housing program.
Hermina advocates for the prioritization of the CLT tool in community housing policies with state government, local civic organizations, city and county planning offices and governing bodies, and has produced demonstrable successes at the State Legislature, and in Missoula, Madison County, the Gallatin Valley, Red Lodge, and Helena. Hermina has forged partnerships that leverage the limited resources available to gain low-income access to land for affordable housing and farms. This networking and collective action has increased the number of permanently affordable homes in Montana, modelling strategies to magnify the state’s limited subsidy dollars to endure beyond single projects.
At the Grounded Solutions Conference in Pittsburgh in 2018, she presented to national CLT practitioners on the importance of partnerships, and participated in a Charrette with other CLT leaders to develop a national strategic direction for CLTs.
Hermina grew up in the Flathead Valley and attended the University of Montana, where she graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Social Work in 2009. She has attended community land trust conferences in Georgia, Vermont, Washington, and Utah. She is passionate about securing land for affordable housing and farmland in order to build more vibrant and equitable Montana communities. Email her at hermina@trustmontana.org.
Kristin King-Ries, Legal Counsel & Program Developer
Kristin King-Ries is the staff attorney for Trust Montana, providing legal services to Trust
Montana and other community land trusts in the state.
She assists the Executive Director with outreach, project development, and contract negotiations involving community groups, governmental entities, and developers. Kristin travels the state to educate attorneys, housing professionals, land use planners, title agents, lenders and others about the community land trust model and shared-equity ownership. Kristin has served as a supervisor and mentor for the University of Montana’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law’s transactional legal clinic. Her work for Trust Montana is funded by a generous grant from the Montana Justice Foundation.
In February of 2019, Kristin co-organized a Montana summit on creative farm finance,
sponsored by the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. The summit
focused on tools that can preserve access to agricultural lands for Montana family farmers. Her article on the topic was published in the print and online versions of Shelterforce Magazine. Kristin serves on the board of the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition with CLT leaders from a five-state region. Kristin has participated on a national committee developing best practices and legal documents for farm and ranch CLTs. She received her law degree from Washington University where she wrote for the Law Review. She clerked for the Honorable David McDonnell of the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Email her at kristin@trustmontana.org.
