James Cody Birkey ’06 is Senior Vice President at JLL (Jones Lang Lasalle), where he is the US Practice Area Lead for Civic Reinvestment and Housing. In this role, he and his team advise public entities and mission-driven organizations on complex real estate matters and pivotal urban projects. Birkey graduated from the University of Oregon with a BA in International Economics and a BArch in Architecture; he became a licensed architect and certified planner before doing his graduate studies in real estate economics at Harvard University. He also completed a professional certificate at University of Oxford-Saïd. He has lived and worked on five continents, including Venezuela, Guatemala, Thailand, and Rwanda. Today he resides in Bellflower, California, where he is active in several local non-profits and serves on the Board of Trustees for Cerritos College.