What We're All About - Fair Housing Training
In 2005, The Fair Housing Institute was founded as a company with one primary goal: to provide comprehensive and engaging fair housing compliance training at a budget-friendly price, all at the click of a button.
We are able to provide the best training available because our content is authored and updated annually by fair housing attorneys with decades of experience. This experience helps us break down complicated fair housing laws into easy-to-understand lessons and best practices that everyone in the housing industry can use and apply in their careers every day.
Kathelene Williams
Kathelene (Kathi) Williams is one of the founders of FHI. Kathi recognized many years ago that online training was the most practical method to provide fair housing training to all housing providers. FHI is the accomplished vision of Kathi who views its educational courses as the best method housing providers can use to accomplish compliance and avoid litigation. Kathi was a founding partner in the Law Firm of Williams Edelstein Tucker, P.C.,providing defense and preventative representation for the housing industry in all civil rights matters. During the many decades Kathi has been advising her housing provider clients, she developed a unique understanding of the most effective methods of communicating fair housing best practices through training. After 25 years of service she has now retired and is focused on furthering FHI’s educational goals and development.
Prior to moving into private practice, Kathi served as a fair housing attorney for HUD and as Director of the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Program for HUD’s Southeast Region. Throughout her career, Kathi has participated in the investigation, resolution, and litigation of thousands of fair housing cases. In addition to her responsibilities as legal counsel, Kathi has provided fair housing training during hundreds of seminars to private housing providers, associations, and government entities throughout the country.
Kathi graduated magna cum laude from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana with degrees in Social Work and Urban Planning, and from Indiana University Law School in Indianapolis, where she obtained her law degree and served on the Law Review and Board of Barristers. She lives in the Hilton Head area.
Our Vision
Who We Are
"Fair Housing Training for All"
Many companies have relied on classroom training to provide their employees with fair housing education. In-person training is a great option for some companies, but for others it can be costly and burdensome to get all your employees in one room especially when properties are far apart.
At The Fair Housing Institute, Inc. we provide training options for every company whether you are training one person or ten thousand. Online training does not require traveling, scheduling, or off-site time. We deliver updated, interactive, and comprehensive online fair housing training right to your employees’ computers, tablets, or smartphones. These courses can be taken in a single sitting, or stretched out over days or weeks to fit your schedule.
We are proud to continue to grow our relationships throughout the housing community as an increasing number of housing and management companies recognize our fair housing expertise and innovative courses.
Michael Coughlin
Michael Coughlin, FHI’s Vice President, works closely with FHI’s clients; consulting on training development, providing hands on assistance during training rollout and operations, and supporting our clients throughout the certification process. Through his wide-ranging experience with our customers, Michael has become an advocate for the value and importance of effective fair housing training for all employees of the housing industry. His extensive background in sales and customer service plays a critical role in the development and delivery of a successful long-term training program for our clients.
Michael enjoys working closely with his clients to ensure that they understand their many training options, are able to implement their choices effectively, and assists each client to create a robust and individualized training model that will well serve the client for many years. Michael’s hands-on approach is responsible for FHI’s many positive working relationships throughout the housing industry.
Michael is a resident of Atlanta, GA. He has been the Vice President of the Fair Housing Institute since 2018.
Leslie Tucker
Leslie is the Principal Partner of Williams Edelstein, Tucker, P.C., a fair housing defense law firm, and serves as the Assistant Vice Present at the Fair Housing Institute. With a career dedicated to defending housing providers across the country, Leslie offers over a decade of expertise in fair housing matters. Leslie represents her clients in administrative fair housing cases, assists with drafting and updating company policies, consults on day-to-day fair housing-related decisions, and provides live training sessions on fair housing laws, federal housing programs, and landlord-tenant issues. Additionally, she is an expert in physical accessibility standards for multifamily housing, encompassing both local building codes and federal requirements like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHAAG). Leslie has been actively involved in consulting and training with the Fair Housing Institute since 2021.
We express our special thanks to Theresa Kitay and Doug Chasick who were instrumental in the founding and direction of The Fair Housing Institute. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
