Board of Directors

THIA CEO & Chairman

Brad Wiseman

THIA Standards Committee

Serving as the THIA’s Chairman of the Board of Directors and as its CEO, Brad Wiseman manages the internal workings of the THIA, drawing upon the talents he has developed during his 40 years of design experience as an electrical engineer and as an accomplished leader of ANSI standards development efforts in the telecommunications industry. Prior to being asked to assist in the re-launch of the THIA in early 2018, Brad took a keen interest in being involved in standards development for the tiny home industry. He addressed the crowd gathered at the THIA’s 2016 Action & Impact Conference in Colorado Springs, CO in early November of 2016, suggesting that the THIA should make it one of their prime objectives to become an ANSI Standards Developer for the tiny home industry.   Although Brad has no financial interests in the tiny home industry, he comes by his personal interest in tiny homes naturally. It was his grandparents who first sparked his interest in tiny homes, having built a playhouse for his mother and her older sister in their backyard. At approximately 120 square feet, it was quite literally a tiny home, with a finished interior, electricity, natural gas, lights, a kitchen with sink, dishes, and refrigerator, a living room, a bedroom, a front porch, locking front door, seven double-hung windows, 2 x 4 stud wall construction, wool batting insulation and composition shingles on the roof. It had everything but a bathroom. For scale, that’s Brad’s 5’ 2” grandmother sitting on the porch of that tiny gem.

President

Dan Fitzpatrick

Leading Tiny Home Advocate

THIA Vice President

Zack Giffin

Tiny House Nation Co-Host

Operation Tiny Home Spokesperson

Zack Giffin is a well-known advocate of the tiny house movement and host of the popular television show, Tiny House Nation (on A&E and Netflix). A home builder and carpenter by trade, Zack has worked his life around creating time for outdoor adventure, eventually turning his passion for backcountry skiing into a dream occupation. A longtime practitioner of simple living, Zack was naturally drawn to the Tiny House movement and in 2011 built his own tiny ski chalet on wheels. Now Zack has helped create over 120 original Tiny Homes and designing intelligent space-saving solutions has become a calling card of his work and reputation. Zack is also a board member of Operation Tiny Home, a national non-profit that helps create Tiny Home Villages for homeless Veterans around the country.

http://zackgiffin.com

https://www.operationtinyhome.org

Rebuilding Green Executive Director

Genny Crane

Genny is on a mission to contribute make-sense solutions to the dire need for obtainable housing throughout the nation. Her inspiration was born after witnessing the downward spiral of her own city, once known as America’s Finest City in San Diego, California. Genny’s diverse background presents a range of expertise from extreme entrepreneurial-ism to the non-profit sector over the last 29 years of her career. Most of her experience has been consumed in all aspects of the housing industry, mainly occupied in the financial, real estate industry. She owned a successful brokerage where she managed 40 agents until the collapse of the real estate market in 2008 where she was forced to reinvent herself. Genny then participated as a partner in a minority fund that acquired, restructured, and rehabilitated close to 2700 distressed assets across the country. The devastation that she witnessed in dilapidated neighborhoods segued Genny into the non-profit sector of her journey with a desire to serve disadvantaged individuals. She has held Director positions in national and global programs that strategically address the call to housing obstacles through innovative housing alternatives. Genny is now the Executive Director of Rebuilding Green (RBG), a 40+ year 501(C)(3) whose vision aligns with Genny’s personal aspirations to house youth, seniors, veterans, and single- parent families experiencing housing insecurity. Genny has helped enhance RBG’s mission to advocate legalizing Tiny Homes in backyards and ‘Tiny-Home-Zones’ as a major solution to California’s housing crisis. Through Genny’s leadership, RBG has also become an approved HUD and DMV dealer for the state of California and is how RBG can sustain itself financially by providing prefabricated permanent and movable tiny homes to individuals, non-profit, government agencies, and private developers. Since becoming ED, Genny has assisted government and other non-profit organizations in building Tiny Home Communities throughout California. RBG is also building its own Tiny Home community in San Diego that will ultimately demonstrate the re-branding of trailer parks by utilizing the Tiny Home Movement. Genny has been involved with County & State Social Services and Faith-based ministries to develop underprivileged youth & victims of domestic violence programs. She is the proud mother of two sons that she raised into young men as a single mother. She has two grandchildren that are the ‘apple-of-her-eye’ that consume any extra time that she can find. She attributes her success to a solid foundation of faith, integrity, honesty, and a strong ability to relate well to other people by practicing the golden rule of ‘Treating Others Like You Would Like To Be Treated.’ She plans to continue pursuing her heart’s desire passionately and believes nothing is impossible.

Tiny Homes of Maine Principal & CEO

Corinne Watson

Leading Advocate behind Maine Tiny Home Laws

Corinne Watson is the Principal & CEO of Tiny Homes of Maine and has been drawing floor plans and sketching home designs on scraps of paper for as long as she can remember. Born and raised in Smyrna, Maine, she hails from small-town roots. As the daughter of a Verizon linewoman, Corinne learned at an early age that grit and determination can get you just about anywhere. That drive spurred her to be the first in her family to go to college.

Corinne attended the University of Southern Maine and completed a degree in electrical engineering with a concentration in microelectronics. She landed her first job out of college at Fairchild Semiconductor and then Smith & Wesson, where she learned the fundamentals of lean manufacturing, a process that eliminates waste.

 She returned to Southern Maine in 2012 to work as a process engineer at IDEXX. Corinne put her lean manufacturing expertise to work and began improving the manufacturing process and efficiencies of the company’s small animal and livestock analyzer units. Despite success at IDEXX, Corinne never felt fulfilled climbing the corporate ladder. She wanted to merge a passion for design and architecture with her manufacturing background into a purposeful business.

 “We have a major homelessness problem in Maine. My dream is to buy a field and fill it with tiny homes for people who have no home,” says Corinne. “I also wanted to build this business to address environmental concerns. A tiny home forces you to live a more conscious lifestyle. Everything has a purpose and everything has a place. You naturally waste less and live more simply.”

California Tiny House CEO & tinyEDU Founder

Nick Mosley

Tiny House Dweller, Advocate and Author

Shorty Robbins

DIY Tiny House Builder

Shorty Robbins has been a Parks and Recreation professional serving several different municipalities in Florida for over 30 years.  For most of those years, her hobby has been living history, specifically portraying the lives of the women and children who kept the home fires burning during Florida’s pioneer period, especially during the Civil War.  This hobby nicely tied together Shorty’s interests in history, camping, sewing and utilizing those beautiful parks.

Over time, the Living History set-up expanded to several tents, flys, a trailer full of carpets and furniture, and took over 6 hours to assemble.  Shorty’s interest in tiny houses was sparked when her daughter-in-law (also a living historian) showed her a photo of Jay Shafer’s “Tumbleweed” and suggested it would be easier to build one of those than haul around all this stuff.

Originally meant only to be a “shell” to take to events instead of setting up a tent, Shorty’s tiny house has become so much more than that.  As a result of her research and “the build” itself, Shorty has been drawn into the tiny house movement as a practical and affordable way to live.  Shorty’s Victorian Tiny House is a functioning mobile historical exhibit, telling the story of life in the late 19th century and a modern-day home with all the amenities.  With the help of a few friends on “heavy lifting days” and no prior construction experience, Shorty has built the house by herself using SIPS technology, as well as, 90% recycled and re-purposed materials.  Shorty travels with her tiny house “Nawaka” to living history events and tiny house workshops and festivals, as well as school and environmental teaching opportunities.

She’s currently working on tiny house advocacy in Florida and writing a book, “Building Passion,” about women DIY Tiny House Builders. When she’s not on the road, she lives full-time in Nawaka in St. Johns, Florida.

Movable Roots Co-Founder

Mike Cheatam

National Builder’s Committee Co-Chair

Tiny House Builder

Mike Cheatham is the co-owner and co-founder of Movable Roots. He has worked in the residential home building industry for 20 plus years. His introduction to swinging a hammer came at an early age by tagging along with his father’s family-owned remodel business.  After the market collapse in 2008, Mike stepped away from the construction industry to pursue a new challenge building functional fitness work out equipment and helping design functional fitness gym locations. In 2016 Mike and his wife Nikki stumbled across the tiny home industry while looking to go tiny themselves.  In 2017 Mike and his brother John partnered to create Movable Roots.  Their goal has been to bring a high-quality customer experience along with producing high-quality homes with second to none customer service.

Mike has also been instrumental in lobbying to change the local zoning ordinances within Brevard County FL to help tiny homes become a legal option and is working on expanding these changes whenever possible throughout the State of Florida.

https://www.movableroots.com

Executive at Wind River Built

Paul Beckmann

Tiny House Builder and Industry Advocate

Paul Beckmann is the CFO and Sales Executive at Wind River Built. After a decade of experience working in finance and public accounting, Paul decided to devote his skills to the tiny home industry. At Wind River Built, a Tennessee based offsite construction company, Paul is responsible for financial reporting objectives, sales team optimization, customer accounts, risk management, and capital structure. Paul also enjoys the challenge of implementing new business processes and procedures. His experience also includes entrepreneurship and not-for-profit governance best practices. Paul is active in other organization, sitting on the board of green|spaces of greater Chattanooga and he is a member of the Tennessee Society of CPAs as well as the American Institute of CPAs. When he is not talking moveable tiny homes, Paul enjoys fly fishing Tennessee creeks, camping with his family, and tackling house renovations.

Tiny Estates CEO and Live Tiny President

Abby Shank

Community Developer

Working for several years as a forensic investigator for KPMG and specializing in languages, Abby used her fluency in Spanish and Chinese to work in the advisory and audit fields. After working for several major clients Abby pursued her entrepreneurial side and moved back to Lancaster where she obtained her real estate license in an effort to better understand zoning regulations and pursue the tiny home field. After nearly a decade in community development, Abby manages multiple tiny home communities and overseas new project developments. Abby’s entity Live Tiny also holds a dealership license for the sale of tiny homes built with numerous builders across the country to allow clients the product, price, quality and scaleability they desire. Her focus is zoning and code change along with land acquisition for community development and expansion as well as high quality tiny home placement across the country.

Founder and Executive Director of the MicroLife Institute

Will Johnston

Social Innovator

William Johnston, a visionary leader in micro living, is the Founder and Executive Director of the MicroLife Institute. Over the past decade, his leadership has driven policy reforms and widespread acceptance of micro structures in the Southeastern region. The MicroLife Institute gained global recognition for its pioneering project, The Cottages on Vaughan, winning the Innovative Development Award from the Atlanta Regional Commission in 2021 and the Jack Kemp Excellence Award in 2022. Under Johnston’s guidance, MicroLife secured $3.5 million in grants for innovative housing initiatives in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Institute also creates online courses, promoting understanding of housing dynamics and advocating for progressive zoning laws to enhance urban connectivity and walkability. As a testament to his unwavering commitment to the field, he has recently culminated his rigorous pursuit of knowledge with a Master’s degree in Community Development from the University of Georgia in Spring of 2023.

Tiny House Expedition Co-Founder

Alexis Stephens

Communications Committee

Tiny Home Dweller, Filmmaker & Educator

Alexis Stephens is a well-respected tiny house movement ambassador and advocate. She is the co-founder of Tiny House Expedition, a traveling tiny house documentary and community education project. In 2014, she and her partner, Christian Parsons, built their own movable tiny house. Since then, they have been on a mission to inspire others to redefine home and rethink housing through educational events, resource sharing, and thought-provoking storytelling.

Pacific West Tiny Homes Vice President

Alex Ontiveros

Movable Tiny House Certification Expert

Pacific West Tiny Homes, Inc. is a subsidiary of Pacific West Associates, Inc. which is an accredited third-party agency that has been recognized in the industry for over 30 years. PWA is composed of licensed electrical, mechanical, structural, and forensic engineers. The evaluation and certification staff meet the requirements of the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) E699-16, which​ is for agencies involved in testing, quality assurance, and evaluating of manufactured building components. ASTM E541-10 is the previous standard that has now been withdrawn.

Services include DIY Built, Manufactured Built, and Consultations.

https://www.pacificwesttinyhomes.com