Casius Pealer

Casius Pealer is Director of Tulane’s Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development (MSRED) program and a Professor of Practice in the School of Architecture. In addition to these academic roles at Tulane, Casius is Principal of Oystertree Consulting, where he concentrates in the areas of public housing development, affordable housing policy, and the impacts of design and construction on health outcomes, energy use and water use.

Trained as an architect and a real estate attorney, Professor Pealer has over 20 years of community development experience, including four years as legal counsel for public housing authorities across the country implementing mixed-finance redevelopment projects. Professor Pealer has also worked in the nonprofit sector as the first Director of Affordable Housing at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and in the public sector as Assistant General Counsel for Real Estate at the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA).

In addition to being a regular speaker at professional conferences nationally, Professor Pealer has been published in the ABA Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, the AIA Journal of Architecture, and Affordable Housing Finance Magazine. He is licensed to practice law in New York State and Washington, DC, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.

Professor Pealer’s civic and professional service includes six years on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) national Housing Committee. He is a current board member for Next City, a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire social, economic and environmental change in cities through journalism and events around the world, and President of the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO). HANO serves over 20,000 low income families in New Orleans, representing over 25% of all renters in the city, with 200 staff and an annual budget of $225 million.

Professor Pealer holds a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, and a Masters in Architecture from the Tulane School of Architecture.