Rice Takes Over Reins As Public Housing Director

By Sam Conner
   Retiring Winslow Housing Director Fran McHugh has been replaced by H. Beth Rice, and the two are working to familiarize Rice with the area and her new responsibilities. She was introduced by McHugh to the Winslow City Council at its last meeting. Both seem well satisfied with working together during the period of change, and McHugh has said that he will be available and willing to help when needed. He plans to remain in Winslow for the foreseeable future.
   Rice came to Winslow from Mesa, where she lived while working for the Maricopa County Housing Authority. She had been the director of the Housing Choice Voucher Program from May 2008 until her resignation last month. Prior to that position, she was the senior housing specialist for the Mesa Housing Services. She held that position for eight years between 1999 and 2007. She had been a housing specialist at the Mesa department from 1993 to 1997.
   Rice worked as a housing specialist for the Glendale Housing Authority from 1990 to 1993, and for the Maricopa County Housing Department as an occupancy clerk from 1989 to 1990. She has certifications from the City of Mesa Management Academy in 2006, the NAHRO Section Eight Manager Certification in 2003, the Arizona Governmental Training Service Supervisors Academy in Mesa in 2002, and the Nan McKay and Associates Housing Specialist Certification in 1991.
   Her education dates to the Non-Commissioned Officer Academy at Ft. Hood, Texas, in 1978, St. Leo College at Fort Lee, Va., where she received an A.A. Liberal Arts Degree in 1980; Mesa Community College, where she received a general studies A.A. degree in 1981; Arizona Government Training Service AGTS Supervisors Academy in Mesa in 1995; the Arizona Governmental Training Service Supervisors Academy in Mesa in 2002; and the City of Mesa Management Academy in 2006.
   Rice has been communications vice president of the Arizona National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) since 2008. She was senior vice president of the Arizona chapter of that organization in 2005-06 and secretary of the organization from 2003 through 2005. She was newsletter editor and Web master for the organization from 2001 until 2003.
   She is an Army veteran, having been stationed at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, and Ft. Lee in Virginia. She noted that she is an “Army brat,” having been born at an Air Force base in Fort Worth, Texas, and living at various military installations throughout her youth.
   Rice’s interests outside of housing include quilting, sewing, films and special love for her six-year-old grandson. She has an adult daughter and that grandson as her family.
   “My goal is to keep up the good work Fran McHugh has been doing here, and stay out of trouble with the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD),” she said when asked about her goals for the job as Winslow Housing Department director.