Kecia Rust is the Executive Director and founder of the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF). She is a housing policy specialist and has worked with both public and private sector practitioners in promoting access to affordable housing and housing finance in Africa for the past 20 years. She was the Housing Finance Coordinator at the FinMark Trust from 2003-2014, from where CAHF was established. Over the span of her career, Kecia has consulted and undertaken research in affordable housing finance, residential property assets and property markets, rental and social housing, and the creation of sustainable human settlements, among other issues. Kecia participated in the Wharton School's International Housing Finance Programme, U.S.A. She holds a Bachelor's Degree with Distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, U.S.A., and a Masters of Management from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.