MONIQUE
Coach. Consultant. Speaker. Good Troublemaker.
Photo by Makayla Caldwell
Monique King-Viehland is a coach, consultant, speaker and a good troublemaker who helps Black and BIPOC women, queer, transgender and/or gender expansive folks to show up differently in the inequitable + indifferent spaces that proclaim to create space for them. She also partners with institutions and organizations committed to grounding their work in, and framing their work around, equity and justice both within their organizations and for the people they serve.
There is no real change without shifting power.
Monique King-Viehland is no stranger to being the first.
Be it the first generation in her family to attend a four-year college or graduate with her master’s degree. Or the first Black woman to lead the (then) Community Development Commission and Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles.
She is highly regarded as an expert on racial equity, homelessness, housing justice and affordable housing issues and she has held numerous leadership positions in the field over the last twenty+ years.
Before launching her own coaching and consulting firm, Zithande, LLC., Monique was Executive Director in the PolicyCenter at JPMorgan Chase where she led the firm’s efforts to build a more affordable and equitable housing market. Prior to joining the PolicyCenter, she was an Associate Vice President in the Metropolitan Housing & Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute where she was a member of the senior leadership team for the largest policy center at Urban and led the development of new bodies of work on racial equity and housing justice. Monique also served as Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) where she oversaw 580 employees and a budget of approximately $600 million. She was the first woman and African American to take the helm of the 40-year-old agency.
In 2019, she was recognized as an LA Power Woman by Bisnow, and in late 2020, Monique served as a member of the U.S. Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition Team.
She is no stranger to being the first, she is no stranger to excelling or manifesting #BlackGirlMagic. But she is also no stranger to the incredible pressure and trauma that the “honor” of being the first can sometimes bring with it. Or the false narratives that white supremacy and the patriarchy can create that force Black and BIPOC folks to operate at their own expense.
Monique leverages her expertise, owns her lived experience, and walks in her authenticity. And her work is grounded in calling out and exposing inequitable systems and catalyzing real and structural change.
