The Team

Jelani House is the Founder and Managing Director of House Strategies Group, LLC (HSG), an SBA-certified 8(a) federal consulting firm specializing in federal financial services, capital markets advisory, compliance analytics, securitization, real estate advisory, and government program management. He has 17+ years of progressive consulting experience supporting HUD, Ginnie Mae, VA, USDA, Treasury, and the Federal Reserve across multiple prime contract vehicles, with career sales exceeding $25M. Before founding HSG, Jelani served as an Associate Director within Guidehouse's federal financial services practice (2020 to 2024) and as a Project Manager and Senior Consultant at Novad Management Consulting (2008 to 2018), supporting HUD's Office of Asset Sales over nearly two decades. He most recently led the Issues Team for a HECM Vacant Property Transaction under HUD's Transaction Specialist contract. On HSG engagements he pioneered the AI-Enhanced Delivery Methodology and the AI/Expert Reconciliation Log, both now standard deliverables on HSG classification and compensation studies. He holds an MS in Finance from Georgetown's McDonough School of Business and a BA in Economics and English from the University of Virginia. He is also the Founder of GovCert (govcert.ai), an AI-powered SaaS platform that automates federal certification applications for small businesses.

Gilda Weech-House is an accomplished Senior HR Officer with over 25 years of distinguished service in the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service. She is a Certified Job Evaluator (CJE) with specialized training in the State Department's M-Class classification system and administrative management. Her postings span Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America, including Senior HR Officer tours in Pretoria (2008 to 2010), Paris (2011 to 2014), Brasilia (2014 to 2017), Beijing (2003 to 2006), and Hanoi (2000 to 2002), and a retired-annuitant WAE tour across Chad, Botswana, and Ethiopia (2018 to 2024). She has led HR operations for some of the largest U.S. diplomatic missions in the world, overseeing workforces of 2,000+ locally engaged staff and 1,000+ U.S. hires. Gilda is the study's hands-on technical lead, the signatory on every revised Position Description, Factor Scorecard, and Grade Reconciliation Memorandum. She holds an MA in Labor and Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois and a BA in Social Work from the College of Saint Benedict / Saint John's University. Her Past Performance Questionnaire from Jennifer Haskell (retired Senior Foreign Service Officer, former supervisor) rates her Exceptional across every category: 'Gilda is the best HR professional I worked with in my 30+ year career.'

Michael Nelson is a Senior Consultant at House Strategies Group with 15+ years of experience leading structured discovery, stakeholder engagement, and requirements gathering for compliance-driven engagements in highly regulated environments. At HSG he supports federal program delivery including HUD Office of Asset Sales compliance and audit-readiness initiatives, and serves as Project Coordinator and Methodology Lead on classification and compensation engagements. In that role he oversees Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ) administration, stakeholder interview scheduling and logistics, data-integrity controls, and the AI/Expert Reconciliation workflow that underpins HSG's dual-layer quality-control model. Previously, as Senior Product Manager and Senior Business Analyst at Allscripts (2011 to 2019), he led product strategy and structured customer research across large hospital systems, translating complex stakeholder input into quantitative analytical findings, a methodology directly applicable to PDQ administration. He holds an MBA in Strategic Management & Economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Economics from Northwestern University, where he was a varsity football letterman and two-time Big Ten champion.

Raina Cook is a results-driven Senior HR and Compensation Analyst with 10+ years of progressive experience in human resources operations, employee relations, compensation analysis, and HRIS management at Fortune 100 organizations. At Lowe's she serves as Senior Division HR Advisor leading the Annual Compensation Review (ACR), succession planning, and executive talent movement. At Verizon Wireless (2014 to 2024) she served successively as Senior HR Recruiter, HR Business Partner Consultant, and Senior Analyst in HR Operations, leading compensation reviews, people-analytics dashboards, employee-relations investigations (documented in HR Acuity and ServiceNow), labor-law compliance, and large cross-functional projects including a $500K new-hire welcome-kit rollout across domestic and international locations. She is proficient in Workday, PeopleSoft, HR Acuity, and ServiceNow. She holds an MS in Human Resource Management from Strayer University and a BS in Management Information Systems from Norfolk State University. Her Past Performance Questionnaire from Kristen Dixon (Sr. HRBP, RTI International; former Lowe's manager) rates her Exceptional across every category: 'Without hesitation, if I had a vacant position today, I would extend an offer to Raina.'

Joel V. Sutherland brings 7+ years of specialized federal HR experience in classification, recruitment, staffing operations, and HR program management within the federal government. At the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid division (2018 to 2025) he served as Management and Program Analyst in HR / Human Capital Management, conducting position classification analyses utilizing OPM classification standards including the Factor Evaluation System (FES) to determine appropriate occupational series, grade levels, and pay systems; developing and maintaining Position Descriptions ensuring alignment with assigned duties and federal classification requirements; and applying Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) criteria to determine exemption status and ensure regulatory compliance. He led the modernization of FSA's Position Description Library by transitioning it to a fully electronic system, a direct analog to the salary-administration maintenance system Isle of Wight County will receive as a deliverable on this engagement. Joel processed over 950 personnel actions in the Federal Personnel and Payroll System (FPPS), conducted quality-assurance audits on 250+ hiring packages, and supported the agency-wide NextGen hiring initiative onboarding 1,200+ employees under Merit Promotion, Delegated Examining (DEU), and Pathways authorities. Prior to that he served in FSA's Adjudication & Appeals Division (2016 to 2018) reviewing 800+ federal student loan servicer appeals. He received two Individual Cash Awards (2023, 2024) for performance during the FSA tenure. He holds an MA in Communication from Trinity Washington University and a BA in Political Science from Fayetteville State University.

Laverne Cunningham is a senior HR professional with 25+ years of experience spanning position classification, compensation administration, benefits management, and HR compliance across federal, government-contractor, and international diplomatic environments. From 2001 to 2016 she served as Human Resources Management Specialist for the U.S. Department of State at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa, an organization of 600+ employees across the Embassy and three consulates. In that role she supervised the classification program, ensuring all position descriptions were written and classified accurately within the State Department's Management Classification (M-Class) system, and served as COTR for benefits administration, recruitment, and compensation-plan administration. She currently serves as Director of Benefits at Constellis, LLC (since 2023), leading benefits strategy, compliance, and administration for over 8,000 union and non-union employees, including health, dental, vision, life, 401(k), union Health & Welfare stipend programs, and wellness initiatives. She is expert in ERISA, ACA, HIPAA, and COBRA compliance, 5500 filings, non-discrimination testing, and vendor/broker negotiation. At HSG she provides specialized subject-matter depth on classification, compensation plans, and HR compliance.