Mercer (left) and his Capstone team.
Two weeks ago, Homes for America, a non-profit affordable housing developer based in Annapolis, MD, closed its first project since Liam Mercer, a QUEST alumnus from Cohort 28, started a year ago. The project is set to work on rehabilitating a 154-unit community in Baltimore that has historically served the deaf and hearing-impaired population. I got the amazing chance to reach out to Mercer to talk further about his time at UMD and QUEST, as well as his life post-grad.
During his time as an undergrad at Maryland, he studied Operations Management & Business Analytics and Finance. He also completed a minor in Sustainability Studies and Real Estate Development. With so many diverse interests, Mercer sought out QUEST to join an interdisciplinary program that “was designed for all students to play valuable roles on each project team.” Mercer was also part of many different extracurricular organizations, such as Phi Chi Theta Business Fraternity, The Maryland Pride, Ballroom at Maryland, and Survivor Maryland.
Mercer dancing with Ballroom at Maryland.
Many of the skills gained through QUEST have been useful for his professional career. After graduating in 2019, Mercer worked on a 2020 presidential primary campaign, where his team was “always looking for creative ways to be as efficient as possible with our limited resources,” something that he learned during his time in QUEST.
At his next job as an analyst at RCLCO Real Estate Consulting in Bethesda, MD, Mercer was able to combine his business and real-estate development background to provide economic consulting services for real estate owners, developers, and investors. He recalled that the QUEST Capstone prepared him well for the client relations part of the job. “I liked the opportunities to use data creatively in an analysis,” he shared.
Mercer and his current boss submitting the LIHTC Application.
Currently, Mercer works at Homes for America as a development analyst. His work is focused on developing housing projects that are income-restricted and affordable within the Mid-Atlantic region. Excitingly, Mercer has led Homes for America’s application for competitive low-income housing tax credits, which would help to finance their developments in the state of Delaware. Mercer says that it was part of the company’s “major organizational goal to diversify where we work, and I was proud to have a leading role in the application.”
Being able to work with combating the affordable housing shortage within our country is an area that Mercer had previously worked on as an intern during his undergraduate years that he was excited to come back to. Looking back on his time at UMD, Mercer says that “one of the benefits of a large university is that there is an organization of like-minded people for almost everything.” Congrats to Liam Mercer on all of his success so far!