Marianne Cusato

Renowned for her work on innovative housing solutions for disaster recovery and workforce housing, Marianne Cusato is the partner in charge of design and development at Cypress Community Development Corp. Marianne serves on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture where she represents the School in coordinating with the newly formed Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate.

Marianne has been ranked the No. 4 most influential person in the home building industry by Builder Magazine, voted one of the 30 Most Influential Women in the Housing Economy by HousingWire Magazine and selected by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top Women in Real Estate.

The author of two books: The Just Right Home: Buying, Renting, Moving…or Just Dreaming–Find Your Perfect Match! with Daniel DiClerico (April 2013, Workman Publishing) and Get Your House Right, Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid, with Ben Pentreath, Richard Sammons and Leon Krier, foreword by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales (January 2008, Sterling Publishing), she has been a contributor to Fortune Magazine and wrote a regular column and feature articles for Fine Homebuilding Magazine.

Marianne holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture and MBA from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business.