Kent W. Colton
Kent Winterton Colton (born November 21, 1943, in Salt Lake City) is an American scholar on housing. Colton is currently president of Colton Housing Group, a housing research and consulting company. He was formerly a fellow of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. As a scholar, Colton focuses on mortgage finance and housing policy. Career. Born to Ray and Zelma in Salt Lake City, Colton received a Bachelor of Arts from Utah State University in 1967. He then received a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University in 1968, and a Doctor of Philosophy  in urban studies and planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972, where he studied under Richard Larson. Two years after graduating, Colton was chosen as a White House Fellow and served as a special assistant to the United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1981, he was appointed staff director of the President Ronald Reagan's Commission on Housing. Ten months later, the commission sent its lengthy report to the President with major policy recommendations on housing and the nation's housing finance system. In 1982, Colton began serving as executive vice president of policy, planning, and economic  research at Freddie Mac. Two years later, Colton became the chief executive officer of the National Association of Home Builders, a position he left in 1999. During his tenure there, the association nearly doubled in membership and he implemented a range of new programs. He was responsible for managing a staff of over three hundred employees and overseeing an annual budget of over fifty million dollars. Colton served as professor of public management and finance at Brigham Young University's Graduate School of Management from 1978 to 1981. He also served as an assistant and associate professor at MIT in  their Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 1972 to 1978, and as a fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University during much of this period. In 1999, Colton delivered the first annual John Thomas Dunlop Lecture at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. Colton was a member of the Millennial Housing Commission, which was established in 2002. He also served as chairman of the Center for Housing Policy. He also served on the board for Southern Virginia University and as chairman and member of the board for the National Building Museum. Personal life. Colton served  with his wife, Kathryn, as president of the Washington D.C. Temple from 2014 to 2018. He also served a three-year assignment as mission president of the Florida Tampa Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2007 to 2010).