Steers Center Names Kelly Sewell Nagel Head of Real Estate, Advancing its Position as the Premier Real Assets Program

The Steers Center for Global Real Assets at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business has appointed Kelly Sewell Nagel as Steers Endowed Professor of the Practice in Real Estate and head of real estate. The appointment, made possible thanks to a $10 million gift from Bob (B’75, P’06, ’08, ’10, ’22) and Lauren (P’06, ’08, ’10, ’22) Steers, marks a significant milestone in the center’s ongoing evolution into a practice-driven program at the helm of the expanding world of real assets.

Building a Premier Real Assets Program

As the premier destination for real assets education, the Steers Center continues to recruit an elite faculty with deep practitioner experience to provide students with knowledge, skills, and connections to succeed in the industry.

Nagel’s appointment to the new head of real estate position is the first step in the center’s evolution into a more integrated, practice-driven model — drawing on its longstanding ethos as an application-based educational hub. This new model features distinct verticals for traditional real estate and infrastructure, ensuring students are prepared for the evolving real assets economy. In the near future, the center plans to add additional full-time faculty to continue enriching each pillar of the real assets curriculum.

“The Steers Center is in the midst of a transformation into a real assets platform with the ambition of making Georgetown University the academic home for real assets globally,” said Matthew Cypher, director of the Steers Center. “That means building a faculty and a curriculum that matches the caliber of the industry we’re preparing students for across real estate, infrastructure, and energy. Kelly’s appointment is a very big step forward in executing that vision, and it sets the standard for the kind of leadership we’re bringing to Georgetown.”

A Practitioner Leader for the Real Estate Vertical

“The industry is changing quickly, and our students need more than technical skills. They need the fundamentals and judgment to ask good questions, connect the dots, and know when something coming out of a financial model just doesn’t make sense.”

Kelly Sewell Nagel, Steers endowed professor of the practice in real estate and head of real estate

Nagel brings more than two decades of institutional real estate leadership, including overseeing investments for Aimco’s East Coast portfolio of 5,000+ units and building a national residential platform within a $6.8 billion portfolio at EDENS, alongside her advisory practice, Residy. She is also a trustee of the Urban Land Institute, chair of its UDMUC Bronze Product Council, and senior advisor to ULI Americas’ Women’s Leadership Initiative. Nagel joins Georgetown to build the real estate vertical within the Steers Center’s real assets framework — connecting the practitioner rigor of institutional real estate with the policy fluency that comes from operating in Washington, D.C.

“I’ve loved teaching at Georgetown for the past few years, so getting to do more of it and help build what comes next at Steers is really exciting,” said Nagel. “The industry is changing quickly, and our students need more than technical skills. They need the fundamentals and judgment to ask good questions, connect the dots, and know when something coming out of a financial model just doesn’t make sense.”

In addition to Nagel’s teaching role, she will help lead the Steers Center’s thought leadership efforts: expanding the center’s impact and reach while helping shape the industry conversation around the evolution of real assets.