Conference Speakers
Erika Bell
Erika Bell, Vice President for Strategy and Services, has been with Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) since 2002. She has been instrumental in developing and managing the credit union’s award-winning financial education program targeted to unbanked and low-income immigrant communities. Building a Better Future, LCCU’s financial education curriculum, and trainer guide have been distributed nationwide. Ms. Bell has an M.A. in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in International Relations from the College of Wooster. She has worked in the area of human resources and benefits since 1997. Ms. Bell is currently working towards her Certification as a Credit Union Executive. LCCU has become a national model for institutions seeking to provide financial education and services to unbanked and low-income immigrant communities. LCCU has received numerous awards including the 2003 Herb Wegner Award for outstanding organization by the National Credit Union Foundation, and in 2007 the first ever Wachovia NEXT Award by the MacArthur and Wachovia Foundations. [top]
Ray Boshara
Ray Boshara is Vice President and Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank. Until July 2009, he was the director of the Asset Building Program, and launched the Next Social Contract and College Savings Initiatives at New America as well.
Boshara has advised the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama Administrations and policymakers worldwide, has testified before Congress, and given speeches around the world on strategies to build savings and wealth for low- and moderate-income persons. He has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and the Brookings Institution, and has been interviewed on television and radio programs across the U.S. His book, The Next Progressive Era, co-authored with Phillip Longman, was published in April 2009. Boshara serves on many national commissions and advisory boards, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Prior to joining New America in 2002, Boshara worked for the Select Committee on Hunger in the U.S. Congress, the United Nations in Rome, CFED, and Ernst & Young. He is a graduate of Ohio State University, Yale Divinity School, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. [top]
Caitlyn Brazill
Caitlyn Brazill serves as the Deputy Director for Research and Policy at the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. Ms. Brazill oversees program development research, evaluation of OFE initiatives, the implementation of pilot programs, and OFE’s policy agenda.
Prior to OFE, Ms. Brazill was the Senior Policy Analyst for Income Security and Workforce Development at the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, where she advocated for just public policies on behalf of the New York City human service community and the clients they serve. Ms. Brazill was previously a researcher at the Center for Health and Public Service Research at New York University, evaluating a national comprehensive community improvement initiative called the Urban Health Initiative. Ms Brazill has been a researcher and advocate in fields as varied as income security, child welfare and youth development. She continues to teach as an adjunct instructor for statistics at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Policy at New York University.
Ms. Brazill earned a Bachelor's degree from SUNY Albany and a Master's in Public Administration from the New York University Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. Ms. Brazill resides in Brooklyn. [top]
Chris Brook
Chris Brook grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Wanting to branch out and see the rest of the world, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his undergraduate and law degrees. During these years, he was active in the social justice movement, including serving as a legal intern at the UNC Center for Civil Rights and Director of the Carolina Law Pro Bono Program. He also served as Managing Editor of the North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation. After graduating from Carolina Law in 2005, he worked in private practice for three years at the Raleigh civil litigation law firm of Cranfill, Sumner and Hartzog. He has served as an adjunct professor at Carolina Law since 2007, teaching Researching, Reasoning, Writing and Advocacy. In 2008 he joined the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, where his practice fields include heirs’ property, environmental justice, and housing law. At the Southern Coalition he works in a community lawyering format, a topic he recently discussed as a panelist at the 2009 ABA Equal Justice Conference. [top]
Amy Brown
Amy Brown is a Senior Consultant with the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). She has been a leader in Aspen’s work around shared infrastructure “platforms” that support quality, efficiency, scale and impact in local programs. Other current projects focus on financial products and services for low-income consumers; using behavioral economics to improve program outcomes; and identifying asset-building pathways and measures. Before joining Aspen’s consulting team, Amy ran a large-scale tax preparation program in New York City. Her experience also includes legislative work, research, advocacy and community organizing. [top]
Dorothy Browning
Dorothy Browning is the National Curricula Manager for the First Step Fund. She graduated from University of Kansas with a Master in Speech-Language Pathology, working in the acute and long-term care arenas as a clinician and consultant before transitioning to a management position for a national long term care chain. In 2003 she completed a career change and became the Client Services Coordinator for the First Step Fund, a private non-profit in Kansas City whose focus is on business training and support for low to moderate income entrepreneurs.
In her capacity as Client Services Coordinator, her primary responsibilities included coordination of and participation in the general business classes and coordination of Alumni services and support. In 2005, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded the First Step Fund the distribution rights for the Microenterprise curriculum. At that time, Dorothy transitioned into the role of National Curriculum Manager, with responsibilities for growing usage of the products across the nation and supporting the organizations using those products. She has presented at regional and national conferences on the topic of microenterprise and business training. [top]
Yolanda Burwell
N. Yolanda Burwell is a Senior Fellow with North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center where she is looking at barriers and incentives around economic opportunities. Prior to this position she taught social work for 25 years in undergraduate programs in Louisiana and North Carolina. Her research interests and publications are on social welfare history in African American communities and early female leaders and organizations. She has been a scholar-in-residence at five schools/departments of social work to speak on social work history and African American contributions. In addition to research and teaching, she has conducted numerous successful trainings and consultancies on team-working, cultural competence, conflict resolution and communication. She received her Ph. D. from Cornell University. She was awarded her MSW from Washington University and her BSW from NC A&T State University. [top]
LeElaine Comer
LeElaine Comer is CFED's State Policy Specialist. She conducts in-depth policy research and tracks state progress related to a range of policies focused on assets, entrepreneurship and social insurance. She helps manage a national network of state asset policy coalitions and provides technical assistance in response to requests from state partners, advocates and policymakers. She is involved in CFED's biennial Assets & Opportunity Scorecard and the Savings for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) Policy and Practice Initiative. Prior to joining CFED, LeElaine worked for MDC, Inc., a non-profit in North Carolina focused on issues of opportunity and equity in the South. LeElaine holds a B.A. in Sociology and Social & Economic Justice and a Master's in City and Regional Planning with a concentration in community economic development, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [top]
John Cooper
John Cooper serves as the Program Director/Research Associate at MDC, Inc. in Chapel Hill, NC. John focuses on community development, environmental justice, dispute resolution, public policy research, emergency management, and land use planning. He assists the Program for the Rural Carolinas and currently directs the FEMA Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program.
He has served as project development coordinator for the North Carolina Department of Emergency Management's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and consulted with community development groups on issues of strategic planning and civic engagement. He is a former member of the Z. Smith Reynolds Advisory Panel and currently serves on the board of the Orange Community Housing Trust and the advisory board of UNC Chapel Hill’s Center of Excellence - Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management. Educational background: economics, urban planning, city and regional planning (Texas A & M University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). [top]
Janet Cowell
Janet Cowell is the State Treasurer of North Carolina.
Elected in 2008, she is the state’s 27th popularly-elected Treasurer and is the first
woman to win the post.
Cowell and her staff manage the issuance of several billion dollars of debt each
year and help cities, towns and counties by monitoring their financial condition
while providing professional technical assistance on audit and financial reporting.
Her expertise in government operations comes from hands-on experience as a
member of the North Carolina Senate and the Raleigh City Council.
Cowell is at the forefront of economic development in North Carolina, serving as
chair of the State Banking Commission and on the boards of State Education and
Community Colleges.
An investment professional, Cowell earned an MBA from the Wharton School of
Business and a Master’s degree in International Studies from the Lauder
Institute. She worked as a financial analyst with HSBC Bank and Lehman
Brothers before making her home in North Carolina. [top]
Jill Cox
Jill K. Cox is the Government Relations and Communications Director for United Way of North Carolina. During her time as a public relations/government relations professional, she has managed a wide array of programs and projects in both nonprofit and government organizations to improve consistency of message delivery and influence policy. She continues to lead statewide marketing collaboratives, develop public policy and create community outreach and advocacy programs. As a mother of two, Cox is also providing driving lessons, needing ear plugs for piano lessons and growing gray hair at an amazing rate. [top]
Derwin Dubose
Derwin Dubose is the Director of Financial Literacy for The Honorable Janet Cowell, State Treasurer of North Carolina. As the Treasurer’s chief advisor on financial education policy and programs, he is charged with providing resources to North Carolinians to help them make better financial decisions. Specifically, he focuses on launching programs that will help adults in North Carolina weather the economic crisis. Derwin came to his current job after eight years of fundraising and campaign experience with universities, K-12 agencies, non-profits, and political committees.
He has also done work in social justice activism and organizing with a focus on economic empowerment. Derwin has also performed field work for political candidates and led a 2,000-member social justice network. In 2004, he was recognized by the AARP as a Modern Civil Rights Leader.
Born in Mississippi and raised across the state line in Alabama, Derwin graduated as a John Motley Morehead Scholar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a history degree. He has obtained a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Duke University and has graduated from Wellstone Action’s political management program. [top]
Pamela Erwin
Pamela Erwin is Senior Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility Group for Wells Fargo. She is the creator and program manager of Hands on Banking® / El futuro en tus manos® an innovative, web-based financial education program for children and adults.
Pamela is the immediate past President of the Wells Fargo Foundation for California. She has also served the company as a Contributions Manager for the Foundation and HR manager.
Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 1990, Pamela dedicated 20 years to public education as a classroom teacher and high school principal in Texas, Colorado and California. She has served on numerous non-profit boards including the Ms. Foundation Women’s Micro-Loan Program, The Accelerated School (a charter school in South Central Los Angeles), the Every Child Can Learn Foundation, and the Palm Springs Unified School Foundation.
She is actively committed to broadening awareness of Wells Fargo’s philanthropic values and its commitment to strengthen the communities it serves.
Pamela recently completed post doctoral work in Corporate Community Relations at the Boston College Carroll School of Management. [top]
Chris Estes
Chris Estes is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, a statewide nonprofit membership organization that provides advocacy and resource information on affordable housing for low to moderate income North Carolinians. The Housing Coalition works on a broad range of issues from housing and services needed to end homelessness, workforce housing, housing for persons with disabilities and fixed income seniors, manufactured housing, foreclosure prevention and entry-level homeownership.
Chris has eight years experience as a development officer for several different Triangle area (NC) nonprofit organizations and has worked on statewide issues like economic development, dislocated workers, welfare reform, growth management and asset-building.
He holds two master's degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill, from the School of Social Work with a concentration on community practice and from the Department City & Regional Planning with a concentration in Housing and Community Development. [top]
Gladys Everts
Gladys Everts is CRA Service Programs Manager with Wachovia, a Wells Fargo Company. She joined the company in 2000 and has also served as the Financial Literacy Project Manager and in Community Relations. Gladys received her Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Binghamton University in 1993 and has 15 years of experience in project and operations management. [top]
Vicky Garcia
Vicky is the Vice President of Operations of the Latino Community Credit Union where she manages the lending program, participates in product development and operations, and also serves as the compliance officer. Vicky has served various capacities as both staff and as a volunteer since 2001, and she has served as manager of the LCCU’s flagship branch in Durham. Prior to that, she served as a volunteer loan officer and member of the credit committee. Ms. Garcia joined the Credit Union after 8 years in corporate relationship management and risk analysis in Citibank Colombia in the global and top tier local corporate business. She has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia and an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [top]
Donna Gallagher
Donna Gallagher is the Executive Director of the IDA and Asset-Building Collaborative of North Carolina, a statewide agency whose mission is to build assets among North Carolina’s low income residents through a variety of policy and practice strategies. Upon completion of a business degree from Auburn University, she worked as a banker for 15 years, and is a Certified Public Accountant (state of Georgia). As an advocate for the needs of low income, at risk families for over 20 years, she has been involved in a variety of public policy coalitions, including advocacy in children’s health, foster care, substance abuse services focusing on the special needs of girls and women, and juvenile justice.
Since her transition from banking in 1993, she has held executive positions in both affordable housing and statewide child welfare agencies, and served most recently as the President and CEO of a statewide, multi-site juvenile justice agency, serving 850 adolescents each day. In 2008, she was a speaker for the Women’s Leadership Institute at Auburn University, and was honored later that year as one of 40 outstanding graduates of the College of Business, marking the College’s 40th anniversary. She and her husband are the proud parents of two grown sons. [top]
Ralph Gildehaus
Ralph Gildehaus is a Senior Fellow with MDC, Inc., a 40-year old nonprofit organization based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He leads the Work Supports Initiative, a national effort managed by MDC to connect modest-income Americans with work supports using a Web-based service called The Benefit Bank.® These tax credits, public benefits, and other forms of assistance help families and communities gain greater economic security. The supports increase employment, education levels, and welfare-to-work success rates, and reduce poverty, hunger, homelessness, and recidivism. The Work Supports Initiative, through state-level affiliates, helps families claim more of the over $39 billion in work supports that are unclaimed every year by eligible Americans who do not apply.
Previously, Ralph served as the Director of The Ohio Benefit Bank (OBB) in the Governor's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which sponsors the OBB under a grant agreement with a state-level affiliate called the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. According to a report completed by Ohio University, the Ohio Benefit Bank in just its first two years of operations generated economic impacts exceeding $60 million - consisting of more than $38 million in tax credits and public benefits, over $25 million in multiplier effects, $2.5 million in new state and local tax revenue, and 450 new jobs. See www.mdcinc.org/docs/OU-Report.pdf.
The OBB has grown to include over 1,100 sites and over 4,000 counselors spanning all of Ohio's 88 counties, who have served more than 79,000 Ohioans and helped people claim nearly $134 million in work supports during less than three years of operations.
Prior to joining Governor Strickland's staff, Ralph was a litigation partner with Porter Wright Morris and Arthur LLP. He graduated from Amherst College in 1983 with a degree in political science, served as a Legislative Assistant for Congressman Bob Edgar, graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1990, and served as a Law Clerk for Judge Lawrence Margolis, U.S. Court of Federal Claims. He is a graduate of Leadership Columbus, an Ohio State Bar Foundation Fellow, and a 40 Under 40 Award recipient, and he served for six years on the Board of Trustees of Neighborhood House, Inc., a settlement house in Columbus. He married to his law school sweetheart, and they enjoy two children. [top]
Greg Gonthier
Greg Gonthier holds a BA in Sociology, Master of Public Administration (MPA) and is currently working towards an MA in Liberal Studies (MALS) at UNCW. Greg was a Team Leader and Sergeant with the 82nd Airborne Infantry. He has worked in direct services and water therapy for individuals with disabilities as well as mentoring adolescents at risk. Gonthier has been a Community Work Incentive Coordinator for Easter Seals UCP, NC since 2001, where he currently serves at the Easter Seals Headquarters on the Workforce Development Leadership Team. He has also served UCP Headquarters as the Ticket to Work Project Team Leader.
Gonthier is a co-founder of the Cape Fear Asset Building Coalition and his professional interests include developing economic self-sufficiency, financial literacy, asset building, economics, collaborations, building social capital, facilitating meetings, housing, employment, systems change, program development and entrepreneurship. He is a grateful husband and Father of 3 young boys. [top]
Lucy Gorham
Lucy Gorham is Senior Program Director at MDC where she heads up MDC's work on the North Carolina Assets Alliance, the EITC Carolinas Initiative, and the Assets for Persons with Disabilities Project. In previous work, Lucy conducted studies on home mortgage foreclosure prevention programs and on Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) while at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) at UNC Chapel Hill. She worked with the North Carolina Governor’s Rural Prosperity Task Force, and held staff positions on two committees of the U.S. Congress. She currently serves on the executive committee of the National Community Tax Coalition, on the boards of the IDA and Asset Building Collaborative of NC and the Center for Economic Justice in Austin, Texas, and on the advisory committee of the Joint Center’s project on asset building in low-income communities of color. [top]
Michal Grinstein-Weiss
Michal Grinstein-Weiss is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Social Work. She received a Ph.D. in Social Work at George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, Grinstein-Weiss holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Before coming to North Carolina, Grinstein-Weiss was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis where she conducted research on the American Dream Demonstration. Grinstein-Weiss has written numerous scholarly research articles on IDAs, including publications in Social Service Review, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Children and Youth Services Review, Journal of Income Distribution as well as other prominent research journals. Her research on IDAs has been supported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the research centers of several universities, and several philanthropic foundations. Grinstein-Weiss is an investigator on a large research project, “Testing Long-Term Impacts of Individual Development Account and Asset Building on Social and Economic Well-Being,” which is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, FB Heron Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation and the National Poverty Center. [top]
William Hawn
William Hawn is the Center for Southern University Social Research’s Coordinator of Operations where he manages community economic development and revitalization programs. Mr. Hawn was a member of the planning team for the national Path to Financial Independence and the Statewide Individual Development Account Programs and is the Center’s coordinator for the development of the Louisiana IDA Coalition. Additionally, he has developed and implemented a multi-stage program of training, individual coaching, mentoring and providing resources to assist low-to-moderate income persons become entrepreneurs and is leading the Center’s development of the Statewide IDA for Micro-Enterprise activity. Mr. Hawn’s previous programs included public involvement in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Atchafalaya Basin Water Management Unit project, development of the Southern University Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan and Housing and Urban Development housing and community improvement programs. [top]
Tami Hinton
Tami Hinton is the Director of the Consumer Affairs Division for the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks (NCCOB) where she began her career in 1987. She is the agency’s point person for community outreach. She also represents the agency on various task forces and working groups and is the State Home Foreclosure Prevention Project (SHFPP) primary contact for Connectinc. and counseling agency partners. She is also the agency’s Bank On North Carolina contact. Tami is a graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting and is a Certified Public Manager. Tami is happily married with two beautiful children, Morgan and Christopher. [top]
Savi Horne
Savi Horne is Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, which was founded in 1984. The Land Loss Prevention Project is a non-profit, public interest law firm with an overarching mission of providing legal expertise, community education, and advocacy skills to help farmers and rural landowners who face legal, economic, and environmental challenges. The Land Loss Prevention Project is a founding partner of the Black Family Land Trust (BFLT). The BFLT mission is to protect Black-owned land in the southern United States through employment of land conservation and community development tools. Savi serves on several national sustainable agriculture and family farm boards, such as, National Family Farm Coalition, and the Rural Coalition. As a state, regional and national non-governmental organization leader, she has been instrumental in addressing the needs of small, socially-disadvantage farmers and rural communities. [top]
Elizabeth Jennings
Elizabeth Jennings is a Program Associate with The Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University and National Disability Institute in Washington, DC. Her varied experience includes spearheading a recent Asset Development initiative in Florida, creating collaborative agreements, building partnerships and executing grant allocations, assisting individuals in understanding the effect of work on Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits, training individuals with disabilities on employability skills and assisting individuals in obtaining supported and competitive employment.
Elizabeth currently works on asset building strategies for individuals with disabilities throughout the State of New York under New York's Medicaid Infrastructure Grant, provides training on the impact of work on Social Security benefits under Florida's Medicaid Infrastructure Grant and provides technical assistance to states who have been awarded grants under the Department of Labor's, Disability Program Navigator Initiative and would like to become an Employment Network with the Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work program. [top]
Barbara Johnson
Barbara Johnson serves as the IDA Program Director of Experiment in Self-Reliance, Inc.
Barbara has worked for non-profit organizations for over ten years and has a strong background in management, financial literacy, and customer service.
Having been a participant in an IDA program (in 2000) herself Barbara realized the value of a structured path to homeownership and vowed to make it available to all who wanted to become homeowners. In 2002 Barbara became a Success Coach with the IDA Program at ESR, Inc. In 2004 she became the Director of that IDA Program.
She is also an advocate for low wealth families speaking to many Department of Social Services and working homeless customers on how they can achieve financial self-sufficiency. As a financial literacy instructor she talks to community leaders, non-profit boards, and government agencies about the long-term value of financial literacy education. [top]
Lissa Johnson
Lissa Johnson is Administrative Director at the Center for Social Development, responsible for managing the Center’s finances and operations. She also manages research projects in the areas of asset-building and civic service. Ms. Johnson is currently involved in designing a research study of youth savings accounts in four countries and recently completed a study of a school-based children’s savings program which was part of the SEED nationwide children and youth savings policy and practice initiative. Her focus is on the concept of financial capability, providing both financial education and beneficial financial services for young people. Ms. Johnson has been project director for the American Dream Policy Demonstration since its inception in 1997, and led the design of the management information system for individual development accounts (MIS IDA). In the area of civic service, Ms. Johnson managed a twelve-country cross-sectional research study on youth volunteerism and civic service in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ms. Johnson holds a BA in English literature from Kenyon College and an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis. [top]
Mary Joseph
Mary Joseph is Program Manager for the Individual Development Asset (IDA) Program at Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She received her Bachelor of Science and Master’s degree in Sociology from Southern University, Baton Rouge. Her thesis research project was entitled, “The Impact of a Violence Prevention Program on Black Adolescents”. She has extensive experience in community service serving as Director, Family and Community Violence Prevention Program for five years and as a Violence Prevention Specialist for seven years at Southern University’s Baton Rouge’s campus. She is certified as a affordable housing finance, foreclosure mitigation, conflict resolution mediation and hate crime prevention counselor. Ms. Joseph is a member of the Capital Area Asset Coalition. [top]
Rick Kaglic
Rick Kaglic is the Regional Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond serving the Carolinas. He joined the Research Department in 2009 and is responsible for analyzing regional economic conditions and developments, as well as educating the region's diverse constituents on the role of the Federal Reserve and its District Banks.
Prior to joining the Richmond Fed, Rick served as a Senior Economist for Eaton Corporation, a diversified manufacturing firm headquartered in Cleveland, OH. There Rick provided analysis on the global economy as well as forecasts for Eaton's capital equipment and aerospace end markets. Rick was also Chief Economist for the Washington State Employment Security Department and spent eleven years as Senior Business Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In Chicago, he monitored current economic conditions and developments in the region and wrote the District's widely disseminated Beige Book contribution.
Rick has served in leadership roles in the Chicago and Cleveland Associations for Business Economics and provided economic analysis for Governor's Economic Advisory Councils in four states. He completed both his undergraduate and graduate work at Youngstown State University with specializations in regional and urban economics. [top]
Clinton Key
Clinton Key is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at UNC. He works as a Research Associate in the School of Social Work studying asset building. [top]
Dan Kornelis
Dan serves as the Housing Director for Forsyth County, North Carolina and has held this position since 1988. Prior to his employment with the County, he was employed as the Community and Economic Development Director for the Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments. Dan graduated with a Masters Degree in Community and Regional Planning from North Dakota State University in 1982. Dan has a broad range of housing and community development experience. He is a licensed REALTOR, a residential and commercial appraiser trainer and performs real estate market analysis studies. Dan has provided training and consultation services for many local governments and non-profits throughout the United States. Dan has great experience in helping organizations establish IDA programs and developing productive first time homebuyer assistance projects. Forsyth County, led by Dan’s efforts, is a member of the Forsyth County New Century IDA Consortium and works with the IDA families to help purchase their first homes. The New Century IDA program has provided first time home buyer opportunities for about 275 families in Forsyth County. Dan serves as the Board Past President for Consumer Credit Counseling Services of W-S, the Center for Homeownership, Vienna Elementary PTA and Ronald W. Reagan High School PTSA. He also proudly serves as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina IDA and Asset Building Collaborative. Dan, a native of Winston-Salem, is married to a teacher, has two daughters, age19 and 11 and lives in Pfafftown North Carolina, a suburb of Winston-Salem. [top]
Christopher Kukla
Christopher Kukla is Senior Counsel for Government Affairs at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) in Durham, North Carolina. The Center is a nonpartisan, non-profit policy and research affiliate of Self-Help, a community development lender that has provided more than $5 billion in financing to homeowners, small businesses, and non-profit organizations nationwide.
Chris has been with CRL since 2002, and is primarily responsible for representing CRL in the North Carolina General Assembly. Chris also works with lawmakers and advocates in other states on consumer lending legislation. He received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School, and received his B.A. in Political Science with honors from Alma College in Alma, Michigan. Prior to joining the Center, Chris worked for five years on Capitol Hill, most recently as Appropriations Associate and Counsel to U.S. Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York. [top]
Joanna LeClair
Joanna LeClair is a Vice President with the Social Responsibility Group for Wachovia, a Wells Fargo Company. She joined Wachovia in October 1989 and has held a number of positions in the retail bank and within community relations. Joanna has been in her current position, providing community development expertise since 2003 and covers Central North Carolina which includes the Triangle Area and the Piedmont Triad Region with all areas in between. In this role, she assists nonprofits in accessing the services of the bank. Much of her early experience with the bank was spent in the areas of residential mortgage lending and compliance in coastal South Carolina. Joanna holds an Honors B.A. in Linguistics from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec and a B.Ed. from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. She remains passionate about education with a special attraction to financial education, often serving as an instructor for homebuyer education sessions in the community.
Joanna is committed to community involvement and serves on the boards of several nonprofits in the state of North Carolina. She is the current chairperson of the board for The Association of Housing Counselors, a two-state organization that provides training and certification for housing counselors in North and South Carolina. As a member of the board of directors for the North Carolina Housing Coalition, Joanna lends her support to housing advocacy efforts for lower-income families who are some of the most vulnerable members of our community. She serves as a board member for Homes4NC, the nonprofit Realtor Housing Opportunity Foundation headquartered in Greensboro, which funds affordable housing development in partnership with local Realtors’ Associations across NC. As a board member for the Raleigh Area Development Authority, Joanna heads up the Homeownership Committee and learns of new ideas designed to promote economic development in the greater Raleigh area. She has remained true to her belief in the importance of financial literacy through her activities with NC Action for Children’s Trust Fund Initiative and the Triangle United Way’s Financial Stability Task Force, two efforts that rely upon a financial education component to succeed.
Happily married to her husband, Tom, Joanna is, first and foremost, a mother. She works very hard to avoid hovering over her two grown children who are still attempting to launch. [top]
Rich Lee
Rich Lee is the Foreclosure Prevention Team Leader at the N.C. Housing Finance Agency, a self-supporting public agency. As Team Leader, he helps manage the Agency's two foreclosure prevention programs: the Home Protection Program & Loan Fund (HPP) and the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program (NFMCP). Prior to joining the agency in August 2008, he served as Executive Director of the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition for eight years and he has more than twenty five years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. Rich also has a Masters in City & Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (May 1990) and a Bachelors of Arts in Public Policy from Duke University (May 1979). [top]
Lauren Leimbach
Lauren Leimbach, Executive Director of Community Financial Resources (CFR), spent over 20 years in the financial services industry working for Bank of America, the Federal Reserve, and Providian Financial. She has a wide-ranging background in new financial product/service development, automation and payment systems, marketing strategy, operational implementation, production management, and organizational planning. Under her direction, CFR works with community organizations, social service agencies, and unions to improve the access of low-to-moderate income households to consumer-friendly financial products—including a low-cost prepaid debit card, credit builder products, and alternatives to payday lending. CFR also provides consulting support on management tools, program implementation and organizational development strategies to non-profit organizations. Lauren has a BA in Economics and an MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan. [top]
Mark Lindblad
Mark Lindblad directs the UNC-Center for Community Capital's research program and manages a panel study evaluation of an affordable secondary mortgage market initiative. The longitudinal study examines the financial and social impacts of homeownership among low-income borrowers and a comparison group of renters. Mark Lindblad's research interests include economic and community development, social capital, housing and financial literacy. Mark Lindblad holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and brings
extensive experience in data collection, project management, research methods, and statistical programming and analysis. [top]
Kenneth Long
Kenneth Long joined Fiscal Progress in 2003, and has since guided the non-profit into a full-service community minded organization. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. Kenneth originally received the Certified Credit Counselor designation through the National Institute for Financial Education, and has achieved the Accredited Financial Counselor certification through the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. Kenneth is currently serving as Regional Coordinator for the NC Saves campaign, representing nonprofit groups, volunteers and savers in the 14 counties that make up the North Central Region. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for Vision Credit Education, Inc., a non-profit organization that counsels financially distressed consumers. [top]
Susan Lupton
Susan Lupton is Senior Policy Associate with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a non-profit research and policy organization focusing on eliminating predatory lending abuses. The Center is an affiliate of Self-Help, one of the nation’s largest community development financial institutions, headquartered in Durham, NC.
Susan also serves as Project Director for the NC Coalition for Responsible Lending. This Coalition, which includes over 200 organizations, representing over 3 million North Carolinians, has worked for 10 years to help pass state legislation to restrict predatory mortgage lending, to license and regulate mortgage brokers, to eliminate predatory payday lending, and to protect the usury caps on consumer loans in North Carolina.
Before coming to Self-Help, Susan worked in private health consulting, state government, and for many years served as co-director of NCOSH, the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Project. She has a Masters in City and Regional Planning, UNC-Chapel Hill. [top]
Kim Manturuk
Kim Manturuk holds a PhD in sociology and is a Research Associate at the Center for Community Capital, a research institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines social networks, social capital, and civic engagement with a focus on urban communities. She has published several papers on political opinion formation and political engagement within poor urban and rural communities, and she is currently writing a book on the social impacts of homeownership in low-income urban neighborhoods. [top]
Mark McDaniel
Mark McDaniel is Senior Research Associate with the Center for Community Capital. He consults with foundations, policymakers and others on strategies that help connect low-income populations to economic opportunities. These strategies include connecting neighborhoods to regional workforce opportunities, connecting the unbanked and underbanked to financial services and leveraging investment in low-income areas for housing, community facilities and other economic development opportunities.
McDaniel brings a diverse set of experience in conceptualizing, designing and implementing initiatives intended to improve the socioeconomic outcomes of low-income residents and the neighborhoods in which they reside. McDaniel has particular interest in the economic challenges and pathways to opportunity taken by different subpopulations, including students, residents of public housing, youth and the formerly incarcerated. [top]
Dr. Gwendolyn McFadden-Wade
Dr. Gwendolyn McFadden-Wade earned her JD from Stetson University, St. Petersburg, Florida and is an Associate Professor in the School of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University. She is the lead for North Carolina A&T State University in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation funded collaboration among seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities working to link Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, Earned Income Tax Credit, Individual Development Accounts and Financial Education. Dr McFadden-Wade teaches numerous senior level courses and has articles on tax topics and HBCU activities published in numerous journals. In addition to her demanding professional endeavors, she remains active in her community through volunteer work and supporting programs aimed at improving the quality of lives of residents. [top]
John Meeks
John Meeks is a Community Affairs Specialist for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and as part of the FDIC’s Atlanta Region is responsible for FDIC Community Affairs activities in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Prior to becoming a part of Community Affairs, John’s FDIC experience includes bank closure and asset liquidation functions in Knoxville, TN and East Hartford, CT, and he was a bank Compliance Examiner in Holyoke, MA. John is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Charlotte and of North Carolina Central School of Law.
John is involved with local, state, regional and national initiatives that include asset building, including personal financial education, affordable housing, predatory lending, VITA/EITC, small business creation and ID theft. [top]
Tina Morris-Anderson
Tina Morris-Anderson's professional career encompasses over 20 years of experience in the areas of public policy and community development. Her work experience includes the State of North Carolina, the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development, the Office of U. S. Representative David Price, and First Citizens Bank. She currently serves as Director of Research and Policy for the North Carolina Department of Labor. She is responsible for oversight of the department's Individual Development Account (IDA) Program, which includes the provision of training and technical assistance for local IDA programs. Tina received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University, where she also later received a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy and a Masters in Business Administration. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Public Administration at North Carolina State University. [top]
Keir Morton
Keir’s professional experience in housing and community development has involved both private and public sector work since 1994. Keir is a Program Development Officer with the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, a self-supporting state agency whose mission is to create affordable housing opportunities for North Carolinians whose needs are not met by the market. Keir has worked with the Agency since 1998 and has focused on housing policy, program development, and other special projects, including developing the Home Protection Pilot Program. Though Keir currently coordinates the IDA Loan Pool at NCHFA, her work with IDAs began in 1996. Often called on to serve as a trainer and presenter, Keir is well-versed in housing policy and community development principles, has experience in legislative outreach and providing technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, and has worked with various workgroups and collaboratives focusing on emerging issues and programs. Keir was appointed to the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Rural Center and served from 2007 through 2009, currently serves as a board member of the Association of Housing Counselors, and takes part in meetings of the NC Assets Alliance. Keir received a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1994 and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004. [top]
Rebekah O’Connell
Rebekah O’Connell is an individual financial counselor and coordinates community education for Triangle Family Services, one of the Triangle’s oldest non-profit agencies. She is a nationally Certified Consumer Credit Counselor as well as a Certified Housing Counselor. Ms. O’Connell has facilitated over 200 seminars to industries, community groups, non-profits and government agencies. She has made numerous television appearances and has contributed to articles in news papers and magazines both local and nation wide. [top]
Louis Perwein
Louis Perwien graduated from the University of Chicago in 2003 and spent the following years pursing a variety of positions in the social sector, including human rights work in Mexico and work at a homeless shelter. Louis entered Business School at the University of North Carolina in the fall of 2007 and his interest in community development finance led him to seek out an independent study with UNC’s Center for Community Capital, There he did research on the effect of government mortgage modification plans on mortgage backed security holders and interactions between mortgage services and distressed borrowers. [top]
Mary Quinn
Mary Quinn has been the Director of CharlotteSaves for 5 years and has been instrumental in quadrupling Saver enrollment. By partnering with more than 30 non-profits churches and employers, CharlotteSaves is the second largest city-wide Saves campaign in the United States.
Before her work with Saves, Mrs. Quinn was the Allocations/Volunteer Center Director for the United Way of Anderson County in Anderson, SC. She managed hundreds of volunteers a year through the fund distribution process, community events and projects.
She was also a full-time volunteer through Americorps for two years; one year in Wilmington, DE and one year in Anderson, SC. Her diverse work included; women's prison ministry, Habitat for Humanity, serving at the local soup kitchen, pharmacy tech at the Anderson Free Clinic and an aide at an inner city school. [top]
Iman-N-Lah S. Rasheed
Iman-N-Lah S. Rasheed is the Credit Analyst/College Coordinator within the Education & Training Department of The North Carolina Institute For Minority Economic Development. She manages the consumer initiative and higher education initiative by providing direct credit technical assistance to clients. Ms. Rasheed has been employed with the organization since 2004.
Ms. Rasheed is certified in the Fast Track Curriculum, and First Step Funds Child Care Curriculum, programs of the Kauffman Foundation. She is a certified wealth coach for NC Saves, a statewide program to increase wealth through savings, and with NC Real Enterprises.
She is a graduate of North Carolina A & T State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism & Mass Communication with a concentration in Broadcast Production. [top]
Christina Rausch
Christina Rausch is a Program Manager at MDC, Inc., a nonprofit based in Chapel Hill that helps communities in the South close gaps that separate people from opportunity. She leads several projects related to community and economic development and building assets in low-income communities. Her main interest is innovative ways to increase wealth in disinvested communities.
Since 2002, she has led a federal initiative to the state of North Carolina to translate research into practice, launched a management consulting business, and worked in community planning at the United Way of Greater Greensboro.
Christina received her master’s degree in community planning and management social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is completing a certificate in Community and Economic Development from NeighborWorks. [top]
Carolina Reid, Ph.D.
Carolina is the Manager, Research Group, Community Development for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She joined the Community Affairs Department in March of 2005, where she conducts community development research and policy analysis, with a special focus on asset building and housing issues. Most recently she has been researching the impact of the foreclosure crisis on low-income and minority households. Carolina earned her PhD in 2004 from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her dissertation focused on the benefits of homeownership for low-income and minority families, using quantitative longitudinal analysis and interviews to assess the impacts of homeownership on a family's financial well-being over time. Before joining the Fed, Carolina was based in Penang, Malaysia, for three years with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, spearheading an international initiative to incorporate community knowledge, values, and priorities into international environmental agreements. Other work experience includes policy research and program evaluation at the Environmental Health and Social Policy Center in Seattle, where she worked on issues of public housing and welfare reform, and at World Resources Institute, where she focused on issues of urban environmental health and environmental justice. [top]
Harvey Reid
In 1996 Harvey Reid moved out of public housing and off of welfare to become a homeowner and establish H.R. Consulting Business that teaches others how they can achieve the same goal. His experience with moving from public housing to section 8 to renting and now owning his own home has proven to be valuable as an instructor.
He has designed a household management tool called "The Household Budget Organizer and Record Keeper" used by many organizations in the State of North Carolina to help low income families track finances and move toward self sufficiency.
One of the goals for H.R. Consulting is to establish a state wide financial education program and collaborations with finance institutions, cooperative extension offices, community colleges, credit counseling agencies, department of social services, churches and employers to reach more customers with training.
He was recommended by the North Carolina State Chamber of Commerce as a financial Literacy Provider. He is a certified trainer for the FDIC Money Smart Education Program. H.R. Consulting has provided financial education to 10% of the counties in North Carolina for more than 10 years. [top]
Mark Rich
Mark Rich is the CRA Project Manager at Wachovia, a Wells Fargo Company. He provides executive leadership to the Community Development Group - CRA service programs with specific focus on Wachovia's financial literacy program. He has been with the company since 2005 and has over twelve years of relationship and project management, marketing, and consulting experience. Mark received his Bachelor degree in Business Administration from the University of North Texas. [top]
Carl Rist
Carl Rist is the Director of the SEED (Savings for Education, Entrepreneurship and Downpayments) Policy and Practice Initiative, a multi-year, multi-site demonstration of matched savings accounts for children and youth in low-income families. Previously, Mr. Rist was responsible for CFED’s efforts to support state-level policy and coalition-building initiatives designed to expand individual development accounts (IDA) programs. He led the development and design of the Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, a benchmarking tool that used 68 socioeconomic and policy measures to grade state performance on asset accumulation, distribution and protection. He is also the co-author of the IDA State Policy Guide, a guide for advancing public policies at the state level in support of IDA’s. Rist works with state task forces in both Delaware and Pennsylvania to develop recommendations for helping citizens, especially those with low incomes, to build and protect their assets. Rist also has served in an advisory capacity for a number of state-level IDA coalitions, including the North Carolina IDA and Asset-Building Collaborative, the Michigan IDA Partnership, the South Carolina IDA Collaborative and the Mid South IDA Initiative (Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi). Rist earned a M.A. in public policy from the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University and holds an undergraduate degree from Davidson College. [top]
Maria Del Pilar Rocha-Goldberga
Maria Del Pilar Rocha-Golberga is a native of Bogotá, Colombia and currently working as interim Executive Director at El Centro Hispano, Pilar has been a force in the Durham, NC Latino community. A nutritionist for 20+ years, she arrived to the United States in 2004 and immediately started working on programs helping Latinos. In collaboration with Duke University, Pilar implemented the DASH diet, which was developed by the Hypertension Center at Duke University, Department of Medicine, to the Latino hypertensive population. Then she translated the Duke Nutrition Program materials into Spanish, and more importantly, she tailored it in order to fit the Latino culture. Later on, Pilar developed and has lead PESA (Promoviendo Estado Saludable [Promoting Healthy State]), a program designed to help people to change their life style through proper nutrition and exercising. She currently trains the “health promoters” who in turn teach the program at El Centro Hispano. Pilar joined El Centro Hispano also in 2004 and has worked on many projects, namely: Café de Mujeres [Women Café], Hablemos de Nuestra Salud [Let’s Talk about Our Health], Jugando Seguro [Playing Safely] and Crianza con Cariño; as well as health fairs and other educational and informational programs. She has served as secretary, vice president and president of this organization’s board of directors. Because of her tireless effort and commitment, Pilar has been invited and participated in many forums, conventions and seminars.
She also has been published in Revista Colombiana de Neumología and Fondo Editorial Organización Sanitas Internacional and wrote several articles for the magazine "Bienestar". Pilar has been the nutrition consultant for different media outlets such as: "Caracol" radio and TV programs; RCN radio; TV program "TeleAmiga"; Radio program "Kennedy"; and magazine "En Forma". A wife and mother of two daughters, Pilar has a passion for folk dancing that she has passed on to her daughters. Through her passion for dancing, she created the Takiri dancing group in 2005 which now counts 20+ members with a mix of adults and children. The group has performed many times in different festivals and international events proudly representing Colombia. [top]
Dr. William M. Rohe
Dr. William M. Rohe is the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of City and Regional Planning and the Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Ph.D. and M.R.P from Penn State University. Rohe is co-author of several books including Planning with Neighborhoods (UNC Press), Sustainable Nonprofit Housing Developments (Fannie Mae Foundation) and Chasing the American Dream: New Perspectives on Affordable Homeownership (Cornell University Press). He has also authored or coauthored over 50 journal articles on the topics of housing and community development policy and practice. Dr. Rohe’s research has been supported by a variety of organizations including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Ford Foundation, and the Mac Arthur Foundation. [top]
Michael R. Roush
Michael R. Roush is a program associate with the National Disability Institute. Mr. Roush joined the NDI team in August of 2008 and is involved with the asset building projects in Florida including a new pilot project, Building Economic Strength Together (B.E.S.T.) Florida to increase the economic self-sufficiency of individuals with disabilities. Prior to joining the NDI team, Mr. Roush was a consultant with the University of South Florida's Center for Inclusive Communities and a Disability Program Navigator for WorkNet Pinellas with the Florida DPN Project. As a Disability Program Navigator, Mr. Roush worked with One Stop Center staff and community partners to incorporate the Money Smart Curriculum and asset building resources into their programs. Prior to his work in Florida, Mr. Roush served as the Director of the Learning Center for the George G. Glenner Family Centers in San Diego, California. Mr. Roush has created and implemented training curriculum for local, state, and national organizations. Mr. Roush has completed the required competency-based educational and assessment activities to be certified as a Community Work Incentives Coordinator within the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Initiative. Mr. Roush serves on the Board of Directors for the Florida Prosperity Partnership and oversees the Disability Subcommittee for FPP. Mr. Roush is the Chair of the Disability Workgroup for the Wealth Building Coalition/Prosperity Campaign in St. Petersburg, Florida and serves as the Chair of the Education and Training Committee for the City of St. Petersburg Mayor's Advisory Group for Persons with Disabilities. Mr. Roush has a Master of Arts degree in Human Behavior. [top]
Sorien K. Schmidt
Sorien K. Schmidt has been a non-profit attorney, lobbyist and advocate on behalf of children, families and the poor for the past 21 years. She currently runs her own consulting company where she helps non-profit organizations improve the lives of North Carolina’s children and families. Before this, Schmidt was the Senior Vice President at Action for Children North Carolina where she led their public policy advocacy work, and conducted research, policy analysis and convening of collaborators.
Previous to joining Action for Children, Sorien was the legislative director of the N.C. Justice Center, a private, nonprofit anti-poverty advocacy group. For 13 years at the Justice Center she conducted lobbying, policy analysis, public speaking, research and media relations regarding living wages, welfare reform, tax reform and other health and human services issues. She has participated in many successful public policy efforts including the increase in North Carolina’s minimum wage and the creation of the advocacy coalitions North Carolinians for Fair Wages and the Covenant with North Carolina’s Children. Sorien is the author of several reports, including Working Hard is Not Enough that found North Carolina families need over 200% of federal poverty level to survive and that nearly half of North Carolina families with children are not making this amount.
Before working at the Justice Center, Sorien practiced law for six years at Central Carolina Legal Services in Greensboro. She is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Law and has received the Gwyneth B. Davis Award from the N.C. Association of Women Attorneys, the Thomas Paine Award from the Common Sense Foundation and the Legal Services of North Carolina Julian T. Pierce Award for outstanding advocacy ensuring equal justice for all. [top]
Leslie Scott
Leslie A. Scott has been director of the Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship at the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center since early 2004. She directed the three-year Rural Entrepreneurship Development Systems project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and now directs its follow-up effort in two regions in eastern North Carolina. She is the Rural Center lead on the Growing America through Entrepreneurship (GATE) project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor for rural dislocated workers interested in self-employment. She is a frequent trainer and coach for community leaders in building local and regional support networks for their entrepreneurs at all levels. Ms. Scott also has research and evaluation experience in economic development from 13 years at RTI International and five years at the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an economics graduate of Colgate University and has a master’s in public administration from UNC-Chapel Hill. Ms. Scott serves on several boards including the N.C. Indian Economic Development Initiative. [top]
Alexandra Forter Sirota
Alexandra Forter Sirota serves as Director of Policy and Research at Action for Children North Carolina, having joined in November of 2007 as a Fellow in Economic Security. Alexandra oversees the organization's policy and data work, while focusing on strengthening the asset-building potential of children in families working below the poverty line in North Carolina. Before joining Action for Children, Alexandra worked as a Community Affairs Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She worked with partners in New York City and upstate New York to document conditions of concentrated poverty and develop plans for strategies that connected working families to the financial mainstream, work supports and asset-building opportunities. Alexandra has also worked to promote financial health at Toynbee Hall in London, England, on the Services Against Financial Exclusion (SAFE) program and at the Center for Financial Services Innovation in Chicago, IL. Earlier in her career, she served as the Community Relations Coordinator and Volunteer Services Coordinator for the Association House of Chicago, and as the International Relations Coordinator for ASAPROSAR in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Alexandra received a B.A. in Anthropology and Latin American/Iberian Studies from Haverford College in PA and a joint M.A. in International Relations and Public Policy from University of Chicago in IL. [top]
Peter Skillern
Peter Skillern is Executive Director of the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina. CRA-NC is a nonprofit agency whose mission is to promote and protect community wealth. The agency is responsible for over $40 billion in community lending commitments from financial institutions in North Carolina. Under the leadership of Mr. Skillern, CRA-NC has emerged as a national voice on the issue of predatory lending and the need for reforms in the subprime lending markets.
Mr. Skillern earned a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz with Highest Honors. He is co-author of the book Too Much Month at the End of the Paycheck – Payday Lending in North Carolina and author of the paper “How Payday Lenders Make Their Money”.
Skillern has 15 years in the field of housing and community development, having previously worked with the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, DC. He served eight years as Executive Director of the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition in Durham, North Carolina. He holds an active North Carolina Real Estate Broker’s license. Skillern is a founder and officer of the North Carolina Fair Housing Center. [top]
David Smith
David (Andy) Smith completed a Master of City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2009, specializing in the areas of housing and real estate development. While a student at UNC, Smith worked as a Research Assistant at the Center for Community Capital. In that role, he focused on homeownership and foreclosure issues, completing research projects on homebuyer education and counseling for NeighborWorks America, the role of foreclosure counselors in aiding delinquent borrowers, and the impacts of foreclosure on Latino families. He also compiled data on foreclosures for the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks. Prior to attending graduate school, Smith worked as a high school Spanish teacher in Baltimore through Teach For America. He is currently working as a Development Analyst with Enterprise Community Investment in Columbia, Maryland. [top]
Fred Ssewamala
Fred Ssewamala is an Associate Professor of Social Work and International Affairs at Columbia University School of Social Work; a Global Thought Fellow with Columbia University; and a Senior Research Fellow with New America Foundation. Fred has several years of practice in the International Social Development field. His practice experience includes serving at the Red Cross (Uganda), where he acted in several programmatic positions related to designing projects and programs for poverty alleviation and community development, and at Justine Petersen Housing and Reinvestment Corporation a 501(c) (3) Missouri (USA) not-for-profit corporation that assists low-to-moderate income individuals and families become homeowners, access financial institutions, start their own micro-businesses, and accumulate assets.
His current research on Africa is funded by a consortium of organizations, including the National Institute of Health, and New America Foundation. This research focuses on asset-ownership development and creating life options through economic empowerment models for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Ssewamala is also currently researching the acceptability and feasibility of economic empowerment interventions in poor African immigrant communities in the urban U.S. His work on asset-development in sub-Saharan Africa has appeared in top-tier journals such as American Journal of Public Health; Social Science and Medicine; Social Service Review; Journal of Adolescent Health. [top]
Nancy Stark
Nancy Stark is Director of Field Development at CFED. She manages CFED’s field work to promote and support individual asset-building (e.g., IDAs and other matched savings accounts) and community economic development (e.g., business incentive reform, rural and native entrepreneurship, self-employment tax assistance). Nancy has a long tenure in economic and enterprise development, especially initiatives in rural regions and with local and state officials. Prior to CFED, she directed the Rural Governance Initiative, a research and best practices program of the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), and led the National Center for Small Communities’ research, training and technical assistance programs. Her other work experiences include The Aspen Institute, International City/County Management Association, and a community-based disability rights organization. Nancy holds a M.S. in Public Financial Management from American University and a B.S. in Community Organization and Public Policy from Cornell University. [top]
Paul Stock
Mr. Stock is Executive Vice President & Counsel of the North Carolina Bankers Association, a position he has held for 30 years. Prior to that, he served for five years as Committee Counsel on the General Research Staff of the North Carolina General Assembly. He graduated from Duke University in 1971 with an A.B. Degree in Political Science and received his J.D. Degree, with Honors, from the UNC School of Law in 1974. Mr. Stock lives in Raleigh with his wife, Connie, and their daughter, Ashley. [top]
Emila Sutton
Emila Sutton is the Program and Policy Associate at the IDA and Asset Building Collaborative of NC. Emila moved to North Carolina from Tucson, Arizona this past December where she served as the Co-Chair of Governor Napolitano’s EITC Task Force and also worked as the Financial Stability Program Manager at the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. Emila started working in asset building programs in 2006, as an AmeriCorps*VISTA where she managed the Financial Education and VITA programs for Catholic Community Services, but her passion for asset building began in 2001 when she interned in Senator Kennedy's Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions subcommittee office. Emila holds an M.A. in history from James Madison University. [top]
Andréa Taylor
Andréa Taylor is the Asset Building Research Coordinator at the School of Social Work at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill, she served as a policy analyst for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her research interests in asset building focus on social and health impacts of IDAs and other asset-building programs. She holds an M.A. in social service administration from the University of Chicago. [top]
Dr. Alma Thorton
Dr. Alma Thornton is Director of the Southern University Center for Social Research and Professor of Sociology. As the Program Administrator for the Statewide IDA Program and the collaboration of seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities Path to Financial Independence program, she leads efforts to improve financial literacy and personal assets of low-income, working families residing in geographical areas from Washington, DC to New Orleans, Louisiana. Her innovative concepts have been essential to the growth of the Statewide IDA program resulting in more than 1100 applicants and almost 200 homes purchased by low-income working families during the approximate 2 ½ years of program operation. Similarly, her leadership resulted in the expansion of the Statewide IDA program into funding for secondary education and the plan by State Program leadership to incorporate matched savings for micro-enterprises. In addition to the IDA and Path to Financial Independence programs, Dr. Thornton administers numerous Housing and Urban Development, National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and Department of Education programs to improve the quality of life for low-to-moderate income individuals and families. [top]
Mike Tucker
Mike Tucker is a small business owner, entrepreneur, and business consultant. As Director of the Small Business Center at Mitchell Community College for the past ten years, he has counseled with hundreds of clients in helping them to succeed in starting and growing their businesses.
He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees and has completed all levels of the statewide Small Business Center Network Credentialing Program. Mike's additional studies include: training at the Economic Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill; the Energizing Entrepreneurship Program offered by the NC Rural Center; and numerous classes on entrepreneurship and business development. Mike has a keen interest in finances, real estate and stock market investing, and current events. In his free time, he can be found on the tennis court. [top]
Carol Wayman
Carol Wayman is the Federal Policy Director of CFED. She leads CFED's federal policy efforts to expand economic opportunity through federal legislative and regulatory research and advocacy. Carol has designed and promoted legislation to expand matched savings accounts through enactment of an Individual Development Account tax credit, refundable Saver's Credit and reauthorization of the Assets for Independence Act. Recent successes include asset limit reform in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (previously Food Stamps) which now exempts savings in IRAs, 529s, and Coverdells from asset limit tests. She worked to enact the Beginning Farmer and Rancher IDA program in the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007. Her efforts resulted in renewed funding for Individual Development Accounts at the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She was also active in the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 which resulted in access to Federal Home Loan Bank advances for Community Development Financial Institutions, maintained and strengthened community interest directors on the boards of the Federal Home Loan Bank, preserved the Affordable Housing Program's homeownership program, and other affordable housing and community economic development investments. In the past year, she has spoken on asset policy in front of Congress, Italy, Israel and state assets conferences. [top]
Reeta Wolfson
Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW, is the founder of the Financial Social Work discipline and Femonomics. She is a certified social worker, therapist, author and motivational speaker on the topic of money from a psycho-social perspective.
The Center for Financial Social Work offers certification for social workers and for non-social workers, along with other psychosocially based programs and products specifically designed to create sustainable, long-term financial behavioral change. In 2007, Wolfson was named A Diamond Award winner for Outstanding Achievement for Women in Business and consulted to create the first Financial Social Work position in NC with the Department of Social Services. In 2008, Reeta was appointed by the Governor of North Carolina to the Board of the NC Women’s Council and was a National Foundation of Credit Counselors PACE judge. This year, Reeta taught the first graduate level Financial Social Work class at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, brought Financial Social Work to the University of Missouri, will teach at Rutgers University in October, will collaborate with a UNC Chapel Hill professor in the social work department to research the Financial Social Work model, is creating the second Financial Social Work position in NC, and will keynote, train and teach at numerous national and state conferences from North Carolina to Montana. [top]
Beadsie Woo
Beadsie Woo is a Senior Associate in the Family Economic Success unit of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She works on asset development and protection issues and policies, including those related to retirement and foreclosure, as well as economic development and workforce development. She leads work related to work-family policies including paid sick days and paid family and medical leave insurance. She holds an AB in Economics from Davidson College, a Master of Public Policy from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University, and earned her Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Economics from the University of North Carolina. [top]