Speakers

Oliver Baines is a 27-year resident of Fresno, California, with an extensive record of community service. His professional career began in law enforcement as a police officer for the Fresno Police Department. During his 11 years as a Fresno police officer, he was a highly decorated officer, receiving two Life Saving Medals, 2008 Officer of The Year recognition, Chief’s Commendations, and multiple Peer Commendations. Baines’ experience in community policing caused him to run and become a council member for the City of Fresno. During this time as a councilmember, he was active in many programs addressing the economic, social, and environmental problems afflicting Fresno, including Workforce Investment Board, the Fresno Works, the San Joaquin Valley Air Board District, the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Fresno, along with numerous community-based programs. 

Baines also became involved in workforce development programs and was the founder of Valley Apprenticeship Connections (VAC), a workforce development program that focuses on preparing young men and women from the hardest neighborhoods to serve populations in the Fresno region for a career in the construction trades. Since 2016, the VAC has enrolled 628 students and 425 completed the program. Of the 347 who gained employment their wages average $21.50/hour. 
In 2020, the City of Fresno named Baines to lead the commission on police reform. As commissioner, he worked with city leaders and activists to develop new policies addressing needed change in city policing and is now a member of the implementation board. Baines was a board member of CVNMTC for nine years. During his time on the board, he was actively involved in sourcing investments and was involved in the board approval process for CVNMTC’s investments. After retiring from life as a city council member, he transitioned to CVNMTCS's President/CEO in 2019.

Sandra M. Moore is managing director and chief impact officer at Advantage Capital, a growth equity firm founded in 1992 with more than $3.6 billion AUM.  Moore is a member of the Advantage Capital investment committee and a direct advisor to the diligence and structuring teams. Moore is also a member of the Advantage Capital fundraising team, which has brought in $225 million in capital during her four-year tenure. She has built the Advantage Capital Impact team, which creates data-driven initiatives to track and expedite portfolio growth, leads the communications and branding team and serves as the external-facing representative for Advantage Capital. Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Moore was the president of Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit corporation that works exclusively with for profit housing developers to rebuild distressed urban core communities using mix-finance, multi-family housing as the revitalization platform. Moore formerly served as the CEO of the Missouri Family Investment Trust, a public-private partnership entity leading Missouri’s multi-system reform efforts. Prior to joining the Family Investment Trust, Moore was senior vice president of St. Louis 2004 Inc., a region-wide effort, led by business, civic and political leaders, to transform the St. Louis regional economy and gear it for exponential growth in the 21st century.

She is the former director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR), where she served as a member of then Governor Mel Carnahan’s cabinet, and a former administrative judge with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Moore is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. She received her J.D. from the School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from the College of Arts and Sciences. She serves on several local and national boards and committees that work to strengthen the fiber of community, and she is a sought-after speaker and thought
leader on these issues.      

Michael Novogradac is the managing partner of Novogradac, which has been in business since 1989. He specializes in affordable housing, community development, historic preservation and renewable energy. Mr. Novogradac’s focus is in real estate taxation and accounting. He is the author of numerous real estate-related tax and accounting articles and books, including the Novogradac Opportunity Zones Handbook, the New Markets Tax Credit Handbook and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Handbook. A frequent speaker at tax incentive conferences and forums throughout the country, Mr. Novogradac also broadcasts a weekly podcast, Tax Credit Tuesday. As a leading industry expert, he is frequently quoted in national media, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNBC News, NBC News, National Public Radio and Crain’s New York Business.  Mr. Novogradac is active in advocating for the inclusion of affordable housing, historic preservation, community development and renewable energy incentives in federal and state tax policy, and serves as advisor on industry and governmental affairs for the NMTC Working Group, LIHTC Working Group and the Opportunity Zones Working Group. Mr. Novogradac provides input to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and other federal and state agencies as well as members of Congress, including testimony before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Novogradac also serves on the executive committee of the Housing Advisory Group and the boards of directors of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, the National Housing Conference, the NMTC Coalition and Historic Tax Credit Coalition. In 2016, Mr. Novogradac was inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame. He also received The Affordable Housing Visionary Award from The NHP Foundation in 2018, in recognition of his contributions to the affordable housing community and in 2020 was honored as one of the top 25 OZ Influencers through Opportunity Zone Magazine. Mr. Novogradac graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He is licensed in California, Oregon, Maryland and Texas as a certified public accountant. You can follow Mr. Novogradac on twitter @novogradac and on his blog at www.novoco.com/blog or listen to his weekly podcast at www.novoco.com/podcast.

Christopher Allison is the program manager for the new markets tax credit (NMTC) program at the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. Mr. Allison previously served as associate program manager for the NMTC program. He oversaw the development of NMTC application materials, led the implementation of the NMTC evaluation process in the CDFI Fund’s new Awards Management Information System, and made recommendations for tax credit allocations. Prior to joining the CDFI Fund, Mr. Allison was a program manager at Single Stop USA, where he oversaw grant and performance management for a national portfolio of community-based organizations related to income supports. He worked on several innovative workforce development and asset building projects at Seedco, a national economic development intermediary. Mr. Allison has also held positions with Self-Help Ventures Fund and the Center for Community Capital in North Carolina. Mr. Allison holds a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an emphasis on economic development, and a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Eugene Lang College at The New School in New York.