Speakers

Tracey Gunn Lowell has served in several capacities for USBCDC since joining our team in 2005. Since 2013 she has been a business development officer on the NMTC and HTC production team in which she also leads the origination of state NMTC investments as well as small QLICI funds nationally. Before her current role, Lowell was responsible for sourcing RETC investment opportunities for two years. Lowell has previously originated and closed federal tax credit syndications with investors nationally, including banks, insurance companies and large corporations and also structured and closed investments as part of our NMTC and HTC divisions after joining USBCDC. Prior to working at USBCDC, Lowell worked in the strategy and operations group at Deloitte Consulting, primarily with health care clients. She majored in economics, political science and business at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nicole Boone has more than 14 years of experience in the banking, real estate and community development finance industry. At Lendistry, she is responsible for leading the capital strategy across all government program funding and other community capital products. Boone previously served as executive director, senior commercial banker within community development banking at JP Morgan Chase Bank, specializing in new markets tax credit (NMTC) equity. In her time there, she deployed more than $400 million in NMTC financing across nearly 40 deals. She also created and led the first-ever Community Development Banking Racial Equity Special Purpose Credit Program (SPCP) targeting Black Americans. SPCP resulted in the deployment of an additional $200 million of tax credit financing, across fifteen transactions supporting black businesses and nonprofits nationally. A graduate of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, Boone also serves on the board of directors at Excellent Education Development (ExED), the Local Advisory Council of LISC LA, and is on the executive leadership team at The Way Los Angeles.

Kyle Walton has more than 15 years of experience in community and economic development finance and real estate development. Walton founded Classic Lake, a community development advisory and real estate development firm in 2014. The firms’ advisory practice was established with an emphasis on supporting women- and minority-owned or led businesses impacting marginalized communities and communities of color. The firms’ real estate development practice focuses on new construction and rehabilitation opportunities within low-income communities and emerging domestic markets, with an emphasis on developing and preserving affordable and workforce housing. Under Walton’s leadership the firm has facilitated the placement of more than $650 million of investment into low-income communities throughout the nation. Common advisory clients include real estate developers, municipalities and government entities, financial institutions, academic and healthcare organizations, small businesses, and non-profits. Prior to founding Classic Lake, Walton served as a vice president within JPMorgan Chase’s Community Development Banking group and as vice president with SDS Capital Group (formerly Strategic Development Solutions), a boutique private equity fund development and management firm. Walton serves on multiple advisory boards including Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Foundation, Casa Familiar, a San Diego based Community Development Agency, and De Novo Healthcare Inc., a Compton based community clinic. Walton earned his master’s in business administration from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and his bachelor's degree from Morehouse College.

Kareem Thomas is the Head of Credit and Portfolio Management for the Reinvestment Fund. As Reinvestment Fund’s Credit Officer, he is directly responsible for the lending practices, credit culture, credit risk and credit approval functions across the Reinvestment Fund footprint. Thomas also has direct responsibility for Lending Portfolio Management, where he and his team manage the performance of Reinvestment Fund’s loan portfolio of over $700mm+ combined assets. The team also plays a critical role in Reinvestment Fund’s annual S&P, AERIS, and Risk Management Audits.

Prior to Reinvestment Fund, he served as Chief Financial Officer for a nationally recognized for-profit literacy solutions company, and led Small Business Banking, Commercial Lending, Portfolio Management, and Credit Underwriting regions across PA, NJ, and DE for Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, and Citi. Passionate about civic engagement, he serves on the Board of the Urban Affairs Coalition, Self, Inc, Influencing Action Movement, and is a past board member of Philadelphia OIC, American Red Cross, People’s Emergency Center, and the Mastery Charter School Foundation.

In 2022, Thomas was appointed by Philadelphia Mayor James F. Kenney to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations—the City’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Arm.

Bridget Chisholm brings over 35 years of experience of being a seasoned executive and serial entrepreneur, ecosystem building, private equity investment, and economic development to the organization. Since 1998, she has created and launched three high-performing companies and facilitated almost $2 billion in multi-layered specialty financing transactions and investments. Chisholm is known as an innovator who uses disruptive thinking to challenge systems, advance and build wealth in historically underserved sectors, including Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs), communities, people, and capital providers. Additionally, Chisholm leverages her 10 years of extensive experience in marketing and branding for Fortune 500 companies, including RJR Nabisco and General Mills, and top-ranked cosmetic company, Maybelline to activate unique perspectives. She meets SEC guidelines for audit committee financial expert (ACFE) designation and was the second woman to be appointed to the NC Banking Commission and serves on the Board of Trustees for Texas College (HBCU) and Chair’s the Links Economic Empowerment Platform (LEEP) and previously served on the Shelby County (TN) County Commissioners. She completed her education at Wake Forest University and the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Liz Young is a partner at Nixon Peabody and is based in their Washington, D.C., office. Young provides tax counsel to private and public real estate investors, private equity sponsors, real estate developers and tax-exempt organizations to finance community development projects across the United States. Young works with clients to structure complex community development transactions involving the federal new markets tax credits (NMTCs), historic rehabilitation tax credits (HTCs) and affordable housing. She works with colleagues to analyze financial models, draft and issue tax opinion letters, and craft letter ruling requests necessary to close these transactions. In addition to providing transactional income tax advice, Young guides tax-exempt organizations with the formation process, and helps these organizations obtain and maintain tax-exempt status.

Aisha Benson is president and CEO of Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), a nonprofit lender, consultant, and advocate that has worked for more than 40 years to strengthen nonprofits and improve the way money flows to social good. As a leading community development financial institution (CDFI), NFF has invested more than $1.1 billion in financing and access to additional capital in support of over $3.6 billion in projects for thousands of organizations nationwide. Benson comes to us from TruFund Financial Services, a Black-led, nonprofit CDFI that provides affordable loan capital and business advisory services to historically disadvantaged small businesses and nonprofits. Prior to TruFund, Benson held community development finance roles at Carver Federal Savings, Banco Popular and JP Morgan Chase.  She has deployed $130 million in New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) funding and $175 million of capital to low-income communities, including $75 million in loans to small businesses and nonprofits. Benson serves on several key industry boards, including Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), the NMTC Coalition (Board President) and NY CDFI Coalition (founding member and Board VP). She also serves on the advisory boards of the Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund and the Community Development Entities of US Bank and Coastal Enterprises. Benson holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia University, a certificate in Social Impact Management and Leadership from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, and a certificate through a Citi/OFN Sponsored Leadership Training Program for CDFI Executives at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Shelly Crowder is a senior vice president with United Fund Advisors and is responsible for underwriting, structuring and closing NMTC investments. Crowder has more than 30 years of real estate experience, with a focus on finance, compliance, reporting, commercial asset management and development, including accounting and construction management. Previously, she was the director of portfolio management for the NMTC program at Enterprise Community Investment Inc.  Crowder serves on the NMTC Advisory Boards of Enterprise Financial CDE LLC and Community Impact Capital LLC.  She is also on the Advisory Committee of the CEI Capital Management LLC Asset Management Roundtable.

Cody Rogers is a skilled transactional attorney who focuses his work on impact investment and community development projects throughout the country with particular experience in new markets tax credit (NMTC) and historic tax credit (HTC) transactions. From project structuring to the kick-off call to the preparation of final closing documents, Rogers uses his experience to help large scale institutional investors, community development financial institutions (CDFIs), community development entities (CDEs), nonprofits, developers and project sponsors navigate the complexities of these federal incentives programs. Despite the complexities, Rogers understands the end-goal of these programs are to assist communities in need and he works to ensure deals close efficiently and timely.

Emily Rose is an attorney by education and a finance professional by trade. She’s been working in tax equity as an investor for U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation for nearly 13 years, and finds herself continually challenged, energized and rewarded by this work. Her team specializes in state NMTC transactions, particularly when funded in conjunction with federal NMTC, as well as the specialty products such as loan funds, equity investments and targeted population transactions. Rose is energized by the work of structuring financial solutions for impactful projects, and watching the benefit of the tax credits propel positive results.

Justin Fitzgerald is an associate in Nixon Peabody’s Community Development Finance group. He represents clients in community development financing, including tax credit financing involving new markets tax credits (NMTC) and low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC). Fitzgerald works with equity investors, syndicators, developers and community development entities to negotiate and structure transactions that qualify for tax credits and other tax benefits throughout the country. These transactions help finance the construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing, hospitals and schools to historically underserved communities. As part of his practice, Fitzgerald identifies and works with clients to develop creative solutions to potential concerns involving real estate issues, partnership tax issues, and financing.

Stefanie A. Singer is the general counsel and chief risk officer of Novogradac. As head of the company’s Legal & Risk Department, Singer advises the company on all aspects of its business operations, including litigation, compliance, personnel, and internal governance issues. Singer is also responsible for the development and implementation of enterprise risk management policies and procedures, working in a consultative role with the company’s Executive Committee, business units, and operational departments to mitigate various business and operational risks. Singer lead the organization's COVID-19 response. Prior to joining Novogradac, Singer represented professionals and business organizations in various civil and regulatory matters. She presented on effective risk management practices for various licensed professionals across the United States, and has guest lectured at St. John’s University School of Law in New York. Singer is licensed to practice law in New York and California. She currently also sits on the Board of Directors for Literacy Nassau, a Long Island-based nonprofit which provides literacy programs to under-served populations, including adults, immigrants, and children with Dyslexia.

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.

Amy Hook is the chief social impact officer and leads the social impact office at Novogradac. The social impact office advises the firm’s executive committee on ways to deploy labor and capital consistent with Novogradac’s commitments to continuous improvement, positive change within the firm, the professions in which the firm works and within the communities Novogradac serves. The social impact office is responsible for defining environmental and social risks and opportunities and creating a living social impact strategy to address those risks and opportunities. Hook also works with clients to build out their social impact programming including strategy creation and goal setting, impact measurement and evaluation, and reporting. 

With over 15 years of experience in the social impact realm, Hook has worked in different market sectors including public, non-profit and private organizations. Prior to joining Novogradac, Hook led environmental, social and governance (ESG) at Regions Bank where she worked on impact reporting; stakeholder engagement; diversity, equity and inclusion; environmental sustainability and environmental and social risk management.  Prior to leading ESG efforts for Regions Bank, she worked on environmental sustainability at SunTrust as the first corporate sustainability leader the company hired. 

Before leading social impact programming in the banking industry, Hook focused on the capacity building of community development organizations throughout the United States, including affordable housing developers, community development service providers and government entities. Working in this arena for over 7 years at both ICF International and Enterprise Community Partners, she led initiatives partnering with HUD, DOE and others to create strategies, trainings, tool(kit)s, communications, and policies and procedures to improve affordable housing and community development delivery.  Most notably, Hook led the multifamily sector of the Better Buildings Challenge and HUD’s first renewable energy technical assistance program, Renew300. 
 

William Turner serves as a new markets tax credit (NMTC) deal team manager for Wells Fargo. In his role, Turner is tasked with guiding NMTC origination and asset management efforts throughout the southeast and southwest. Turner has more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry, with the past 20 years focused in community and economic development. Turner’s areas of expertise include low-income housing tax credits, NMTCs and Community Development Financial Intermediaries (CDFIs). Turner is active in his local community, typically choosing initiatives that impact youth. Turner currently serves on the board of the James City county Economic Development Authority, WJCC Schools Foundation, Let Freedom Ring Foundation and volunteers as assistant track coach at Jamestown High School.  Turner is a 1990 graduate of North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics.

Saurabh Narain is president and CEO of National Community Investment Fund (NCIF), an impact investor and CDFI focused on mission-oriented financial institutions including minority and CDFI banks. He is a banking executive with almost 35 years of global experience building highly profitable businesses both in the for-profit and nonprofit environments. Under his leadership, NCIF has increased its AUM to $200 million, created more than 10,000 jobs and is the largest investor in CDFI and minority banks. NCIF seeks to generate impact in underserved markets nationally using its three lines of businesses–equity investing into mission-oriented financial institutions, deployment of new markets tax credits and lending.  In 2019, NCIF launched a $35 million credit strategies fund to increase co-lending with its network banks.Impact measurement is foundational to all activities of NCIF. Narainis a member of the investors council of the Global Impact Investing Network, the board of the CDFI Coalition, advisory board of Wells Fargo Community Development Entity and Community Development Venture Capital Alliance. He was a past member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council chaired by Chairman Ben Bernanke and advisory board of Ripple. Prior to NCIF, Narain has had extensive experience in capital markets and risk management having worked at Bank of America for almost 17 years based in Asia and the United States. Narain is a graduate of the ABA Graduate Stonier School of Banking, and hold an MBA from Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India.

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.