Angela Blatt

Revitalizing Communities Through Food Systems Redevelopment
Tuesday, September 30, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Evaluating Success: Exploring Key Partnerships and Frameworks for Food Systems Financing
Tuesday, November 25, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Director

As a Director in the Strategy & Services Division at the Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA), Angela focuses on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded initiative “Defining the Food System Asset Class,” whereby CDFA explores opportunities for the advancement of local and regional food systems using development finance tools. Through this initiative, Angela collaborates with communities across the country providing technical assistance and producing strategic plans for development finance strategies that meet infrastructure, agriculture, and small business needs to support equitable, local food economies. Angela leads CDFA’s Food Systems Finance Advisory Council, joining the food and finance industries, and administers CDFA’s Food Systems Finance Webinar Series, connecting food-related businesses and projects with development finance agencies. In 2021, she gained Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) certification through the CDFA Training Institute.

A Navy Veteran, Angela holds two degrees from The Ohio State University: a Master of Public Administration with a focus on Food Policy from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, and a Bachelor of Science from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

Brendan Buttimer

Navigating Access to Capital Networks in the Food System
Tuesday, May 6, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Navigating Access to Capital Networks in the Food System
Tuesday, May 6, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Senior Director, Equitable Food Systems
Reinvestment Fund

As Senior Director, Equitable Food Systems, Brendan Buttimer is responsible for originating, underwriting, and structuring food access projects that meet Reinvestment Fund’s mission.
Prior to joining the organization, he worked for South Carolina Community Loan Fund as a Senior Loan Officer and New Markets Tax Credit Officer. Prior to his CDFI life, he led a food access organization that focused on connecting local farmers to low-access communities.
Buttimer holds an M.A. in History from Armstrong Atlantic State University and completed his Ph.D. coursework in American History at Mississippi State University. His academic work focused on immigrant communities in the South and the social and economic networks they created.

Ann Finnegan

Navigating Access to Capital Networks in the Food System
Tuesday, May 6, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Executive Managing Director of Small Business Lending
Grow America

Ann Finnegan is National Development Council (NDC) Managing Director of Small Business Lending and NDC Community Impact Loan Fund President.  She brings more than 30 years of lending, finance, and development experience to NDC’s MWBE and underserved markets small business lending initiatives in communities throughout the United States. For the past two and half years, Ms. Finnegan and NDC have been designing, developing, and implementing Covid-response resources (both grant and small business recovery loan programs) at scale around the country, including the innovative and impactful NY Forward, SOAR, Washington FLEX and CT Boost Funds.
 
Ms. Finnegan rejoined NDC and CILF’s senior management team in late 2019, after serving almost nine years as a commercial and small business lender, where she led the bank to nationwide recognition as a SBA & USDA guaranteed business and non‐profit community facilities lender. Prior to her brief career in community banking, Ms. Finnegan was a Director with the National Development Council, on the team that secured CDFI status for NDC’s SBA Small Business Lending Company and served as the President of NDC’s Grow America Fund for more than a decade. Ms. Finnegan has a business degree from Siena College, an MBA from SUNY Albany, and resides with her family in NY.  She serves as Treasurer on several non-profit Boards.

Michael Graff

Harnessing the Power of Bonds: Transforming Food Systems Through Strategic Investment
Tuesday, February 25, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Partner
McGuireWoods LLP

Mr. Graff has served as bond, underwriter's, bank, borrower's, issuer's or trustee's counsel on dozens of tax-exempt bond financings in Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, Wisconsin and Idaho. He has extensive experience in all aspects of tax-exempt financings for: small manufacturing companies; private, nonprofit elementary and secondary schools; nonprofit association headquarters; college and university student housing facilities; hospitals and health care facilities; multifamily affordable housing projects (including low-income housing tax credits); solid waste disposal facilities; port facilities; water and waste authorities; community development authorities and other land-based special taxing districts; road and rail transportation projects; and various other borrowers, governmental issuers and their projects. He is the co-author (with William J. Strickland) of "Financing Virginia's Local Governments" in the Virginia Local Government Attorneys' Handbook. A former trial lawyer, Mr. Graff has brought numerous judicial proceedings to establish the validity of municipal bonds. He was a Parkinson scholar at Duke University School of Law and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa at the College of William & Mary.

Tammy Nebola

Harnessing the Power of Bonds: Transforming Food Systems Through Strategic Investment
Tuesday, February 25, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Loan Program Specialist
Iowa Finance Authority

Tammy Nebola is a Program Specialist for the Iowa Agricultural Development Division of the Iowa Finance Authority. She started with the Division in 2008 and manages the two loan programs, the Beginning Farmer Loan Program (Aggie Bond Program) and the Loan Participation Program.
 
Iowa continues to have the most active Aggie Bond program in the nation. Tammy has assisted many other states with best practices when creating or enhancing their Aggie Bond programs.
 
Tammy serves as the Treasurer for the National Council of State Agricultural Finance Programs. They are an association of public and private agricultural financing entities working passionately for the promotion and financing of agricultural development.
 
Tammy attended the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, pursuing a Degree in Accounting. She has over 20 years of banking and finance experience, specializing in agricultural and commercial lending, and agricultural bond financing.

Kenneth Neighbors

Harnessing the Power of Bonds: Transforming Food Systems Through Strategic Investment
Tuesday, February 25, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Partner
McGuireWoods LLP

Kenneth M. Neighbors focuses his practice primarily in the area of public finance, providing legal advice in support of public-private partnerships, governmental financing and economic development initiatives ranging from transportation and integrated transit projects, tax allocation district formation and financing, mixed-use, commercial, retail and multi-family real estate financings, to 501(c)(3), community land trust, affordable housing, and other tax-exempt bond financings. Ken’s work also focuses on the implementation of federal, state and city supported economic development programs and initiatives. Ken also provides business and legal advice in connection with the acquisition, sale and management of real estate holdings, and provides general representation in connection with corporate matters and corporate and venture capital financing transactions. Prior to his practice as a lawyer, Ken served as a merchant and investment banker, and as a senior officer of an investment firm focusing on the Emerging Domestic Marketplace (EDM).

Molly Riordan

Navigating Access to Capital Networks in the Food System
Tuesday, May 6, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Director of Institutional Impact
The Center for Good Food Purchasing

Molly Riordan is the Director of Institutional Impact at the Center for Good Food Purchasing, supporting institutions and their vendors to align their food purchases with the Center’s values. Molly has worked in institutional procurement and value chain coordination for over a decade, and has a deep understanding of the complexities and potential for values adoption by public institutions, vendors, and suppliers. Prior to joining the Center, Molly supported hospital food procurement with Health Care Without Harm, and was the City of Philadelphia’s Good Food Purchasing Coordinator, co-housed in the departments of Public Health and Procurement. She holds a Master of Regional Planning (MRP) from Cornell University and is Chair of the American Planning Association’s Food Systems Planning Division.

Fawn Zimmerman

Harnessing the Power of Bonds: Transforming Food Systems Through Strategic Investment
Tuesday, February 25, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Navigating Access to Capital Networks in the Food System
Tuesday, May 6, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Leveraging Federal Support Tools for Food Systems Investment
Tuesday, June 24, 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Managing Director, CDFA Advisory Services
Council of Development Finance Agencies

Fawn Zimmerman is Managing Director of CDFA Advisory Services at the Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA). In her role, Fawn assists development finance agencies nationwide with strategic planning, finance program development, grant writing assistance, and development finance education and training. She also leads initiatives to enhance capital access for underserved communities. Fawn oversees programming aimed at increasing funding for underserved small businesses and developing culturally relevant programs to boost investment in underserved farmers and ranchers.

Fawn holds a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Communication from The Ohio State University and has pursued postgraduate studies at Ohio University. Her career is deeply intertwined with her philanthropic goals, and she is committed to leveraging her creative, academic, and professional experiences to drive positive changes in the development finance sector.