Sarah Brundage

Opportunity Zones and Affordable Housing Policy Under the New Administration
Tuesday, April 8, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

President & Chief Executive Officer
National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders

Sarah Brundage is the President and CEO of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL). Sarah served as the Senior Advisor for Housing Supply and Infrastructure in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She also served as General Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at HUD. Sarah led the Department’s efforts to enhance HUD programs that increase the production and supply of housing, including the execution of the Administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan. Sarah played a lead role in the implementation of the Interagency Taskforce on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) Action Plan. She also served as a senior policy advisor on the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Prior to HUD, Sarah was the Senior Policy Director at Enterprise Community Partners, where she co-led the national ACTION Campaign to strengthen and expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. She also led Enterprise’s state and local policy work in California and previously worked at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Sarah holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida and a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. Sarah lives in Arlington with her husband and two sons.

Jorge Gonzalez

Opportunity Zones and Affordable Housing Policy Under the New Administration
Tuesday, April 8, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Senior Research Associate
Urban Institute

Jorge González-Hermoso is a senior research associate in the Housing and Communities Division at the Urban Institute, where he focuses on real estate and economic development. His research explores issues related to small business and commercial corridor development, housing supply, and wealth building. Before joining Urban, González-Hermoso worked for Mexico’s Office for Asset Management and Disposal, coordinating initiatives to repurpose unused government-owned land and rail infrastructure. González-Hermoso earned his BA in international relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and his MPP from the University of Chicago, where he was a Fulbright grantee and a Dean’s scholar.

Shay Hawkins

Opportunity Zones and Affordable Housing Policy Under the New Administration
Tuesday, April 8, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

President & CEO
Opportunity Funds Association

Shay Hawkins is Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), a member of the Senate Committee on Finance. He also serves as Staff Director for the Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth. In this capacity, Hawkins is Senator Scott’s lead policy advisor on Tax and Trade issues. He previously served as Legislative Fellow to Representative Jim Renacci, (R-OH 16) a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Prior to coming to Capitol Hill, Hawkins spent five years as an investment banker at what is now Results International. While with Results International, Hawkins focused on sell-side Mergers and Acquisitions for firms in the Technology, Media, and Telecoms sector.
In addition to his finance and Capitol Hill experience, Hawkins worked as a field coordinator with The LIBRE Initiative, an organization advancing the principles of economic freedom to empower the U.S. Hispanic community.

A native of Cleveland Ohio, Hawkins started his career as a broker in the online division of what is now Credit Suisse. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics from The Ohio State University, his MBA from Columbia Business School as a Credit Suisse First Boston Fellow, and his JD from the Moritz College of Law at OSU.

Lisa Herrera

Opportunity Zones and Affordable Housing Policy Under the New Administration
Tuesday, April 8, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Sr. Director of Affordable Housing
RDF

Lisa Herrera joined Raza Development Fund in 2023 as the Senior Director of Affordable Housing. She is responsible for leading the RDF’s national Affordable Housing Finance practice, expanding its housing outreach and impact investment efforts, managing a pipeline of prospective affordable housing investments, and structuring and closing investments. She brings over 20 years of experience in community development finance, and most recently served as Managing Director for 3 Diamond Development, a Chicago based affordable housing developer with a focus on rural affordable housing. Prior to this position, Lisa served as Senior Commercial Real Estate Director on the Community Development Lending and Investment team at Fifth Third Bank. She covered a 10-state territory creating relationships with affordable housing developers and community development corporations within the southeast region of the U.S. She has dedicated most of her career to the Community Development industry and on Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) banking teams that create impacts in the Affordable Housing and Economic Development arena. Lisa began her career in banking while working as a successful CRA residential mortgage lender at Northern Trust Bank before shifting her sights on commercial real estate. She was integral in leading former MB Financial Bank’s New Markets Tax Credit and low-income housing tax credit lending initiatives, in addition to focusing on increasing the bank’s community partnerships throughout the Chicago area and surrounding communities. Her expertise is in the application of layered, public and private financing in the affordable housing industry, which includes federal low-income housing tax credits, housing bonds, grants and other forms of subordinate finance. She has closed over $500 million in debt on affordable housing and economic development projects and played a significant role in the creation of 5000+ affordable housing units. Lisa earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and International Marketing from DePaul University. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors, an executive committee member and loan committee member for the Chicago Community Loan Fund, a Chicago based community development financial institution.She serves on the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives’ Board of Directors and was appointed by the Mayor of the City of Chicago to serve on the board of Chicago Housing Trust. Lastly, she is the Treasurer and serves on the executive committee for The Family School, an interfaith religion education program

Jessica Horner

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Applications & Compliance Director
Smith NMTC Associates, LLC

Daffney Moore

Opportunity Zones and Affordable Housing Policy Under the New Administration
Tuesday, April 8, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

CEO
Innovative Consulting Group

Dr. Daffney Moore is the Principal at Innovative Consulting Group and Senior Director of Economic Development for Beyond Housing where she leads collaborative real estate development initiatives across residential and commercial sectors in the 24:1 area in St. Louis County. She is the former Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief of Staff for the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC). She previously served as the Chief Opportunity Zone Officer for SLDC and worked to position the City of St. Louis as a leader in utilizing Opportunity Zone investments to support equitable economic development with neighborhood-scaled projects that have a positive impact on residents of Opportunity Zone communities. As City Manager of East St. Louis, Moore worked to decrease the city's budget deficit, reduced crime, and secured five Opportunity Zones. She is the former City Administrator for the City of Dellwood, Missouri where she led the ongoing recovery efforts after the Ferguson, Missouri civil unrest and achieved remarkable success in revitalizing the corner of West Florissant & Chambers and areas along the West Florissant Avenue Corridor. She has been recognized locally and nationally for her work in the St. Louis Region.

Jeanette Reynolds

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Communications & Applications Director
Smith NMTC Associates, LLC

Debbie Schwartz

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Principal
Ambit Capital Structures LLC

With more than 25 years of experience in affordable housing, Debbie began consulting independently in 2022 when she established Ambit Capital Structures LLC. She has been an affordable housing consultant since 2013 when she joined Lightengale Group (LGG). At LGG, she became an Executive Project Manager in 2020. Her work led to the creation and preservation of more than 2,000 units and more than $625M of investment in affordable housing.
 
Previously a Senior Development Manager at The Habitat Company, she served as a Project Manager on the Chicago Housing Authority’s $1.5B Plan for Transformation and was responsible for coordinating the rehabilitation of affordable housing properties in Habitat’s portfolio.
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Debbie specializes in creating financial models, coordination between public and private entities, and securing and structuring financing from multiple public agencies and private lenders.
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She has also held posts at the Chicago Housing Authority, National Equity Fund, and City of Chicago Department of Housing.

Daniel Slavin

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Chief Financial Officer
Homewise, Inc.

Donna Smith

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Executive Vice President
SmithNMTC Associates, LLC

Donna Smith, Executive Vice President and co-founder of Smith NMTC Associates, LLC, wrote the successful Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI)-Smith NMTC allocation application that pioneered New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) funding for affordable for-sale housing throughout the United States. In 2007, Smith NMTC partnered with HFHI in a CDE Smith operated and managed for HFHI that received and fully deployed 3 allocations totaling $103 million.

Omar Uddin

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Principal
Uddin Development Consulting

Omar Uddin is the Principal of Uddin Development Consulting (UDC), a Detroit-based firm specializing in technical assistance for real estate developers and community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Omar began his career at an affordable housing nonprofit and then a multi-billion-dollar real estate investment trust (REIT). Since then, he has applied his expertise in financial modeling and capital structuring to extensively support both developers and CDFIs. His work spans a wide range of projects, including developing a multi-layered capital stack financial model for a $42M mixed-use development and providing capital projections for a $28M CDFI loan fund. Due to UDC’s contributions to the industry, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) recognizes the firm as a "CDFI Industry Consultant" with a focus on emerging developers. Omar is committed to helping emerging developers understand financial returns and successfully structure capital, making him an invaluable guide for this session.

Kevin Wilson

Opportunity Zones and Affordable Housing Policy Under the New Administration
Tuesday, April 8, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Partner
Novogradac & Company LLP

Kevin Wilson is a partner in the Walnut Creek, California, office of Novogradac, where he provides audit, tax and consulting services. Wilson joined Novogradac in 2002 and became a partner in 2014. He works with a variety of developers, nonprofit organizations, syndicators, corporations and investment companies. In addition to offering audit and tax services, he advises clients on a wide variety of tax incentivized transaction structuring, litigation support and compliance issues in various industries, including real estate development, affordable housing finance, opportunity zones (OZ) and investor exit strategies. Wilson has extensive experience in preparing customized financial projections for a variety of transactions with varied, complex waterfalls and tiered partnership structures. Wilson frequently speaks at industry conferences and seminars on topics related to affordable housing and OZs. He received his bachelor’s degree in business economics with an accounting emphasis from the University of California, Santa Barbara and is licensed in California as a certified public accountant.

Fawn Zimmerman

Opportunity Zones and Affordable Housing Policy Under the New Administration
Tuesday, April 8, 1:00 - 4:30 PM

Structuring Financially Sustainable Affordable Housing Projects
Wednesday, April 9, 1:00 - 4:30 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.