James Carras

Financing Brownfields Redevelopment: Investment and Access to Capital Tools
Thursday, May 7, 3:15 - 4:05 PM

Principal
Carras Community Investment, Inc.

James Carras is a Lecturer at Harvard University, where he has taught for the past 11 years at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Graduate School of Design, and the Harvard Extension School, focusing on urban policy, equitable development finance, and community economic development. He previously served as a Fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and is currently an Affiliated Faculty member at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University.

For more than 30 years, James has advised mission-driven organizations, government agencies, financial institutions, and developers on capital access strategies and community development finance. Through his firm, Carras Community Investment, Inc., he has helped create and capitalize over fifty community development corporations (CDCs), community development financial institutions (CDFIs), and public–private partnership initiatives nationwide. His current advisory work centers on expanding capital access for community and economic development, including strategic deployment of New Markets Tax Credits, Opportunity Zones, CDFI Fund programs, and Community Reinvestment Act resources.

James is the author of numerous studies on affordable housing, equitable development, and revitalization. He previously served as Founding Executive Director of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, Founding President of the Broward Housing Partnership and the South Florida Community Land Trust, Community Development Advisor to the Mayor of Boston, and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Urban Reinvestment Advisory Group, where he was awarded the John Hay Whitney Fellowship. He is widely recognized as a national expert in development finance and capital ecosystem design.

Amy Dzialowski

Transforming Brownfields: Project Case Studies
Thursday, May 7, 4:05 - 4:55 PM

Senior Principal
Geosyntec Consultants

Amy Dzialowski is a Senior Principal with more than 20 years of experience focused on environmental planning, stakeholder engagement, public-private partnership development, compliance, and program funding experience.

As an urban planner with environmental, land use, and government expertise, Amy understands the many challenges of capital development projects and redevelopment initiatives. She works closely with public and private clients to deliver advisory services, environmental strategies, socioeconomic analysis, environmental justice studies, public participation, and funding plans.

Amy is a nationally recognized expert in grant programs. She has successfully secured millions of dollars in grant funds and brings an understanding of best practices, program strategy, and partnership development. Recently, these grants have supported carbon capture, emerging contaminants, solid waste infrastructure, brownfields assessment, and brownfields cleanup. She has helped dozens of communities throughout the United States revitalize brownfields sites through the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Brownfields Program.

To advance the state of practice, Amy speaks regularly at state and national conferences about the benefits of land recycling. She is actively involved in the USEPA and International City/County Management Association (ICMA) national brownfields conference and environmental justice caucus, and she previously served as a member of the local and national planning committees.

Amy is serving her community as Vice Mayor until 2026. In this role, she develops policy around grant and funding programs, utility services, land use, economic development, and rate structures. She supports broad general fund decisions and provides budget direction across municipal departments.

Bernadette Grafton

Federal Funding Sources for Brownfields
Thursday, May 7, 1:25 - 2:15 PM

Lead Program Analyst
U.S. Economic Development Administration

Bernadette Grafton serves as the Lead Program Analyst for the Research and National Technical Assistance (RNTA) Program at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA). In this role, she leads investments that strengthen regional economic competitiveness and advance applied research, data-driven tools, and national technical assistance to support local and regional economic development strategies.
 
Ms. Grafton brings more than a decade of federal service dedicated to community revitalization, environmental redevelopment, and economic resilience. Prior to joining EDA, she served in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization, where she contributed to program guidance, led the development of the Land Revitalization Newsletter, and supported grant processes for brownfield assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund (RLF) programs.
 
With extensive experience spanning both environmental and economic development missions, Ms. Grafton offers a comprehensive perspective on the federal tools available to support brownfield redevelopment. Her work emphasizes strategic alignment of federal resources from agencies such as EPA, EDA, and HUD to help communities advance projects from initial planning through implementation.

Mary Hashem

Redevelopment Process and the Partners Involved
Thursday, May 7, 12:55 - 1:25 PM

Founder and President
Adaapta & RE | Solutions

Mary B. Hashem, CRE, is the Founder and President of Adaapta, a women-owned small business that provides brownfield real estate, economic development, finance, and planning assistance to local governments, communities, and non-profits. She is also Co-Founder and Principal of RE | Solutions, a real estate acquisition and development company that specializes in the revitalization of urban infill and blighted properties. Mary is a nationally recognized leader in brownfield acquisition and development, with four decades of experience in environmental risk management and real estate transactions. Mary is a graduate of MIT, a member of ASTM E50 Standards Committees, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR), and serves on EPA’s National Brownfield Conference Advisory Panel and several state brownfield stakeholder groups.

Joel Markland

Brownfields Legal and Regulatory Landscape
Thursday, May 7, 12:10 - 12:45 PM

President
BCA Environmental Consultants, LLC

Joel Markland is the President of BCA Environmental Consultants and BCA Environmental Caribe (BCA), full service environmental consulting firms focusing on investigation, remediation, and redevelopment of brownfield properties throughout the Midwest and the Caribbean. He is a nationally recognized expert in brownfields redevelopment, working with local government agencies, non-profits, and private stakeholders to develop funding strategies to facilitate the redevelopment of brownfields and other contaminated properties. Mr. Markland's professional experience includes environmental investigation and remediation, brownfield program management, providing technical assistance to municipal clients, grant writing, community outreach, and client relations. He holds leadership roles on multiple national organizations’ boards, focused on brownfields funding and reuse.

Seth Otto

Transforming Brownfields: Project Case Studies
Thursday, May 7, 4:05 - 4:55 PM

Principal Planner
Maul Foster and Alongi, Inc.

Seth is a principal planner with 20 years of experience and currently leads MFA’s planning team. His work focuses on land use planning, brownfield redevelopment, public policy, and sustainability. He is engaged in redevelopment planning for brownfield and underutilized properties around the Pacific Northwest for both public and private clients. He regularly supports project funding strategies and has written successful grant applications to state and federal agencies. He has managed several policy research studies focused on the scale and impact of brownfield properties on local and statewide levels and is active in working to implement new policies and programs that have been adopted by state and local governments around the region.

Michael Pehur

Financing Brownfields Redevelopment: Bedrock and Targeted Tools
Thursday, May 7, 2:15 - 3:05 PM

Vice President of Investment
SWPA Municipal Project Hub

Development Finance Director at DMGS, Michael Pehur brings two decades of experience in economic development financing and project management. Michael is responsible for providing consulting strategies for real estate, business, non-profit, and municipal clients. He primarily works to identify grants, loans, tax incentives, and other public financing programs available for complex projects. Michael’s areas of expertise include community revitalization, municipal infrastructure, green initiatives, non-profits, small business development, and implementation planning.

Previously Project Finance Coordinator at Allegheny County Economic Development (ACED), Michael facilitated project financing and managed the technical components of various funding programs. At ACED, Michael managed over $55 million of Federal and State contracts. He facilitated project financing for site preparation, public infrastructure, environmental remediation, transit-oriented development, commercial redevelopment, and general business development assistance within Allegheny County. His work included many notable projects that have generated vast economic impact on the region, including Dick’s Sporting Goods Headquarters, Clinton Commerce Park, Westport Development, Monroeville Convention Center, and McCandless Crossing. He served as the primary manager of the County Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program, including project approval, deal structure, and continuing administration of active Districts. As part of this responsibility, Michael also authored the first-ever evaluation of the ACED TIF program.

Michael is nationally recognized as a leader in the economic development finance industry. He received certification as an Economic Development Finance Professional from the National Development Council. As a Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) member, Michael is a frequent speaker on development finance programs/policies. He supports CDFA’s efforts to provide education, resource development, and research on development finance as part various technical assistance projects. Michael was appointed to the CDFA Board of Directors at the 2013 Annual National Development Finance Summit and serves as Chair of the Governance Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Regional Development Funding

Toby Rittner

Understanding Development Finance
Thursday, May 7, 11:10 - 11:30 AM

President & CEO
Council of Development Finance Agencies

Toby Rittner is the President & CEO of Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA), a national association dedicated to the advancement of development finance concerns and interests. CDFA is comprised of the nation’s leading and most knowledgeable members of the development finance community representing hundreds of public, private and non-profit development finance agencies. Mr. Rittner runs the day-to-day operations of the Council including the organization’s various educational, advocacy, research, resources, and networking initiatives. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the CDFA Foundation.

Rittner is one of the most vocal and recognized leaders of the development finance industry nationwide and has advised local, state, and federal leaders, including Presidents Biden and Obama, on economic development finance policy. Through his leadership and guidance, CDFA was successful in preserving private activity bonds and other critical development finance tools during the 2017 tax reform deliberations and has had numerous pieces of legislation introduced in the United States Congress. In 2021, Rittner successfully led a national effort to reauthorize and fund the $10B State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. He has written and crafted dozens of strategic finance plans for development finance agencies and advised communities throughout the world on development finance approaches.

Rittner focuses on sustainable finance with an emphasis on infrastructure, clean energy, food systems, small business, and innovations in the development finance industry to drive sustainable outcomes. He has written extensively about impact ready initiatives that leverage and engage capital in ways that drive local sustainability in business and industry and the environment and economy.

Rittner is a frequent speaker at local, state, and national conferences and events focused on economic development finance. He has been featured in The Bond Buyer, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NPR and other national media publications concerning the advancement of development finance tools. He is the author of CDFA's highly acclaimed Practitioner's Guide to Economic Development Finance and co-author of CDFA's Unlocking Capital: A Handbook for Becoming a High Performing Development Finance Agency.

Rittner is an adjunct faculty member at The Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) and has completed the prestigious Oxford University Sustainable Finance Foundation Course.

Mr. Rittner previously served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board and is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Community Fund I. Mr. Rittner holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master's of City and Regional Planning degree from The Ohio State University. Mr. Rittner was awarded the Ohio State University College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2016.

Derek Street

Brownfields 101
Thursday, May 7, 11:30 - 12:10 PM

Principal Geologist, Brownfields & Community Revitalization Practice
Montrose Environmental Solutions, Inc.

Derek s a national brownfields and community revitalization expert with experience at the intersection of environmental compliance, redevelopment finance, and federal funding strategy. He serves in the Brownfields & Community Revitalization Practice at Montrose Environmental Group, supporting communities nationwide, from rural and tribal regions to complex urban sites, in securing and implementing U.S. EPA Brownfields funding.

Prior to Montrose, Derek was a Brownfields Project Officer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he oversaw competitive grants, guided communities through federal requirements, and evaluated project eligibility. This experience provides him with an insider understanding of how projects move from eligibility to execution. His work focuses on the structural barriers to redevelopment, particularly the gap between site eligibility and financeable projects. He is known for developing practical frameworks to address liability, market feasibility, and project timing, with an emphasis on how time and risk shape outcomes.