ShaDonte Butler

Unlocking Federal Programs for Housing Developments
Tuesday, June 23, 2:00 - 3:15 PM

Community Investment Business Development Manager
Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta

As Business Development Manager, ShaDonte Butler focuses on cultivating and expanding the Bank’s customer relationships and driving new business to the Bank through its Community Investment Products.

Prior to joining the Bank in May of 2009 as Business and Relationship Development Manager, Ms. Butler worked in a variety of roles within Fannie Mae’s Single Family Mortgage Division. Her most recent position was Sales Support Manager in which she developed operational efficiencies to increase new customer acquisition and developed effective sales techniques and procedures to successfully position Fannie Mae’s product and technology offerings.

Ms. Butler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and economics (summa cum laude) from Fisk University in Nashville, TN, a Master of Business Administration specializing in Finance from Clark Atlanta University, and a Master of Science in Building Construction/ Residential Development from Georgia Tech. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

James Carras

Investing in Housing Financing with LIHTC
Wednesday, June 24, 12:15 - 2:15 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.

Jason Chamlee

Other Tax Credit Programs to Invest in Housing Developments
Wednesday, June 24, 2:30 - 3:45 PM

Vice President of Real Estate Development
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati

Jason Chamlee recently joined Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati as the Vice President of Real Estate Development, leading efforts to scale up production of Affordable Homeownership opportunities. Prior to that, Jason spent nearly Ten Years working for The Model Group, leading the company’s market rate development projects in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. While at the Model Group, he developed nearly $450M of urban, mixed-use projects in communities such as Pendleton, Walnut Hills and the Findlay Market area of Over-the-Rhine. Jason specializes in complex financing structures that utilize programs such as New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits and Tax Increment Financing. Jason lives with his family in the neighborhood of Pleasant Ridge, where he is active with their neighborhood school (Pleasant Ridge Montessori) and has been on the board of the Pleasant Ridge Development Corporation since 2010. Jason holds a BA in History from Miami University and a Masters of Community Planning from the University of Cincinnati.

Sisera Daniel

Introduction to Housing Finance
Tuesday, June 23, 12:15 - 2:00 PM

Partner
Kutak Rock LLP

Sisera Daniel is a partner and Chair of the Public Finance Department in the Washington, D.C. office. She counsels governmental entities, financial institutions and non-profit organizations on housing and other public finance transactions. Sisera routinely advises state and local housing finance agencies on single family and multifamily transaction structures’ compliance with relevant federal, state and local securities, tax and other laws. She also represents state and local issuers, and, on occasion developers, on economic development, industrial development, non-profit, and higher education transaction structures.

Peter Huber

Unlocking Federal Programs for Housing Developments
Tuesday, June 23, 2:00 - 3:15 PM

Deputy Director
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Peter is the Deputy Director of CPD’s Office of Affordable Housing Programs, which is the office that administers the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, the Housing Trust Fund Program, and the HOME-ARP Program. Peter has been in this position since 2015, but he has been in the Office of Affordable Housing Programs since coming to HUD in 2003 – first as an Affordable Housing Specialist in the Program Policy Division, and then later as the Director of the Financial and Information Services Division.

Prior to coming to HUD, Peter was Deputy Director for Housing and Community Development in Chester County, Pennsylvania where he administered CDBG, HOME, ESG, Continuum of Care programs, CSBG, and several Pennsylvania State housing and community development programs.

Larry Kilmer II

Using Bonds & TIF to Facilitate Housing Development
Tuesday, June 23, 3:30 - 5:00 PM

Housing Development Director
City of Milwaukee

Larry Kilmer, II is the Redevelopment and Special Projects Director for the City of Milwaukee’s Department of City Development. In this role, he oversees the department’s housing efforts including TIF for housing development, subsidy programs for single-family and multifamily affordable housing rehabilitation and construction, owner occupant down payment assistance and housing rehabilitation loan programs, and housing policy work. Larry has over 15 years of diversified experience in affordable housing and real estate development including past experience overseeing a mid-sized housing authority and managing the housing rehabilitation division for a Milwaukee-based non-profit. In 2017, he received the Housing Development Finance Professional Certification through Grow America (NDC). Additionally, he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at UW-Milwaukee and a Lecturer in the Real Estate and Urban Land Economics Department at UW-Madison. Larry holds Master’s Degrees in Architecture and Urban Planning, a BS in Architectural Studies, and has achieved ABD status for his Ph.D. in Urban Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Daniel Kolodner

Other Tax Credit Programs to Invest in Housing Developments
Wednesday, June 24, 2:30 - 3:45 PM

Partner
Klein Hornig LLP

Dan Kolodner focuses his practice on community development projects utilizing tax credit financing. He specializes in complex deal structuring, combining tax incentives – such as New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and Renewable Energy Tax Credits – with state tax credits and other financing sources in a variety of community development transactions.  He regularly represents both for-profit and nonprofit developers, qualified low-income community businesses (QALICBs), and community development entities (CDEs), as well as institutional tax credit investors. Dan regularly shares his expertise at conferences on both the national and local level, speaking on the topics of Historic Tax Credits, New Markets Tax Credits, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and other Federal and state tax incentives.

Kevin Leichner

State and Local Financing Programs
Wednesday, June 24, 4:00 - 4:55 PM

Senior Vice President
Community HousingWorks

Kevin Leichner serves as Community HousingWorks’ Senior Vice President of Housing and Real Estate Development. At CHW, Kevin leads a team of 20+ real estate development professionals. With 5,1000 rental homes in its portfolio and 2,000 rental homes in the active development pipeline, CHW is growing rapidly in California and Texas.

Prior to joining CHW, Kevin was most recently Vice President of Development, Housing Finance & Acquisitions at Eden Housing. Kevin joined the Eden Housing development team in 2014. He oversaw a new construction pipeline of more than 1,000 apartments, completed substantial rehabilitation of more than 2,500 apartments, and led Eden’s acquisition efforts to acquire 3,500 apartments over eight years. Kevin managed Eden’s debt and equity investment placements and substantially contributed to Eden’s policy and advocacy efforts.

Previously, Kevin worked at BRIDGE Housing. During his approximately four years at BRIDGE, He worked on portfolio and joint-venture acquisition-rehabilitation projects, including first-time tax credit syndications of formerly public housing units with the Sacramento and San Francisco Housing Authorities.

Before his career in affordable housing, Kevin worked for approximately ten years with the National Park Service and its nonprofit affiliates on novel financing strategies for the rehabilitation of park structures and amenities, adaptive reuse of historic structures, and major park-building and revenue generation strategies in San Francisco and New York City. He is a current Board Member of East Bay Housing Organization in Oakland, CA and was a former Planning Commissioner for the City of San Leandro, CA.

Kevin Leichner holds a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University in the City of New York, and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with a Minor in City Planning from University of California Berkeley.

Wayne Michael

Investing in Housing Financing with LIHTC
Wednesday, June 24, 12:15 - 2:15 PM

Senior Director of External Education and E-Learning
Novogradac & Company LLP

Wayne Michael is a principal in the Portland, Oregon office of Novogradac & Company LLP and is the firm's senior director of education. He specializes in simplifying complex accounting concepts for audiences of varying levels of experience. Mr. Michael oversees creation and delivery of content for internal and external training for Novogradac. In his time with the firm, he has created and delivered hundreds of presentations on federal tax credit programs and other accounting and business concepts for conferences, workshops, webinars, and information sessions as well as for on-site and online training sessions. Mr. Michael also launched Novogradac's YouTube channel, whose tax credit explanation videos have been viewed more than 250,000 times. Additionally, he is a principal contributor to the Introduction to Low-Income Housing Tax Credits booklet that is published by Novogradac. Mr. Michael obtained his degree in accounting from Brigham Young University. He is licensed as a CPA in Oregon, is a designee of the

Andrew Pfeifer

Using Bonds & TIF to Facilitate Housing Development
Tuesday, June 23, 3:30 - 5:00 PM

Director
Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc.

Andrew Pfeifer joined Stifel Public Finance in 2023 and is a Director in the National Housing Group. Mr. Pfeifer specializes in housing transactions, including multifamily affordable and workforce housing, military housing and securitizations. Mr. Pfeifer has more than a decade of experience working on low-income and workforce housing with state HFAs, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA/HUD. Mr. Pfeifer holds a B.A. from Skidmore College, an M.B.A. from New York University.

Toby Rittner

Introduction to Housing Finance
Tuesday, June 23, 12:15 - 2:00 PM

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.

Regan St. Pierre

Investing in Housing Financing with LIHTC
Wednesday, June 24, 12:15 - 2:15 PM

Director, Project Finance & Consulting
CohnReznick Advisory LLC

With nearly two decades of experience at the intersection of community development, financial consulting, and public policy, I bring a strategic and mission-driven approach to advancing equitable investment in underserved communities. In practice, that means rigorous LIHTC underwriting and structuring, co-authoring the Affordable Housing Credit Study, helping operators benchmark portfolio performance, conducting organizational and portfolio reviews of syndicators, and developing high-performing client service teams. I focus on breaking down multifamily and LIHTC complexities into actionable insights that elevate decision making and long-term performance. Whether benchmarking operator portfolios, assessing syndicator platforms, or refining underwriting assumptions, my goal is to bring clarity, rigor, and practical direction to stakeholders navigating an increasingly challenging affordable housing environment. My career spans leadership roles in nonprofit, public, and private sectors, including directing community investment strategies and spearheading statewide financial equity initiatives. I’ve helped secure and deploy hundreds of millions in impact-driven capital, developed innovative tools for data visualization and policy analysis, and guided organizations through strategic planning, portfolio reviews, and regulatory engagement. I’m committed to building resilient communities through thoughtful investment and inclusive financial systems.

Kip Wahlers

State and Local Financing Programs
Wednesday, June 24, 4:00 - 4:55 PM

Partner
Ice Miller LLP

Kip Wahlers has more than two decades' experience in the field of public finance, economic development and public law. Kip has represented state and local governments at all levels as bond counsel and has also served as underwriters' counsel, bank counsel and counsel to private sector entities doing business with government.

Kip's experience includes financings and projects with port authorities, counties, municipalities, townships and school districts. Kip also advises clients on public records issues and ethics issues.

Kip has authored legislation relating to financing programs in Ohio and elsewhere, including tax credits, loan programs and amendments to legislation establishing new community authorities and authority for impact facilities. He has assisted private companies in obtaining incentives from state and local governments, including tax incentives, tax abatements and tax increment financing.

Andrew Whealy

Other Tax Credit Programs to Invest in Housing Developments
Wednesday, June 24, 2:30 - 3:45 PM

Counsel
Baker Hostetler, LLP

With a career rooted in advancing community development through strategic legal counsel, Andrew Whealy brings deep experience in tax credit incentives and impact-driven investment structuring. His practice centers on tax planning and the design of tax-advantaged investments that fuel transformative development and project finance transactions.

Andrew has advised on a wide range of federal and state tax credit programs, including New Markets, Historic Rehabilitation, Affordable Housing (LIHTC) and Energy Tax Credits, helping clients unlock capital for projects that revitalize underserved communities.

Prior to joining BakerHostetler, Andrew served as partner and counsel in the tax credit departments of two prominent national law firms, where he led initiatives that bridged legal strategy with economic development goals. His commitment to community impact is further reflected in his early work helping launch the first project for a nonprofit affordable housing developer, laying the foundation for sustainable housing solutions.