Our Mission

Board Chair Louise Carroll is currently Partner, Real Estate, at Katten Muchin Rosenman. Prior to that Ms. Carroll was the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the nation's largest municipal housing agency. There she helped design and implement the city's groundbreaking Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program (MIH) requiring that permanently affordable housing be part of residential rezoning. Ms. Carroll was recently awarded the James W. Rouse Civic Medal of Honor for using housing as a platform for economic opportunity, collaborating on urgent work related to the effects of the pandemic and empowering BIPOC developers in New York City. Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Ms. Carroll as housing commissioner and chair of the Housing Development Corporation (the city's bond financing agency) in 2019 after she had served as associate commissioner for housing incentives and before that, assistant commissioner for inclusionary housing.

Eric Enderlin joined the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) as its President in October 2016, following a formal nomination by Mayor Bill de Blasio. As President of HDC, Mr. Enderlin is tasked with leading the nation’s largest municipal Housing Finance Agency towards furthering the Administration’s goals under the Housing New York plan.

Colvin W. Grannum served as the president and CEO of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation from May 2001 through June 2022. Restoration is recognized as the nation’s first community development corporation. Colvin is also a founder of Bridge Street Development Corporation and served as its first CEO. He serves on the boards of directors of several organizations including Carver Federal Savings Bank, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Center for New York City Neighborhoods, Billie Holiday Theatre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. City and State Magazine named him to the Brooklyn Power 100 and New York Economic Development Power 75. He has authored articles and op-eds on issues related to African American wealth creation including homeownership. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University Law Center.

Frederick S. Harris has been a leader in the real estate and housing finance industries for more than 30 years. He is the Managing Director of Mission Title Agency and a member of the board of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Mr. Harris has served as: the Director of Real Estate for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Executive Vice President of Real Estate Development at the New York City Housing Authority, and a Project Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He received a JD and MS from New York University. He is the recipient of HUD’s John J. Gunther Award for Blue Ribbon Practices in Housing and Community Development, the Community Builder Award from Phipps Houses, and the Spirit of the City Award from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Ms. Mahon is President/CEO of Inclusiv, which works to bridge the credit union movement to the community development field, promoting financial inclusion and identifying and connecting credit unions to unserved and untapped markets and communities. Previously, Ms. Mahon served as Deputy Commissioner for Financial Empowerment with the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs and as the Policy and Program Director for the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions

Mr. Marks is CEO of FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, a boutique public charity that offers a diverse menu of philanthropic services to a range of stakeholders, including donor advised funds and fiscal sponsorships. Sam comes to FJC from his role as executive director of the New York City office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC NYC) which supports local champions to advance equitable development of historically underinvested neighborhoods. Before joining LISC NYC, he was Vice President at the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, and director of housing development at WHEDCo. Earlier in his career he founded Breakthrough New York, a youth development program.

Mr. Mintz is Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, a national non-profit organization that supports municipal efforts to help low-income families and individuals achieve long-term financial stability. He also founded and co-chaired the Cities for Financial Empowerment Coalition, which brings together pioneering municipal governments from across the country to advance innovative financial empowerment initiatives on the municipal, state, and national level. From 2006-2013, Mr. Mintz served as the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, having been appointed to the role by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Gwen Robinson is the Director of Community Investment Data and Strategy at KeyBank. In this role she will serve as KeyBank’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Officer and develops strategies to support Key’s companywide commitment to maintain its “Outstanding” CRA rating. Gwen has over 25 years of cross-sector community development experience. Before joining KeyBank, Gwen led a market research and strategic consulting practice for financial technology companies and impact investment funds. She has served as an executive in the New York State Department of Financial Services and as the CRA Officer for GE Capital Retail Bank, Goldman Sachs Bank, and Santander Bank. At Santander she led the turnaround of the bank’s community development programs and the creation of the bank’s $11 billion Inclusive Communities Plan

Prior to entering banking, Gwen was a program officer at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where she managed a philanthropic portfolio supporting economic and financial inclusion. She began her career as a community organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation's largest and longest-standing network of local faith and community-based organizations

Gwen holds a BA in political economy from Harvard College and a MS in economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is currently enrolled in the business analytics program offered jointly by Harvard Business School and the Paulson School of Engineering at Harvard and serves on the New York Advisory Board for Enterprise Community Partners.

Merilyn Rovira returned to CDT in 2012 as a Senior Vice President responsible for Capital/Strategic Initiatives. She focuses primarily on developing new sources of long-term debt and equity capital and has led four capital raises that attracted more than $200 million in equity. She manages the company’s investor relations, government affairs, and impact evaluation and reporting activities. She had previously worked with CDT and its predecessor organization, the Local Initiatives Managed Assets Corporation (LIMAC) for 11 years. She was one of CDT’s founding officers and raised $32 million from 18 investors in its initial stock offering. With both LIMAC and CDT, she coordinated strategic planning efforts, initiated mortgage securitization programs, and marketed the firms’ loan purchase program to various affordable housing and community development lenders.

Merilyn has 35 years of experience in affordable housing development and finance. Between stints at CDT, she held various positions for Fannie Mae, where she headed the company’s multi-family and community development division in the mid-Atlantic region. She was the national account manager for two lenders and generated nearly $500 million annually in small multi-family loan purchases. As Fannie Mae’s senior deputy director for New Jersey, she implemented an $18 billion investment plan that involved single-family, 2-4 unit, multi-family, and community development loans and loan purchases. Earlier in her career, she spent three years as a mortgage officer for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where she underwrote, closed, and managed loans totaling more than $100 million. Ms. Rovira has a BA in Economics, Magna Cum Laude the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Alexa joined Settlement Housing Fund as its President in January, 2014. She has 20 years of affordable housing and community development experience. Prior to joining SHF, Alexa served as the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and External Affairs at The Community Preservation Corporation, an affordable housing lender. From 2006-2012, Ms. Sewell worked at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) in various capacities, including as Assistant Commissioner of Federal Affairs, and most recently as Chief of Staff and Deputy Commissioner of Policy and External Affairs. Alexa served as Chief of Staff under three Commissioners and two Deputy Mayors. During Ms. Sewell’s tenure with HPD, the Agency designed and implemented Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious New Housing Marketplace Plan, which created and preserved 165,000 units of affordable housing.

Hakim Thompson is an Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase & Co., in the consumer home lending division. In this role, Hakim is focused on transforming the customer’s end to end experience when getting a mortgage with Chase. Hakim is a part of an innovation team who provides the strategy, design & execution of new home lending products that Chase customers experience via both mobile app, chase.com, and in-branch. Prior to working at Chase, Hakim co-founded a mortgage startup focused on first time homebuyers, and before that, spent 9 years at Goldman Sachs, working as a Vice President covering institutional clients investing & trading mortgage products. Hakim graduated from Princeton University undergrad in 2006, and received his MBA from MIT Sloan in 2010. Though he originally hails from Washington, DC, Hakim currently resides in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife Lauren, German Shepherd Bello, and baby girl due July 2019.

Mr. Wambua joined The Richman Group of Companies as President of RHR Funding LLC in October of 2013. RHR Funding LLC is part of The Richman Group’s recently-established mortgage lending business, which includes RICHMAC Funding LLC. Mr. Wambua is charged with growing and expanding the firm’s mortgage lending platform both nationally and within the New York market. In March 2011, Mr. Wambua was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. During his tenure, Mr. Wambua oversaw the financing of approximately 47,000 housing units, representing a $6 billion investment.

Mr. Weisbord, the Board Secretary, is the Director of Credit and Housing Access at Fannie Mae. He is responsible for developing corporate-wide, strategic business initiatives to increase access to mortgage credit and affordable housing. He works with senior management, customers, regulators and a wide range of industry stakeholders to understand emerging market needs and to develop responses aligned with Fannie Mae’s historic mission, regulatory mandates and business objectives. Mr. Weisbord also led efforts to prevent foreclosures and reduce credit losses through partnerships with lenders, housing and credit counseling organizations, and government in distressed markets across the country. He joined Fannie Mae in 2005 to lead the company’s homelessness initiative, which invested in creation of over 7,800 units of supportive and affordable housing for homeless and at-risk individuals and families. Mr. Weisbord has over 30 years of experience in affordable housing finance, development and policy.

As Executive Director of LISC NYC, Valerie is responsible for advancing a platform of racial and economic equity by building on $3.1 billion in LISC NYC investments to spur affordable housing, economic development, health equity, and workforce development in underserved neighborhoods. In this role, Valerie leads the team in developing a vision, and advancing strategic policies and programs that foster equity and inclusion in disinvested communities. Before joining LISC NYC in April 2020, Valerie was Executive Vice President at Empire State Development (ESD), as well as Executive Director of the New York State Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development. Previously, she was Vice President at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation and Managing Director at Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings (S&P). In addition to her extensive professional experience, Valerie also serves as an advisory board member for the Fordham Urban Law Center, director on the Fordham Law Alumni Association, and board member for BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn. Valerie holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and a J.D. from Fordham University, as well as a Master’s degree in Management and a Certificate in Organization Development from The New School.