Gregg Colburn (keynote)
Associate Professor, Runstad Development of Real Estate, College of Built Environment, University of Washington

Gregg Colburn is an Associate Professor in the Runstad Department of Real Estate in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. He publishes research on topics related to housing and homelessness and is co-author of the book, Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns (University of California Press). His research has been featured in leading media outlets, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Economist, Bloomberg, and National Public Radio.

Jennifer Leimaile Ho (Keynote)
Commissioner of Minnesota Housing

Jennifer Leimaile Ho is the seventh Commissioner of Minnesota Housing. She has spent much of her career working to end homelessness and house those that make the least. Previously, Commissioner Ho led Hearth Connection, was Deputy Director at the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and served as a Senior Advisor at HUD. She currently serves on the board of the National Council of State Housing Agencies and the Melville Charitable Trust.

Mark Schmidt, CFA (Keynote)
Executive Director, Morgan Stanley

Mark Schmidt, CFA, is an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and leads Municipal Strategy Research. His team has ranked in both the Institutional Investor and Smith’s All-Star awards. He has over a decade of experience in municipal securities and broader fixed income markets. Mark began his career as a fixed income specialist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Additionally, he worked as a trading desk credit analyst. Mark earned his MBA from Columbia University and his BS in International Economics from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York, CFA Institute, and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

Dawn Luke Arnold
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Invest Atlanta

Dawn Luke Arnold is the Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Invest Atlanta, where she oversees Community Development, Finance, IT, HR, Operations, and Investment Services. She previously served as Senior Vice President of Community Development and Managing Director of Housing Finance, leading affordable housing initiatives that generated over $650M in funding and supported 30,000+ housing units across Atlanta. Under her leadership, Invest Atlanta has expanded its mission to include community revitalization and economic growth, driving more than $9 billion in capital investment over the past eight years.

Mrs. Arnold holds a BA in Economics from Spelman College and an MBA in International Business from Georgia State University. She currently serves as President of the NALHFA Board of Directors, Chair of the Atlanta Land Trust, and holds leadership roles on numerous boards and advisory councils focused on affordable housing, community development, and women's leadership.

Lisa Norris Bernau
Executive Director, Escambia County Housing Finance Authority 

Lisa Norris Bernau serves as Executive Director to the five (5) member Board of the Escambia County Housing Finance Authority (“the Authority”) in Pensacola, Florida. The Authority continues to expand its impact across twenty-one (21) Counties in the State of Florida by offering homeownership programs to first-time homebuyers and former homeowners. The Authority also supports developers of multifamily housing communities through the issuance of tax-exempt revenue bonds. In Escambia County, the Authority remains actively involved in developing single family homes through its Urban Infill Program that was established in 2015.

Mrs. Bernau joined the Authority in September 2018 and served as Compliance Officer and Assistant Executive Director. Prior to her tenure at the Authority, she had an extensive career in public service, local government law, and higher education.

Mrs. Bernau is a native of Pensacola and earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of West Florida and her Juris Doctor from the Florida State University College of Law. Her vision for the Authority is rooted in the commitment to making homeownership accessible and sustainable for all Floridians. Her strategic approach and dedication to public service continue to drive the Authority's mission forward, ensuring that more families in Florida achieve the dream of owning a home. The Authority is proud to be a member of NALHFA and share our story in making affordable housing magic happen!

Satish Bhaskar
Executive Vice President/CFO, Housing Opportunity Management Enterprise (HOME)

Satish Bhaskar is an accomplished Financial professional with a demonstrated history of over four decades of extensive Finance, Administrative, and Executive experience. Currently he serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Housing Opportunity Management Enterprises (HOME), holding over two billion dollars in assets, an annual operating budget of over 160Million that serve over 55,000 El Pasoans. Satish moved to El Paso in 2008 and calls it home now. During his tenure at HOME, he has raised over 2Billion dollars without local government support thus increasing its portfolio from 6,400 housing units in 2018 to over 12,000 housing units currently. Satish oversees the Design, Construction, development Asset Management and financial Department. Through his leadership, the finance department has obtained fourteen clean audits and has been a recipient of the Budget of Excellence award from the Government Financial Officers Association for ten years.

Satish has been in the Housing industry since 2003. He led the efforts to transform the housing stock in El Paso by building 2,000 new units and gut-rehabbing over 4,000 unit as one of the first portfolio-wide converting Housing Authority in the United States through the RAD program. Previous experience includes serving as the Sr. Vice President/Chief Financial and Compliance Officer for the Work Force board in Kansas City.

Satish holds a master’s in finance degree for the University of Kerala, India; a degree I General Law from the University of Bombay, India, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from The University of Missouri, Kansas City’s Bloch school of Business. Satish currently serves on the Board of Workforce Solutions and BorderPlex Community Capital Previously he served on the Advisory committee of the Small Business Administration, which provided micro loans for small and upcoming business up to 25K.

Bill Brewer
Executive Director, Nevada Rural Housing

As the executive director of Nevada Rural Housing (2015-present), Bill leads the senior leadership team in the implementation of the vision of its governing Board, and fulfilling the agency's mission to promote, provide and finance affordable housing opportunities for all rural Nevadans. Bill believes in the mission of Nevada Rural Housing to his core - and behind that belief is the all-out confidence in the best, brightest and most dedicated team on the planet to deliver it. | |Bill's first job in the housing business was almost 40 years ago when he began working for the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA). In 1994, he became the first Housing Program Director for the new Nevada State Office of FmHA, which subsequently became the state office of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development. During his tenure as Program Director at USDA, Bill was responsible for the investment of more than $1 billion in rural Nevada, assisting hundreds of families with their dream of homeownership and providing decent, safe, and affordable rental housing to seniors and families throughout rural Nevada. Bill has extensive experience developing and implementing single- and multi-family housing programs, fostering public-private partnerships and overseeing all aspects of loan making and loan servicing.

Joshua Canan
Senior Vice President - Originations, Merchants Capital Corp.

Joshua Canan serves as Senior Vice President of Originations at Merchants Capital, a leading national multifamily financing firm that has originated over $40 billion in FHA, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and balance sheet debt, along with more than $1.4 billion in tax credit equity financing. In this role, he is responsible for originating and structuring debt executions for acquisitions, refinances, bridge loans, re-syndications, construction, and permanent loans, including both tax-exempt and taxable bond transactions.

Before transitioning to Production in 2024, Mr. Canan spent over five years as the Deputy Chief Underwriter for Merchants Capital’s Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae debt platform. Since joining the firm in 2018, he has been directly involved in more than $3 billion in debt production and underwriting.

Prior to Merchants Capital, Mr. Canan held various positions at Merchants Bank of Indiana and First Merchants Bank, where he specialized in real estate underwriting, affordable housing, and preservation. 

Dede Cross
director, stifel

DeDe Cross is a Director at Stifel and part of the firm’s Single Family Housing Group. Ms. Cross is a senior member of the group, leading the team’s Program Administration efforts. She supports of number local programs nationwide, in various states and major metropolitan areas.

Ms. Cross has more than 20 years of experience in financial services, including work at George K. Baum & Company and Banc of America Securities. Her experience includes structuring and executing real estate secured financings; military, multifamily and single-family housing issues. Ms. Cross holds a B.S. in Mathematics with an emphasis in Actuarial Science from the University of Northern Colorado.

Suzanne Denihan
Vice President, eHousingPlus

Sue Denihan is one of the Founding members of eHousingPlus. Sue's current role is the Vice President of Services and Program Administration for eHousingPlus. She oversees the team that|manages the day-to-day operations and staff, heading the Onboarding and Training Staff for the Program Administration Group. She has led the division for 27 years and is the co-creator of the HFA (Housing Finance Agency) program administration and compliance services model. Sue also works with the client relationship team, managing relationships with the federal, state and local agencies eHousingPlus collaborates with throughout the country.

Kathryn Driver
Executive Director, Housing Finance Authority of Pinellas County, Florida

Kathryn Driver has been the Executive Director since March 2014. Ms. Driver is responsible for all aspects and transactions of the HFA to assist in accomplishing the HFA's mission of alleviating a shortage of affordable housing in Pinellas County through the issuance of single-family mortgage revenue bonds and down payment assistance for low- to moderate-income first-time homebuyers and also through the issuance of tax-exempt and taxable multifamily bonds to help finance the new construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of multifamily developments for very low-, low- and moderate-income renters. Prior to her appointment as Executive Director Ms. Driver served as Vice President at RBC Capital Markets (and William R. Hough & Co. prior to its merger with RBC). She has over 30 years' experience in the municipal finance and housing finance field. Ms. Driver serves as President of the Florida Association of Local Housing Finance Authorities, is a Board Member of the National Association of Local Housing Finance Authorities, and is a member of the Florida Housing Coalition, the National chapter of Women in Public Finance and is Past-President of the Florida chapter of Women in Public Finance.

Shani Dunes
Director of Human Resources and Administration, Nevada Rural Housing

Shani is the Director of Human Resources at Nevada Rural Housing (NRH), where she brings over 20 years of HR experience and a deep commitment to creating a safe, supportive, and transparent work environment. Since joining NRH in 2019, she has led efforts around strategic planning, compliance, recruitment, compensation, training, and risk management—all while contributing to the agency’s mission of helping more rural Nevadans find a place to call home.

Previously, Shani served as Risk Benefits Safety Manager for the Lyon County School District and spent 12 years at POOL/PACT Human Resources, where she was promoted to Senior Business Partner. She holds a BS in Human Resources Management from Western Governors University and holds multiple certifications including SHRM-CP, IPMA-SCP, and PHR.

A proud wife, mom, grandma, and great-grandma, Shani values family, laughter, and adventure—bringing her whole heart to both her personal and professional life.

Eric Enderlin
President, NYC HDC

Eric Enderlin has served as President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) since October 2016. As President of HDC, Mr. Enderlin is tasked with leading the nation's largest municipal Housing Finance Agency towards furthering the Administration's goals to create and preserve affordable housing and rehabilitate the city's public housing stock. Mr. Enderlin brings more than 20 years of experience in public policy and affordable housing to HDC. He most recently served as Deputy Commissioner for Development and Special Advisor at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Prior to joining HPD, Mr. Enderlin was Assistant Director for Asset Management and Private Market Operations at NYCHA; worked as a consultant with the Louis Berger Group in its Economics Department; and served as Principal Planner and land use mediator with the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (NJ COAH). Mr. Enderlin holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a Master of Science in urban planning and policy, both from Rutgers University.

Karen Fitzgerald
Senior Director, Fitch Ratings

As Senior Director and Sector Head for Community Development & Social Lending (CDSL) in U.S. Public Finance (USPF) at Fitch Ratings, Karen Fitzgerald, CFA, provides analytical and managerial leadership for the CDSL team. Karen has broad knowledge and insight into the debt and capital markets and a comprehensive understanding of rating criteria across USPF and Structured Finance asset classes. She leads the development of criteria, methodology and sector credit factors for affordable housing, essential housing, and military housing transactions, as well as for CDFIs and HFAs. Karen also regularly publishes clear and forward looking research, commentary and reports that communicate Fitch's views on topical issues in the affordable housing and community development sectors. Karen is well-known for initiating and driving collaboration between her team and other areas of Fitch to develop new analytical approaches for rating complex and novel transactions. She is also frequently invited to speak at major industry conferences, showcasing her knowledge and expertise in the affordable housing and community development sectors.

Prior to joining Fitch, Karen spent over two decades at S&P Global Ratings, where she developed a reputation as a recognized leader in affordable housing and municipal structured finance. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School, a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA in finance from Yale University’s School of Management. Karen is based in Fitch’s San Francisco office.

Helen Feinberg
Manager of Multifamily Originations, RBC Capital Markets

Helen Hough Feinberg serves as manager of RBC Capital Markets Multifamily Tax-Exempt Bond originations nationally. Ms. Feinberg has over 35 years' experience in the affordable housing sector having served as underwriter or placement agent on a wide range of single family and multifamily transactions including low-income housing tax credit, workforce, housing authority and 501(c)(3) financings. Her client base includes state and local housing finance agencies, public housing authorities, developers and non-profits. |Ms. Feinberg graduated from Wake Forest University where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in both Economics and Spanish. She is a licensed Municipal Securities Principal, Municipal Advisor Principal and General Securities Principal. Ms. Feinberg currently serves as an advisory council member for the Florida Housing Coalition and a board member of the Coalition of Affordable Housing Providers. Ms. Feinberg has served as a past Chair of the Florida Affordable Housing Study Commission appointed by Governor Jeb Bush and member of Fannie Mae's National Advisory Council.

Rachael Jensen
Associate, Chapman and Cutler LLP

Rachael Jensen is an associate and a member of Chapman's Public Finance Department. Her practice is focused on taxable and tax-exempt financings, primarily involving multifamily housing developments. Rachael has experience serving as partnership counsel in connection with multifamily financings involving the use of bonds, tax credits and other tax subsidies. She also advises the boards of governmental nonprofit entities in connection with housing finance and other governance matters. Prior to joining Chapman, Rachael served as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs/Executive Agency Counsel at the New York City Administration for Children's Services, where she coordinated the agency’s legislative activities and cultivated relationships to support the agency’s goals. Rachael presents on housing finance topics and recently participated in the "Best Practices in Workforce Housing Developments" panel at the 2024 Texas Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies.

Peter Lawrence
Chief Public Policy Officer, Novogradac

Peter Lawrence is Chief Public Policy Officer of Novogradac & Company LLP, primarily responsible for leading the firm's Public Policy department. Mr. Lawrence collaborates on the development and execution of Novogradac's public policy strategy, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders respond to legislative and regulatory developments and provide insights and guidance to leadership on policy matters in the firm's practice areas of affordable housing, community development, historic preservation and renewable energy. |Prior to joining Novogradac Consulting LLP, Mr. Lawrence was the senior director of public policy and government affairs for Enterprise Community Partners where he led the execution of Enterprise's policy and advocacy agenda. |While at Enterprise, he helped found the Affordable Rental Housing A.C.T.I.O.N. (A Call to Invest in Our Neighborhoods) Campaign, the big tent industry coalition of coalitions bringing investors, syndicators, for-profit and nonprofit developers, and other LIHTC professionals in all 50 states together to advocate for the credit.|He has served on the board of directors of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, as well as the board of directors of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. Mr. Lawrence was also previously a legislative and policy associate at the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA), a housing policy analyst for the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities, a congressional fellow for Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island in his capacity as the Ranking Member of the Senate Housing and Transportation Subcommittee and a presidential management fellow for the Office of Policy Development & Research at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.

Annie Lee
Director, BofA Securities

Annie Lee provides investment banking coverage and transaction execution to state and local housing finance agencies nationwide, including cash flow modeling and bond structuring. Annie joined BofA Securities Housing Finance Group in 2022 after being at J.P. Morgan/Bear Stearns since 2000 where she focused on structuring cash flow projections for single and multifamily transactions. Annie has worked with numerous housing finance agencies in her tenure including Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York City HDC, New York State HFA, Ohio, Rhode Island, SONYMA and Vermont. Annie received her B.A. from Smith College with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Economics.

Elizabeth Moya
Executive Director, El Paso Housing Finance Corp

Elizabeth Moya has served the El Paso Housing Finance Corporation for approximately 20 years, first as a Board member and then as the organization's Executive Director. She has held other professional roles in commercial real estate development, financial consulting, banking and non-profit leadership. She has earned an MBA in International Business and a BBA in Finance. She is a proud mother of 3 beautiful children and 2 tenacious pets. Her hobbies include traveling, learning new things, hiking, dancing and spending time with friends and family. Elizabeth continues to serve her community through her Board and volunteer service.

Timothy Nelson
Senior Managing Director, Hilltop Securities Inc.

Mr. Nelson has been a leader in the affordable housing arena for over 40 years. He has worked as an investment banker, a financial advisor, and as an issuer at the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Mr. Nelson's work includes representing many issuers as Financial Advisor on both single and multifamily transactions. Currently, Mr. Nelson is employed by Hilltop Securities Inc. as a Senior Managing Director and Affordable Housing Manager in Austin, Texas.

Ferdinand Perrault
Vice President & Senior Credit Officer, Moodys

Ferdinand Perrault is a Vice President - Senior Credit Officer in Moody's Public | Finance Housing & State Revolving Funds Team. He serves as a tenured member and rating committee chair for Housing, State Revolving Funds and Infrastructure Finance |credits with over 20 years of experience. He is also the lead analyst for state and local |housing finance agency single and multifamily bond programs as well as for clean |water and drinking water revolving funds. In addition, he maintains a portfolio of |project finance credits within the housing sector. He is also the Public Finance Outreach Lead overseeing issuer and investor outreach. He also serves as the Surveillance coordinator, overseeing the process of ensuring timely reviews of the team's credit portfolio.

Mike Ridenour
Director - Municipal Markets, RBC Capital Markets

Mike joined RBC Capital Markets in 2007 and has held various roles in secondary trading and underwriting within the municipal group. He is currently responsible for all of RBC's single and multi-family underwriting. He holds a B.A. in English from Westmont College.

Angel Romero
HFA Relationship Manager, Down Payment Resource

Angel Romero is housing finance agency relationship manager at Down Payment Resource (DPR). A skilled communicator and strategic thinker, Romero wields a decade of mortgage industry experience as she builds and maintains DPR's relationships with hundreds of local housing finance agencies nationwide. ||Romero has developed a strong reputation in the housing finance ecosystem for her dedication to developing partnerships and strategies that make down payment and homebuyer assistance more accessible to the underserved communities that need them most. Prior to joining DPR, Romero served as AVP, post-closing manager and resident housing program expert at Cherry Creek Mortgage, where she helped drive the company's expansion into new markets with the help of DPR's robust DPA Directory.

Rachel Sanchez
Vice President, Morgan Stanley

Rachel Sanchez is a Vice President in Morgan Stanley's Affordable Housing Group and has experience covering State Housing Finance Agencies across the country and executing both single-family and multifamily bond financings. Rachel is a quantitative and technical banker and leads analysis and transaction execution for many of the group’s clients. She has direct experience structuring and performing the yield analysis for tax-exempt and taxable housing issues, including traditional mortgage revenue bond issues, variable rate demand bonds, put bonds, floating rate notes, and other structures. In addition, she has experience working with non-profit affordable housing developers to assist them in raising flexible capital and supporting their production of affordable housing. Ms. Sanchez received a B.S. in Human and Organizational Development and Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Melissa Schirz
Director of HFA Engagement, Freddie Mac

Melissa Schirz is a director of HFA Engagement within the Freddie Mac Single Family division. She manages relationships with Housing Finance Agencies and Community Development Financial Institutions throughout the Midwest and South-Central U.S. to ensure access to loan programs, technology, and training to support their mission of creating affordable and sustainable homeownership.
Before joining Freddie Mac, she spent 9 years at Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation supporting Housing Finance Agencies and Community Banks through marketing, outreach, and training initiatives. Prior to MGIC, Ms. Schirz spent her early career in processing, secondary marketing, and sales for national correspondent aggregators.
Ms. Schirz holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater Performance from Stephen F. Austin State University and a residential Certified Mortgage Banker designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Vikram Shah
Senior Vice President, Jefferies

Vikram is a Senior Vice President in Jefferies' Public Finance Housing and Real Estate Group. With 18 years of experience in affordable housing finance as both a banker and advisor, he has senior managed over $12 billion and structured over $35 billion in housing financings throughout his career. At Jefferies, Vikram is involved in all facets of affordable housing, including middle-income housing transactions, tax-exempt securitizations, new money, refunding, and restructuring transactions for state and local HFAs across both single-family and multi-family sectors. ||Prior to his current role at Jefferies, Vikram spent 7 years as a senior banker in the housing group at Barclays. There, he was responsible for providing lead banking coverage to HFAs for bond issuance transactions as well as direct purchase, liquidity facilities and derivatives executions. Prior to his banking career, Vikram spent 10 years as a municipal advisor, focusing on structuring housing bond issues, financial management of large parity HFA resolutions, tax compliance and optimization strategies, and assessments of portfolio risk and capital adequacy for large HFA balance sheets. Vikram holds an MS in Financial Engineering from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the S.V. National Institute of Technology in India.| |In addition to his role at Jefferies, Vikram also serves as a board member for Housing Plus, a supportive housing and affordable housing non-profit organization based in New York City that embraces the Housing First model.

Andrea Shields
Executive Director, Capital Area Housing Finance Corporation

Andrea Shields joined the Capital Area Housing Finance Corporation (CAHFC) as Deputy Director in January 2024. She was named Executive Director beginning in April of 2025. Ms. Shields is responsible for designing and implementing single-family and multifamily affordable housing programs using various financing sources. Prior to her time at CAHFC, she ran the Travis County Housing Finance Corporation since 2011. In her tenure at TCHFC, she oversaw the issuance of approximately $800 million in private activity bonds and created or maintained the affordability of more than 11,000 units of multifamily housing for the citizens of Travis County.

Ms. Shields began her work in the affordable housing industry in 2004 when she was a research associate with the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers (TAAHP), providing legislative and policy research for members. She continued her work in the affordable housing industry at Novogradac and Company LLP as a Senior Real Estate Analyst. At Novogradac, she was responsible for facilitating strategic planning for developers, investors, syndicators and local officials while developing specific recommendations for design, location, and implementation of market rate, tax-exempt bond and tax credit housing nationwide, with a specific focus on Texas, California and Florida.

Ms. Shields is the Immediate Past President of the Texas Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies and has served on the Board of Directors since 2016.

Chris Spelbring
Managing Director, Raymond James’ National Housing Group

Chris Spelbring is a Managing Director and a member of Raymond James’ National Housing Group. He possesses over 25 years of municipal housing finance experience, and he provides comprehensive banking services to a diverse client base of state and local housing finance agencies. Mr. Spelbring plays a primary role in the analysis, structuring and pricing of bond transactions for which he has implemented a wide variety of financing structures.  His experience also includes participation in the development and ongoing management of Raymond James’ TBA-based “Turnkey” mortgage origination program in addition to providing broker/dealer services to housing finance agency clients for TBA and mortgage-backed securities trades.

William Wilcox
Bond Program Manager, San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development

William Wilcox joined the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) in 2022 as the bond program manager. He oversees all conduit bond issuance, the development of new housing finance tools, state and federal housing finance policy advocacy, and provides in-house technical expertise across multi-family development at MOHCD. William earned his Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California Berkeley’s Goldman School with a focus on housing policy. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago.