NeighborWorks Training Institute
New Orleans, LA • Wednesday, March 3, 2010
8:30am – 4:00pm
Dee Davis Guest Speaker at Symposium Dee Davis is the founder of the Center for Rural Strategies. Dee has helped design and lead national public information campaigns on topics as diverse as commercial television programming and federal banking policy. Dee began his media career in 1973 at Appalshop, an arts and cultural center devoted to exploring Appalachian life and social issues in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Dee went on to serve as executive producer of Appalshop Films and Headwaters Television. During his tenure, the organization created more than 50 public TV documentaries, established a media training program for Appalachian youth, and launched initiatives that use media as a strategic tool in organization and development. Dee served as president and chairman of the board of the Independent Television Service, president of Kentucky Citizens for the Arts, and as a panelist and consultant to numerous private and public agencies. He serves on the board of directors of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Fund for Innovative Television, and Feral Arts of Brisbane, Australia. He is also a member of the national advisory boards of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI).
Lorna Bourg, Co-Founder, Executive Director and President, Southern Mutual Help Association
Ms. Bourg has over forty years experience working for economic and environmental justice in Louisiana low wealth rural communities. Her skills as educator and organizer have enabled challenged rural communities to develop a vision and determine goals and strategies toward long term improvement. She has extensive experience in the housing and construction industry. Ms. Bourg serves as an advisor to foundations and public policy makers on issues of housing, economic and human development, and public policy. She has a BS and MS in Psychology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Graduate of University of Wisconsin’s Extension Service Program: Community Organization, Community Development, Communications and Program Design.Graduate of the Center for Popular Economics at University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Ms. Bourg served as Commissioner on the MidSouth Commission to Build Philanthropy; on U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Louisiana Advisory Committee; Co-Founder and first President of Sustained Excellence Alliance Corporation (SEACorp); Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives Program; Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow; James A. Johnson Community Development Fellowship, Inaugural Class; Co-Founder and currently serves as Treasurer of Southern Mutual Financial Services, Inc., a certified Community Development Financial Institution.
Under Ms. Bourg’s leadership, Southern Mutual Help Association received the Rural LISC Pioneer in Excellence Award, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition National Achievement Award, the Independent Sector Leadership Award and the Fannie Mae Foundation Sustained Excellence Award.
David Dangler, Director NeighborWorks Rural Initiative, NeighborWorks America
David R. Dangler heads up the NeighborWorks Rural Initiative. Over 100 of the 230 organizations that comprise the NeighborWorks network serve rural communities, delivering essential services and investments in homeownership, rental housing, community revitalization, economic development and quality manufactured housing. Uniquely positioned to deliver coordinated and highly leveraged solutions to some of the most pressing challenges across rural America, NeighborWorks is committed to supporting a strong and vibrant rural America through substantial investments, training and technical assistance. NeighborWorks organizations are active in 1,268 rural and mixed rural counties in 46 states plus Puerto Rico. Annually these organizations directly invest over $1.2 billion in their communities through housing and economic development.
Prior to joining NeighborWorks America, Dangler served for 14 years as the founding executive director of NeighborWorks of Western Vermont. As a practitioner, Dangler opened the first rural NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center in the country, received the first NeighborWorks charter in the nation and co-founded RNA Community Builders, a national CDFI.
Dangler has served on numerous regional and national boards and is currently a member of the National Rural Housing Coalition board and CFED's I'M HOME investment committee, in addition to being an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University. For further information about the NeighborWorks system including NeighborWorks America, Neighborhood Housing Services of America and membership in the NeighborWorks network, go to www.nw.org.
Stacy Epperson, President & CEO, Frontier Housing
Stacey Epperson is a native of rural Kentucky and has lived in Kentucky and worked in affordable housing her entire career. Over the last nine years, she has served as President and CEO for Frontier Housing, a nonprofit committed to providing affordable housing choices for families living in the rural northeastern part of the Commonwealth. Stacey has worked to triple Frontier's total production, loan fund and net worth. Frontier is a NeighborWorks Chartered Member with an Exemplary rating. She has led Frontier to be one of the nation’s most respected nonprofit providers of manufactured housing and has partnered with Clayton Homes.
In 2009, Stacey was named one of CFED's Innovators-in-Residence, strong leaders who will take their proven ideas for economic and social improvement to scale nationally. CFED provides a stipend, technical support and a 12 month virtual residency. Stacey remains President, but has stepped out of the active role of CEO of Frontier while she manages Frontier's strategic alliance with Clayton Homes, the leading home builder in the nation. The elements are now in place to create the first national network of nonprofit homebuilders using factory built homes, the Frontier Network. This unprecedented public-private partnership creates a new market dynamic that makes it easier for more low-income families to achieve homeownership.
Stacey has completed the Achieving Excellence in Community Development Program at Harvard’s JFK School of Government. She received a Masters of Public Administration at Western Kentucky University and attended the University of Kentucky Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. She was the recipient of a Housing and Urban Development Work-Study Fellowship.
Stacey serves on the board of Kentucky Housing Corporation, National Rural Housing Coalition and the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises (FAHE), in addition to the Advisory Council for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati.
Elise Hoben, Director, Rural LISC
Elise J. Hoben has served as Program Vice President for Rural LISC and an Officer of the National Local Initiatives Support Corporation since 1997. She designs and supervises the program staff’s delivery of technical and financial assistance to 61 rural CDCs in 31 states to build the capacity of rural Community Development Corporations (CDCs) to undertake significant community and economic development projects. In that capacity, she is responsible for senior credit decisions and for overseeing and assisting program staff in underwriting potential investments using the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and the New Markets Tax Credit programs as well as other financial tools.
Hoben serves on the National Senior Management Committee, the National LISC Credit Committee, Credit and Fiscal Watch Committees, Credit Risk Review Committee, and the Organizational Development Advisory Committee. Prior to joining LISC, Hoben held various positions with the City of Kalamazoo, including Manager of the Neighborhood and Community Development Department. Hoben holds a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Western Michigan University.
Julio Lamas, Hosted by Mercy Housing California
Julio Lamas was born in San Jose. His parents emigrated from Mexico and have many years of experience as farm-workers and in more recent years as construction entrepreneurs. Julio currently attends the University of California, Davis (UCD), and next year he will be the first person in his family to graduate from college with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Community and Regional Development, with an emphasis in Social Services.
Julio's passion in working towards social justice has driven his involvement on and off-campus throughout his university experience. He has participated in various service learning programs including the ACORN program, which connects college students with low-income, minority youth in impoverished communities and provides homework assistance, recreational activities, and mentor figures. He has traveled to Puntarenas, Costa Rica and interned at a boy's orphanage and a community foster home through a psycho-social program. One of the organizations he has been consistently active on thorough his college years is Nu Alpha Kappa Fraternity (NAK), Inc., a Latino-based fraternity, where he has held the positions of historian, pledge educator and president.
Julio's personal and previous work experience in working alongside communities experiencing difficulties accessing opportunities earned him a CCRH Internship Program position with Mercy Housing California in West Sacramento, CA. He was recently selected to participate in the Great Valley Center's Institute for the Development of Emerging Area Leaders fellowship, which provides support to enable participants to better address issues of leadership and to acquire a new frame of reference and improved tools to deal with complex and broad issues in California's Central Valley.
James Lindberg, CEO, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Jim Lindberg is the Director of Preservation Initiatives in the Mountains/Plains Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, located in Denver. He also serves as the coordinator of the National Trust's Rural Heritage Partnership.
A native of Iowa City, IA, Lindberg received his BA degree in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Haverford College in 1981 and his MS degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont in 1991.
Since joining the National Trust, Lindberg has helped establish statewide Main Street programs in Colorado and Nebraska and helped to develop the Prairie Churches of North Dakota project, a collaborative effort to save that state's diverse collection of historic rural churches. In 2010, he edited a special issue of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Forum Journal, entitled "Heritage-Based Rural Development."
Lindberg is the author of numerous articles on historic preservation and is a co-author of four books — Heritage-Based Rural Development: Principles, Strategies and Steps (National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2010, forthcoming), Rocky Mountain Rustic: Historic Buildings in the Rocky Mountain National Park Area (Rocky Mountain Nature Association, 2004), Protecting America's Historic Neighborhoods: Taming the Teardown Trend (National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2002) and A Pictorial History of the University of Iowa (University of Iowa Press, 1988).
Moises Loza, Executive Director, Housing Assistance Council
Moises Loza is the Executive Director of the Housing Assistance Council (HAC), a national non-profit corporation that works to increase the availability of decent housing for rural low-income people. The organization provides technical assistance, training and research and has a revolving loan fund with assets of approximately $72 million to assist with the development of housing for low income families and hard to serve populations in rural areas, especially the Appalachian area, the colonias along the U.S.-Mexico border, the lower Mississippi Delta, migrant farmworkers and Native Americans. HAC has loaned over $255 million, which has helped build over 64,000 units in 49 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; it also conducts legislative policy and program analyses to assist federal, state and public bodies and others to serve rural areas more effectively.
Currently the chairman of Rural Development Leadership Network, Mr. Loza also serves as Treasurer of the National Low Income Housing Coalition and on the boards of directors of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the National Housing Conference and the National Rural Housing Coalition.
Mr. Loza grew up in South Texas. A member of a migrant farmworker family, he traveled extensively with his family seeking farmwork in the South, Midwest and West.
Bob F. Simpson,
Vice President of Rural, Native American, and Gulf Coast/Disaster Initiatives — Community Development, Fannie Mae
Bob F. Simpson is Fannie Mae's vice president of rural, Native American and Gulf Coast/disaster initiatives in Housing and Community Development. He reports directly to the senior vice president of Community Lending. Simpson coordinates the company's strategic activities and supports investment efforts targeted to rural, Native American and Gulf Coast /Disaster initiatives, and is responsible for the implementation of the company's new Duty to Serve requirements. Simpson also leads Fannie Mae's Affordable Business Channel, which provides long-term and short-term financing for small affordable multi-family lenders and Certified Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the country.
Before his present appointment, Simpson was the director of national rural and tribal initiatives, where he led his team in working across business lines to identify market opportunities in these under-served communities. From 2000 to 2005, he was the South Dakota partnership office director where he led Fannie Mae's affordable housing initiatives in South Dakota.
Prior to joining Fannie Mae in 2000, Simpson was a staff assistant, special assistant and economic development director for Senator Tom Daschle.
Simpson graduated from the University of South Dakota.
Michael Swack
Michael Swack is a professor at the University of New Hampshire where he has appointments at the Carsey Insitute and at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics. He has over 25 years experience in the fields of economic development, finance and development banking.
Victor Vasquez, Deputy Under Secretary for USDA Rural Development
Victor Vasquez was appointed by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as Deputy Under Secretary for USDA Rural Development on May 13, 2009.
Vasquez has had more than two decades of experience in government and private sector in community and economic development at the local, state, federal and international levels. His special interest is local decision making and leadership development.
Most recently, Vasquez served as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for the Department of Transitional Assistance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. His responsibilities included policy and program management for TANF, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and the Housing and Homeless Services programs. In addition to Massachusetts, he has worked in state governments in New York, Oregon and Washington.
Previously, Vasquez worked in Washington, DC, as the director for both economic development and Workfirst programs, and he also served with the Department of Defense as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Military Community and Family Policy Office in the Office of the Secretary. Victor spent more than five years working in Rural Development, serving as USDA assistant administrator in the Office of Community Development with responsibility for launching the Rural Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community program.
Vasquez received his BS Degree from the University of Oregon and holds an MPA from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has also pursued coursework toward a PhD in Community and Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University.
Register now for this exciting and informative event —
space is limited!
Presented by NeighborWorks America.
Symposium cost: $235 (includes materials, plenary session, workshops, keynote luncheon and networking reception)
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