Minnesota 2014 Healthy Communities Conference: Measuring our Impact

Speakers

Andriana Abariotes
Executive Director
LISC Twin Cities

Andriana Abariotes, executive director for the Twin Cities office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), joined the national community development intermediary in 1999 to help oversee its local grantmaking, external relations, and public policy efforts. Known for its innovation in the field, Twin Cities LISC is focused on supporting more collaborative approaches across neighborhoods and sectors including health, education, and arts/culture; growing diverse leadership; and strengthening a regional community development system. To date, LISC has invested over $477 million in grants, loans, and equity in the Twin Cities region, helping create nearly 12,000 units of affordable housing and 1.6 million square feet of commercial and community facilities, leveraging another $1.8 billion of investment in Twin Cities neighborhoods. Abariotes has served as an advisor on several boards and task forces seeking to integrate strategies locally and nationally, including the Corridors of Opportunity Policy Board, the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood, the Community Resource Board for the Backyard Initiative, Family Housing Fund, Twin Cities Community Land Bank, and Reconnecting America. With over 20 years of experience, she draws from previous work with a range of organizations serving geographic, regional, and cultural communities. She holds a B.A. from Macalester College and master’s degree in public affairs from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. She lives in St. Paul with her husband and son.

Frank Altman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Community Reinvestment Fund, USA

Frank Altman is president and CEO of Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF). He pioneered the development of a secondary market for community and economic development loans when he established the organization. Under Altman’s leadership, CRF has grown from a small Minneapolis firm to a national organization serving community based lenders across the country. In addition, Altman is a founding member and first president of the board of directors of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. He helped design the creation of a federal tax credit to encourage private investment in low-income communities. Prior to founding CRF, he served as Assistant Commissioner for Financial Management at the Minnesota Department of Energy and Economic Development, where he administered several loan programs designed to create jobs in energy-related industries, promote energy conservation in public and private buildings, and finance manufacturing facilities in small communities. Earlier in his career, he served as Manager of Energy Conservation and Residential Financing Programs at the Minnesota Energy Agency and as a housing officer at the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency. Most recently in 2014, GIS Planning Inc. of San Francisco, in partnership with fDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times in London, awarded Altman the Economic Development Innovation Award for his contribution to the field of economic development. Altman was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2013. Ashoka is a global association of roughly 3,000 social entrepreneurs working on issues from health care to human rights, from the environment to full economic citizenship. In 2012, Altman was awarded the first annual “Progress Minnesota” Award. The Finance & Commerce “Progress Minnesota 2012” awards program was established to recognize those individuals and companies who drive business and industrial growth and economic development in Minnesota in unique and innovative ways. In 2008, Altman and CRF received the Social Capitalist Award (“45 Social Entrepreneurs Who are Changing the World”) from FastCompany magazine and Monitor Group. Altman was named an Aspen Institute Fellow at the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival. Inc. Magazine recognized Frank Altman in its 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year issue as one of the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs. The Small Business Administration also recognized him as Financial Services Advocate of the Year in 1993. He shares his expertise with numerous social and financial organizations across the country, including Center for Community Development Investments of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, The Financial Innovations Roundtable, Wall Street Without Walls, and US SIF—the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment and the US SIF Foundation.

Brooke Finn
Vice President, NeighborWorks Services Group
NeighborWorks America

Brooke Finn leads several service entities for NeighborWorks America—including Success Measures, Organizational Assessment, and Leadership/Workforce Development—that offer the broader community development field, and the NeighborWorks network, innovative and effective tools to strengthen organizations, leaders, programs, and—ultimately—communities. Most recently, this has included directing a national initiative for all 240 members of the NeighborWorks network to use shared measures in evaluating impacts of their housing and community development efforts on target communities. At NeighborWorks, Finn previously served as Deputy Director of National Initiatives and Applied Research, and as Director of Program Integration and Planning, responsible for corporate-wide coordination and implementation of the strategic plan, as well as related performance measurement strategies and initiatives. Before joining NeighborWorks in 1996, she worked in community development in the international sector through Peace Corps, as Peace Corps Volunteer in the Central African Republic and as Peace Corps Fellow, Associate Peace Corps Director/Philippines, and National Director of Placement. She holds an M.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University with a concentration in International Development, and a B.A. in American Studies from Kirkland College. She spends her “spare” time on her organic herb farm north of Boston.

Amy Gillman
Senior Program Director
National LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation)

For more than 20 years, Amy Gillman has been instrumental in improving social and economic well-being in low-income neighborhoods. As a national program director at LISC, the country’s largest community development nonprofit, Gillman focuses on integrating health strategies into neighborhood revitalization and increasing access to early education. Prior to joining LISC, she held numerous positions in social welfare policy and international community development in New York and Washington, D.C. Gillman holds a master’s degree in management from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University.

Jacqueline King
Vice President of Community Development and Outreach
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Jacqueline King (Jacqui) is Vice President of Community Development and Regional Outreach for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. She also serves as a deputy Equal Employment Opportunity officer. She began her career with the Federal Reserve System in 1996, when she joined the Board of Governors as a Community Affairs Specialist in Washington, D.C., and later spent several years in the Community Affairs department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland before joining the Minneapolis Fed. In addition to her Reserve Bank responsibilities, King volunteers for numerous organizations in the Twin Cities and Dakota County. She has served on numerous boards and has worked on community development initiatives with a variety of organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, Minnesota Homeownership Center, and Rural Dynamics of Montana. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Metropolitan State University and a mentor for Menttium. She received her master’s degree in public administration from Central Michigan University.

Dave Kleiber
Project Consultant
Capital Link

Dave Kleiber joined Capital Link as a project consultant in May 2004. Capital Link works primarily with Federally Qualified Health Centers to assist them in planning for and accessing financing to facilitate capital projects and equipment purchases. Kleiber has performed numerous feasibility analyses, market assessments, financial projections, and business plans for community health centers across the country. He specializes in helping centers utilize the New Markets Tax Credit program. Kleiber is located in Capital Link’s Washington State office.

Paul W. Mattessich, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Wilder Research

Paul W. Mattessich, Ph.D., is the executive director of Wilder Research, a division of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wilder Research is one of the largest nonpartisan research organizations in the U.S. dedicated to studying the effectiveness of human service, public health, and education programs and supporting their improvement through evaluation, assessment, and research. Dr. Mattessich has authored more than 300 publications, including four books on the topics of managing program evaluation to measure impacts and improve effectiveness, making nonprofit collaboration successful, and building the social capacity of communities. He also frequently lectures on trends that influence communities’ quality of life and is the director for Minnesota Compass, an award-winning, web-based social indicators project supported by a consortium of funders, in which Wilder Research serves as the lead organization (www.minnesotacompass.org). Mattessich has over 30 years of experience in nonprofit, government, and academic sectors working on issues related to program effectiveness and social policy, and has served on numerous special task forces and nonprofit boards. He currently sits on the boards of the Hamm Memorial Psychiatric Clinic and of Minnesota Community Measurement. He has an appointment as Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Youth Studies, School of Social Work, at the University of Minnesota. He received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Minnesota.

Stacey Millett
Senior Program Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation

Stacy Millett is a community development professional with executive and hands-on experience spanning national and neighborhood organizations. Millett has transferred her strong track record of success in partnership and program development to the landscape of improving health outcomes for individuals and communities. As a senior program officer with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, her major responsibilities include developing, managing, and evaluating a portfolio of grants and projects to advance health equity in low-income communities; participating in program planning, communications, and evaluation activities; sharing health equity and other foundation initiatives with cross-department staff by participating in strategic planning sessions and conducting presentations; and representing the foundation with national funder, statewide stakeholder, and community development audiences. As a television journalist, Millett covered breaking news and produced in-depth documentaries, and was awarded a competitive Journalist in Residence fellowship at the University of Michigan. After changing careers, she employed her oral, written, and public presentation communications talents in community development. Millett’s roles in the community development field include serving as a program officer with a housing development intermediary, where she secured a national grant to create the Careership leadership program for people of color; as the executive director of a St. Paul community development corporation, where she assembled partners and financing for multimillion-dollar neighborhood projects; and as the director of an affiliate of an international nonprofit homeownership housing developer, where she retooled a challenged department into an efficient and productive one. Millett has a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University, an M.S. in television and radio from Syracuse University, and an M.B.A. in marketing from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Alonzo Plough
Vice President of Research & Evaluation and Chief Science Officer
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Alonzo L. Plough, Ph.D., M.P.H., joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as Vice President, Research-Evaluation-Learning and Chief Science Officer in January 2014. Plough came to the foundation from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, where he served as Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response from 2009 to 2013. In that role, Plough was responsible for the leadership and management of the public health preparedness activities protecting the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County from natural disasters and threats related to disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies. He coordinated activities in emergency operations, infectious disease control, risk communication, planning, and community engagement. Prior to this position, Plough served as Vice President of Strategy, Planning, and Evaluation for The California Endowment from 2005 to 2009. He was responsible for the leadership of the endowment’s strategic planning and development, evaluation, research, and organizational learning. Plough also served 10 years as Director and Health Officer for the Seattle and King County Department of Public Health, and Professor of Health Services at the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle. He previously served as Director of Public Health in Boston for eight years. Plough earned his Ph.D. and M.A. at Cornell University, and his M.P.H. at Yale University School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. He did his undergraduate work at St. Olaf College, where he earned a B.A. He has held academic appointments at Harvard University School of Public Health, Tufts University Department of Community Medicine, and Boston University School of Management. He has been the recipient of numerous awards for public service and leadership and is the author of an extensive body of scholarly articles, books, and book chapters. Plough lives in Princeton, N.J., and is married with two adult sons.

Ela Rausch
Project Manager
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Ela Rausch is a project manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. In her current position, she conducts research and outreach on a wide range of issues that impact the economic health of low- to moderate-income neighborhoods and households, and oversees the Minneapolis Fed’s work on healthy communities. Ela has worked in the fields of housing and community development for 15 years and has experience with evaluation and metrics development in a variety of settings. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and American Studies from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Public Policy degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Minnesota Housing Studies program.