Health & Housing Solutions Summit Speakers

SPEAKERS

Nancy Ackerman

Nancy is a deacon (lay minister) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Southwest California Synod, and a certified a fundraising executive. She was named president and CEO in 2021, after serving on the CLH board since 2019. Nancy was an assistant to the Lutheran bishop of the Southwest California Synod, ELCA, where she oversaw all corporate operations, including fiduciary stewardship, ethical practice, financial management, fund development, governance, board development, policy administration, personnel management, strategic planning and execution, property management, and legal matters. She also has been a vice president at Netzel Grigsby Associates (NGA), California-based fundraising consultants serving the western United States.

Jennifer Angarita

Jennifer brings nearly two decades of experience in community organizing, community development, labor, and philanthropy to Funders for Housing and Opportunity. Prior to joining FHO, she served as a Loan Fund Officer for BlueHub Capital, a national nonprofit Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) where she led strategic initiatives and managed a diverse portfolio of social impact loans. Previously, she was the National Worker Center Coordinator at the AFL-CIO, where she worked to develop and deepen strategic partnerships between worker centers and organized labor. Her diverse social sector experience includes research and consulting engagements with the City of Cambridge, United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and Peace First. She has served as an Opportunity Finance Fellow, a New Leaders Council Fellow, and a Sheila C. Johnson Fellow at the Harvard Center for Public Leadership. Currently, she serves on the board of The Kelsey. Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Yale University and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Peggy Bailey

Peggy Bailey is the Vice President for Housing and Income Security at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. She oversees the Center’s work to protect and expand access to affordable housing, improve states’ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and child support programs and expand employment opportunities to housing and cash assistance recipients. Throughout her career, she has helped build connections between the housing community and health, nutrition, child welfare, and other systems of care. Prior to rejoining the Center, Bailey served in the Biden/Harris Administration as the Senior Advisor on Rental Assistance to HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. She also served as the Director of Health Systems Integration for the Corporation for Supportive Housing.

Ryan Brooks

As Senior Principal for Health Policy & Analytics, Ryan works with the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) Outreach team in providing research, analysis, and contributions in the areas of healthcare collaboration and partnerships, telemedicine implementation, EHR optimization, value-based care transition, and the current regulatory and payor environment. These insights enable capital providers to evaluate risks and returns and to fine-tune their individual investment strategies. Prior to joining NIC, Ryan served as Administrator for multiple service lines within John Hopkins Health System, a large academic medical center based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Alía Fierro

Alía Fierro has worked under the leadership of Ranking Member Maxine Waters on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee for over 5 years where she currently serves as Director of Housing and Insurance Policy. She previously served as Associate Director of Policy with the National Fair Housing Alliance where her advocacy work focused on robust enforcement of the Fair Housing Act and the advancement of fair housing and lending policies. From 2016-17 she served as a CHCI Housing Graduate Fellow with both the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Secretary Julián Castro and the House Financial Services Committee.

Before her career in domestic housing policy, Alía specialized in international economic development with a focus on housing, collective ownership models, and land rights in México and Brazil. Alía holds a Master of City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and a B.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Julia Gordon

Julia R. Gordon serves as the Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Ms. Gordon is responsible for the Federal Housing Administration’s Single Family, Multifamily and Healthcare mortgage insurance programs, HUD’s Multifamily assisted housing portfolio, HUD’s housing counseling program, and HUD’s Manufactured Housing program.

Throughout her career, Ms. Gordon has been a strong advocate and hands-on practitioner working to achieve equal justice, fairness and equity in housing, and consumer protections. Prior to joining HUD, Ms. Gordon was most recently the President of the National Community Stabilization Trust and has also held leadership roles at the Center for American Progress, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Center for Responsible Lending.

Hannah Katch

Hannah Katch is a senior advisor in the Office of the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In this capacity, Katch advises the Administrator on Medicaid and CHIP policy, as well as a range of cross-cutting policy priorities, including maternal and child health, reproductive health, behavioral health, and health equity.

Prior to her presidential appointment at CMS, Katch served as a health policy expert and senior analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where she worked on Medicaid and health coverage expansion policy, providing expert analysis and policy recommendations to federal and state policymakers and other stakeholders. She previously served as an administrator of the California Medicaid program, where she oversaw the state’s Medicaid managed care, long term care, and specialty pediatric programs; and as a senior health policy advisor in the U.S. Senate. Katch is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and has been quoted in national news outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Vox, and Politico.

Jeffrey Lubell, J.D.

Jeffrey Lubell is the director of housing and community initiatives at Abt Associates. Lubell provides policy, program and research expertise to assist policymakers in solving the nation’s pressing challenges in the areas of affordable housing, economic inclusion and asset-building, and community developmentLubell has expanded awareness of the important role of housing in advancing key societal outcomes such as health, education, economic development and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining Abt, Lubell was the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Housing Policy and earlier served as director of the Policy Development Division in the Office of Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Candace Robinson

As Director, Healthy Communities at Capital Impact Partners, Candace assists in the development of community based systems and sustained infrastructure to expand access health equity. In this role, she collaborates with teams across the organization and externally with community based providers, government agencies and key stakeholders across the community development field to embed a focus on health equity in the organization’s strategy, culture and products.

Creating communities of opportunity, Capital Impact Partners, a member of Momentus Capital, is 40-year-old national, nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) developing capacity and capital solutions to support place focused interventions. Since 2004, Candace has supported the Capital Impact Partner’s strategy focused on aging and healthy communities to foster innovative solutions at the intersection of aging, affordable housing, community development and healthcare.

Dennis Shea

Dennis C. Shea is the Executive Director of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). His past work with the BPC includes serving as a consultant to the organization’s blue-ribbon Housing Commission and its Senior Health and Housing Task Force. In these roles, he contributed to two landmark reports, Housing America’s Future: New Directions for National Policy and Healthy Aging Begins at Home. During the Administration of President George W. Bush, Shea served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Michael Skrebutenas

As LISC’s senior vice president of housing, Michael Skrebutenas leads work on key systemic and policy issues, helps assemble vital housing capital, and oversees products and services to help LISC’s community-based partners meet critical affordable housing goals. Prior to LISC, Michael was the senior vice president and regional director of Community Preservation Corporation’s (CPC) Albany, New York, office, where he focused on construction and financing for affordable housing projects. He also served as president of housing preservation and executive deputy commissioner at New York State Homes and Community Renewal (NYS HCR) and as deputy secretary of economic development and housing for the New York governor’s office.

Kathy Stack

Kathy Stack is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy and the Federation of American Scientists. She leads projects that assist government officials, non-profit organizations, foundations, and research organizations develop strategies to advance use of data, evidence, and cross-program innovation in government social programs. Prior to leaving federal service in 2015, Kathy spent nearly three decades at the White House Office of Management and Budget overseeing education, workforce, human services, and evidence-based policy initiatives. After leaving OMB, Kathy served as a Vice President for several years at the Arnold Foundation. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.