Martin Eakes
Mr. Eakes is CEO and founder of Self-Help, a community development lender that was instrumental in establishing the Center for Responsible Lending. Self-Help has provided over $3.8 billion in financing to 40,000 homebuyers, small businesses and nonprofits. Mr. Eakes began his career in 1980, after graduating from Yale Law School and the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs. As a fledgling attorney practicing in Durham, N.C., Mr. Eakes started small-scale initiatives to help low-income North Carolinians buy homes and start businesses – work that ultimately evolved into Self-Help. Mr. Eakes has received a number of awards for his public service, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1996.
Laura Arce
Ms. Arce is senior vice president for Economic Initiatives at UnidosUS. Laura rejoined UnidosUS in 2022 to develop, launch, and lead the “Home Ownership Means Equity” (HOME) Initiative – a multi‐year institutional priority that seeks to transform the economic trajectory of Latinos through homeownership. Previously, Laura has held senior positions with Wells Fargo & Co., the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as well as other organizations across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. Laura currently sits on Fannie Mae’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council and has previously sat on the boards of the Mission Asset Fund and Community Tax Aid. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Rutgers University where she was a Community Development Fellow. Laura grew up in Oakland, CA – bilingual and bicultural – and is based in Washington, DC.
Amy Domini
Ms. Domini works with individuals to integrate social or ethical criteria into their investments at Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge. She is also the founder of Domini Impact Investments, LLC, a mutual fund family for socially responsible investors. She holds a B.A. in international economics from Boston University. Ms. Domini has been awarded an honorary doctor of business administration from Northeastern University College of Law and an honorary doctorate from Yale University’s Berkeley Divinity School. In 2008, Ms. Domini was named to Directorship magazine’s Directorship 100, the magazine’s listing of the most influential people on corporate governance and in the boardroom. In 2005, Time magazine named her to the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people. She is a past trustee of the Church Pension Board at the Episcopal Church (U.S.A.) and also a past board member of the governing board of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the National Community Capital Association, and the Social Investment Forum.
Mark Goldhaber
Mr. Goldhaber is a principal in Goldhaber Policy Services, LLC, a firm that focuses on government relations and issues management, primarily in the areas of housing, mortgage finance, and financial services. He brings over three decades of success in policy development, issues management and passage of legislation at the federal and state level. He was previously Senior Vice President, Affordable Housing & Industry Relations for Genworth Financial’s U.S. mortgage insurance business. Mr. Goldhaber was Vice President of Public Affairs for Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and has also held various legislative and regulatory positions with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He serves on the Board of Directors of Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc., has been a member of the North Carolina Community Development Initiative, Inc., the National Housing Conference and the Board of Directors of the National Institute for Community Empowerment.
Wade Henderson
Mr. Henderson is the Principal of Wade J. Henderson, LLC. and serves as an advisor to major corporations and non-profits on matters relating to civil and human rights. He currently serves as senior advisor for The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund, organizations he previously led for more than 20 years. Previously, he was the Washington Bureau Director for the NAACP. He was also the Associate Director of the Washington national office of the American Civil Liberties Union, where he began his career as a legislative counsel. Mr. Henderson serves as the Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Professor of Public Interest Law at the David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious 2003 Congressional Black Caucus Chair’s Award.
Sarah Ludwig
Ms. Ludwig is co-director of New Economy Project, which she founded in 1995 as the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP). New Economy Project works with community groups to build a just economy for all, based on cooperation, racial, economic and gender justice, and ecological sustainability. The organization pursues lasting, transformational change by supporting cooperative, community-controlled development, and fights discriminatory economic practices that perpetuate segregation, inequality, and poverty.
Nic Retsinas
Mr. Retsinas is the director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, which conducts research to examine and address the most critical housing and community development issues in America. Prior to his Harvard appointment, Retsinas served as Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and as Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision. Mr. Retsinas serves on numerous boards and has won multiple awards for his service, including induction in the National Housing Hall of Fame and was named one of the most influential people in real estate by the National Association of Realtors, in home building by Builder Magazine, and in multifamily housing by Multi-Housing News.
Ira Rheingold
Mr. Rheingold is Executive Director and General Counsel of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), an organization dedicated to protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive business practices. Before coming to NACA, Mr. Rheingold worked at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago as a supervisory attorney in charge of the Foreclosure Prevention and Senior Housing Projects. Mr. Rheingold has testified before Congress numerous times on mortgage lending and consumer finances issues.
Lisa Rice
As President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), Ms. Rice leads efforts by NFHA and its partners to advance fair housing principles and to preserve and broaden fair housing protections, expanding equal housing opportunities for millions of Americans. Ms. Rice played a major role in crafting sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and in establishing the Office of Fair Lending within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Prior to becoming President and CEO, she served as NFHA’s Executive Vice President and managed the organization’s resource development, public policy, communications, and enforcement divisions.
LaShawn Warren
Ms. Warren is the chief policy officer for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and its lobbying arm, the SPLC Action Fund, where she oversees their policy agendas. Warren is a civil and human rights attorney with over 25 years of experience advocating progressive public policy. She previously served as executive vice president for government affairs at The Leadership Conference Education Fund and its lobbying arm, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Earlier, she served as vice president of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress, where her work focused on the intersection of faith and public policy advocacy. Warren is a graduate of Yale Divinity School, Howard University School of Law and Savannah State University.