As Senior Director of Community Capital Investments & Housing, Christine directly supports program partners in financing community development opportunities. She also provides support to the lending team in its transactional work through her involvement in the origination and underwriting of loans. Christine has over 10 years of experience in housing finance, community development, and public affairs. She also worked as an intern and case writer for LISC National’s Community Safety Initiative. Prior to re-joining LISC, Christine held multiple roles in the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) including Director and Deputy Director of the Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program and Project Manager for the Participation Loan Program. In these roles, Christine led teams in underwriting and developing financing strategies, developed a construction loan pipeline of 100+ properties and led efforts to establish a homeownership, shared equity, and Community Land Trust agenda for the agency. Additionally, she led various partnerships with a diverse group of stakeholders including NY City Council, community boards, the Mayor’s office and community advocacy groups focused on affordable housing. Prior to working at HPD, Christine worked for the New York City Housing Authority in the Resident Economic Empowerment & Sustainability (REES) team where she managed departmental budgets, procurement and RFP processes and led the development of resident engagement and fundraising strategy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Applied Social Relations from Eastern Connecticut State University and a Master of Science in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from The New School.

Franz Hewitt is a Vice President in Bank of America’s Community Development Banking department, a division of Commercial Real Estate Banking. Franz focuses on structuring and closing large multi-family affordable housing projects. With a market emphasis on the Northern region including New York, Boston and Chicago, he structures for both debt and equity investments, using Federal and State Low Income Housing Tax Credits. Outside of his current role, Franz is a member of Bank of America’s Black Professional Group. In his prior role Franz was a Vice President in KeyBank’s Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI) center on increasing CDLI’s affordable housing lending efforts in the New York metro market, in addition to working with a portfolio of clients in Ohio and the Midwest. Franz also has significant public-sector experience. He served as deputy director for New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s HUD Multifamily Program in its preservation finance division. In this role, he was responsible for sourcing and developing a robust pipeline of projects in key business sectors to advance the city’s policy initiatives.

Wilhelmena Norman-Hernandez (Mena) is the Assistant Vice President, Manager of Community Impact for ACCESS. In this capacity, Mena works closely with The Community Preservation Corporation’s field offices to identify lending opportunities and other activities associated with the initiative. The Acquiring Capital and Capacity for Economic Stability and Sustainability (ACCESS) initiative, which began in 2020, focuses on targeted investments in low-income communities and creating opportunities to empower black, indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) in the real estate industry across New York State and the region. Co-leading the initiative, ACCESS provides capital for predevelopment, acquisition, construction and permanent financing, and capacity building programs, as well as technical assistance and other supports to BIPOC developers as needed. CPC, through the ACCESS initiative, is also collaborating with New York State to help administer the Legacy Cities Access program. A $25 million program funded by the State, Legacy Cities Access seeks to transfer portfolios of land bank-owned residential properties to local developers with a preference for M/WBEs. Following rehabilitation, sales will prioritize purchasers of color and low-income households. Mena joined CPC in 2012 as an Asset Management Associate in the organization’s Special Assets Division, in a career change from finance positions previously held in community-based programs in healthcare. In 2015, Mena moved into the organization’s Credit Department as a Mortgage Administrator, and was promoted to her current position as AVP, Manager of Community Impact for ACCESS in 2020. Over the course of her nearly ten years’ experience within the industry, she has established herself as an innovator and thought-leader, and continues to push the boundaries to provide solutions for BIPOC developers seeking to break down the barriers to entry into the real estate industry. Mena studied at New York University, for Organizational Development and Business Leadership at the Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies New York campus.

Gregory Richards is a managing director in Wells Fargo’s Community Lending and Investment division. Based in New York, Greg is responsible for the underwriting and financial structuring of the firm’s equity investments in affordable housing transactions, primarily in the Northeast region of the U.S. In this role, Greg draws on his 20+ years of real estate experience to finance multifamily and mixed-used developments utilizing low-income housing tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, conventional debt, and a range of other public and private funding sources. Greg started his career in Morgan Stanley’s real estate investment banking division and has since then focused primarily on the financing of affordable housing developments, at Phoenix Realty Group and now at Wells Fargo. In addition to holding corporate positions, Greg co-founded Sister Island Development, a real estate company focused on residential and commercial development in the Caribbean island of St. Kitts where he grew up; and Caribe Café, the first coffeehouse in St. Kitts with beans sourced from the Caribbean region. Greg holds a bachelor of arts in business administration from Morehouse College and a master of science in real estate development from Columbia University. He currently resides in New Rochelle, New York with his wife, two children, and their dog. When not at work, Greg can be found spending time with his family or enjoying a game of soccer, supporting Manchester City F.C.