VIRGINIA CDFI SUMMIT 2026:
Collective Power, Bold Action
AGENDA
MAIN STAGE | 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Room: 201C-E
9:00 AM | Opening Remarks
Leah Fremouw - President and CEO, Bridging Virginia; Board President of Virginia CDFI Coalition
Casey J. Bell - Director, Virginia CDFI Coalition
Phil Hatfield - Vice President, Capital One
9:10 - 10:10 AM | Collective Power, Bold Action: Leading CDFIs Through Uncertain Times
In a time of economic uncertainty, shifting political winds, and evolving community needs, CDFIs are more essential and facing more challenges than ever. How can CDFI leaders stay grounded and inspired amid today's national turbulence, and what strategies will ensure their work remains impactful for the long haul?
Join Mark Pinsky (CDFI Friendly America), Harold Pettigrew (Opportunity Finance Network) and Leah Fremouw (The Network & VA CDFI Coalition), for a candid conversation about the realities facing CDFIs right now. The panel will tackle the latest national trends, while exploring how CDFIs can build resilience, foster strong partnerships, and leverage tools like state coalitions and impact investing to keep moving forward.
Above all, this session will focus on the motivation and leadership needed to sustain CDFIs' vital mission by sharing honest reflections, practical advice and inspiration for anyone committed to advancing economic opportunity in their community, no matter what the future holds.
Speakers:
Mark Pinsky - President & Founder, CDFI Friendly America
Harold Pettigrew - President & CEO, Opportunity Finance Network
Leah Fremouw - President and CEO, Bridging Virginia; Board President of Virginia CDFI Coalition
Desiree Francis - Managing Vice President, Community Finance, Capital One (Moderator)
10:15 - 11:15 AM | Innovations in Rural Community Development
This session explores how rural communities can transform vacant and underutilized properties into catalytic assets for economic growth. Using successful Virginia redevelopment projects, panelists will share practical strategies for aligning local priorities, building partnerships, accessing financing, and moving complex projects from vision to implementation.
Speakers:
Kathryn Coulter-Rhodes - Program Manager, Opportunity Appalachia (OA)
Dr. Victoria Ratliff - Workforce & Education Consultant, Appalachian Highland Housing Partnership
Betty Mitchell - Executive Director, Blue Grass Resource Center
Shauna Yeldell - Chief Lending Officer, Appalachian Community Capital (Moderator)
11:15 AM | Keynote
Kristen Dahlman, Deputy Secretary of Commerce & Trade, Commonwealth of Virginia
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | Stronger Together: How Capital Orchestration Is Shaping Community Impact
Today’s most pressing challenges—from building resilient regional food systems to expanding affordable housing—are too complex for any single organization or funding source to solve alone. As communities seek more integrated solutions, a new approach is emerging: capital orchestration—the intentional alignment of funders, lenders, investors, and community partners around shared goals and measurable outcomes.
Join Pravina Raghavan, CEO of Locus, and Jamie Baxter, Senior Program Officer at Prince Charitable Trusts, for an engaging conversation on why capital orchestration is becoming a critical next step in advancing the mission of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Through real-world examples from Locus’ work to strengthen the Mid-Atlantic food economy and support local developers in Southern Virginia, they will explore how coordinated investment strategies can unlock greater impact than any organization could achieve on its own.
This thought-provoking discussion will offer practical insights and inspiration for organizations looking to forge stronger partnerships, leverage complementary resources, and create lasting community outcomes through collective action. Discover how aligning capital can accelerate change—and why collaboration is becoming one of the most powerful tools for community development.
Speakers:
Jamie Baxter - Sr. Program Officer, Prince Charitable Trusts
Pravina Raghavan - President & CEO, Locus
LUNCH & NETWORKING | 12:30-1:45 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS | 1:30 PM
From Outreach to Impact: Building Strategies to Reach Startup Entrepreneurs for CDFIs & ESOs
CDFIs & Small Business (Start-up)
Room: 200D
Many organizations struggle not with delivering services, but with consistently reaching the pre-venture and early-stage entrepreneurs who need them most. This session equips CDFI and Entrepreneur Support Organization practitioners with practical strategies for identifying and engaging startup business segments, building referral networks, and creating proactive outreach systems that lead to measurable impact, including in rural and underserved communities.
Speakers:
Stephanie Lillard - Director of Community Economic Development, People’s Inc. (moderator)
Christina Snell - Partnerships & Outreach Lead, Capital Pathways
Artificial Intelligence in CDFIs: Navigating Promise, Pitfalls and Policy
AI and the CDFI Industry
Room: 201A
A roundtable discussion on identifying AI risks, mitigating algorithmic bias, establishing governance frameworks, and leveraging artificial intelligence to strengthen and not compromise the mission of community development financial institutions.
Speakers:
Shauna Yeldell - Appalachian Community Capital (moderator)
Azish Filabi - Executive Director, The American College
Aleks Whitchurch - Co-Founder, Doodle Enterprises
David Silverstein - CEO & Founder, Ned
Lolita Sereleas - Founding Partner, FUND Consulting
Catalyzing Growth: How the Virginia State Small Business Credit Initiative 2.0 (SSBCI) Loan to CDFIs Program Supports Virginia’s CDFI Community
Room:200E
Anna Mackley, Chief SSBCI Officer and Bond Program Manager for the VSBFA, will provide an overview of Virginia’s SSBCI 2.0 Capital Programs and Technical Assistance Program. Her presentation will spotlight the Loan‑to‑CDFI (LCDFI) Program, which expands CDFI lending capacity to underserved small businesses.
She will also highlight additional SSBCI 2.0 tools, including the Cash Collateral Program, Capital Connect, and the Direct and Indirect Venture Capital Programs, which collectively strengthen access to capital and support business growth across the Commonwealth.
Speaker:
Anna Mackley - Chief SSBCI Officer and Bond Program Manager, VSBFA
Presented In Partnership With The
Quantifying Equity: How CDFIs Measure Community Transformation
Impact & Measurement
Room: 2001B
How do Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) measure success beyond loans and investments? This panel explores the data, metrics, and evaluation strategies CDFIs use to assess community impact, from job creation and affordable housing to wealth-building and economic mobility. Learn how organizations are leveraging evidence-based insights to demonstrate outcomes, strengthen accountability, and advance equitable community development.
Speakers:
Dr. Darlene Deberry - Senior Economic Development Manager, NCGrowth - Kenan Institute, UNC Chapel Hill
Peter Klemz - Director of Impact, Locus
Leslie Lewis - Institute Capital Inc. (Moderator)
Roberta McCullough - Senior Vice President of Operations for Institute Capital Inc.
Building Opportunities on Main Street
Local Government
Room: 200B
In 2025, the Appalachian Regional Commission sponsored a series of 10 real estate analyses based on Main Street America's Building Opportunities on Main Street (BOOMS) tracker and community site visits. This session will describe how Virginia Main Street convenes experts and funders in rural areas to 1) build geospatial databases of their real estate opportunities, 2) focus on high potential redevelopment projects, and 3) engage community stakeholders and property owners to identify realistic redevelopment scenarios in market reality. Attendees will also hear the impact of BOOMS data on a participating community and how it has catalyzed commercial real estate development in the historic main street district.
Speakers:
Courtney Mailey - Virginia Main Street Program Manager, DHCD
Jen Carpenter - President, Main Street Buena Vista
STATE CDFI COALITIONS: ORGANIZING NEW OPPORTUNITIES | 2:00-3:00 PM
Room: 200C
"State CDFI Coalitions: Organizing New Opportunities" will serve as the first in-person and livestreamed episode of "The Future of CDFIs", a series of webinars hosted by CDFI Friendly America. Moderated by CDFI Friendly America's President and industry veteran Mark Pinsky, this session will explore the work happening at the growing number of state CDFI Coalitions across the country.
Panelists will discuss:
The policy, funding, and organizing issues they are tackling
The benefits of cross-CDFI collaboration and collective advocacy at the state level, and
Practical strategies for organizing new opportunities in your own state
Hosts:
Mark Pinsky, President & Founder, CDFI Friendly America
Bria Marie Hodge, Director of Small Business Development, Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC)
DeMario Greene, Director of Policy and Government Relations, Chicago Community Loan Fund
Varsovia Fernandez, CEO, Pennsylvania CDFI Network
BREAKOUT SESSIONS | 2:45 PM
Roundtable on Capital Planning & Fundraising
Capitalization Facilitation
Room: 200B
Join us for a roundtable discussion designed for practitioners and attendees to share experiences, trends and successes in their work to raise capital for their organizations’ financing programs and find support for operations. This space will allow for connections amongst those attending to foster further engagement outside of the conference. Interactions will be facilitated through smaller affinity group conversations for targeted discussion on capital in specific sectors such as housing, small businesses, community facilities, and more.
Speaker:
Marianne Vermeer - Founder, Vermeer Consulting Group
Housing, Resilience, and Regional Needs: The Role of CDFIs Across Virginia
Real Estate
Room: 200E
Explore how housing challenges and opportunities vary across Virginia and the role CDFIs play in helping communities respond to those regional realities. From affordability pressures and workforce housing needs to rising utility costs, economic transition, and other place-specific factors, communities across the Commonwealth face distinct challenges requiring tailored solutions. This session will examine how CDFIs, lenders, and other partners are adapting financing tools, partnerships, development strategies, and innovative approaches to support resilient communities and housing systems. Panelists will share perspectives from across Virginia, highlighting how local conditions shape responses and illustrating the flexibility of community finance in meeting evolving needs, with discussion touching on regional housing trends, resilience considerations, financing gaps, partnership models, and emerging opportunities in community development finance.
Speakers:
Laura Dupuy, Program Development Advisor, Virginia Community Development Corporation (VCDC) (moderator)
Jill Norcross, Executive Director, Northern Virginia Housing Alliance
Lisa O’Mara, VP, Director of Investor Relations, Locus
Jane Ferrara, Executive Director, LISC
Capital Ready with AI: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Small Business Readiness for Community Lending
CDFIs & Small Business (Existing Business)
Room: 200D
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly accessible, it presents a significant opportunity for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), business advisors, and technical assistance providers to enhance how they prepare entrepreneurs for capital. While strong financial fundamentals remain the foundation of lending decisions, AI can accelerate financial readiness, improve documentation quality, strengthen coaching, and help small businesses become more prepared before they apply for financing. This interactive session explores practical, real-world applications of AI throughout the capital readiness journey—from organizing financial information and analyzing business performance to preparing loan packages and identifying appropriate financing opportunities. Participants will also discuss responsible AI adoption, common limitations, and strategies for integrating AI into technical assistance without replacing the trusted relationships that drive successful lending. Attendees will leave with practical AI prompts, tools, implementation of ideas, and actionable strategies they can immediately use to strengthen borrower readiness, improve lending efficiency, and expand equitable access to capital.
Speakers:
Stephanie Lillard - Director of Community Economic Development, People’s Inc. (moderator)
Valeria Lopez - Business Advisor, Capital Pathways
Artificial Intelligence in CDFIs: Navigating Promise, Pitfalls and Policy
AI & The CDFI Industry
Room: 201A
A roundtable discussion on identifying AI risks, mitigating algorithmic bias, establishing governance frameworks, and leveraging artificial intelligence to strengthen and not compromise the mission of community development financial institutions.
Speakers:
Azish Filabi - Executive Director, The American College
David Silverstein - CEO & Founder, Ned
Lolita Sereleas - Founding Partner, FUND Consulting
The Legislative Meeting: A CDFI Advocacy Simulation
Storytelling & Advocacy
Room: 201B
Join us for a discussion with Delegate Rae Cousins of Richmond, VA on the importance of grassroots advocacy in the CDFI industry. Participants will learn how to prepare for legislative meetings, deliver concise advocacy messages, demonstrate impact, and make compelling policy or funding requests. The session will cover how to use borrower, community, and regional success stories effectively, respond to challenging policy and budget questions, and position CDFIs as trusted partners in economic and community development. Attendees will also gain practical strategies for conducting meaningful follow-up and building strong, lasting relationships with legislators.
Speaker:
Delegate Rae Cousins - 79th District, D - City of Richmond