MATHEW M. WAMBUA. Mr. Wambua serves as Vicechair and Head of Agency Lending for Merchants Capital. Merchants Capital is an affordable housing mortgage lending platform, which provides Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and FHA debt products, as well as on-book acquisition and new construction bank loans. Merchants provides cash and bond credit enhancement debt facilities for acquisition, refinancing, construction rehab, and forward takeout’s for new construction projects. Although recently formed, Merchants Capital has quickly established itself as a market leader in affordable housing lending. Merchants Capital has evolved into a top-10 national multifamily affordable housing lender, with annual affordable housing volume exceeding $1BB. Merchants is committed to providing construction and preservation debt products for LIHTC, Section 8, workforce, mixed-income, and LURA properties. Merchants’ debt facilities typically consist of complex structures, which require multiple public and private debt and equity counterparties, including banks, HFA’s, public housing authorities, equity syndicators and investors.

Over the course of the last decade, Mr. Wambua has served on numerous boards including, the Metropolitan Museum of New York (the MET), Merchants Capital, The Osborne Association, New York Housing Conference, New York City Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), Samaritan Village, The Procurement Policy Board of NYC, Settlement Housing Fund, Mid Bronx Desperados Development Corporation, NYU’s Furman Institute, Placeful, NYC HDC, NYC Residential Mortgage Insurance Company, the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN), Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, the New York City

Housing Partnership, the NYC Empowerment Zone Corporation (proxy for Deputy Mayor Doctoroff), NYC Economic Development Corporation (proxy for DM Doctoroff), and the NYC Industrial Development Corporation (proxy for DM Doctoroff).

Malaika Marable Serrano is a passionate changemaker who has led diversity and inclusion initiatives across multiple industries for nearly two decades. Living abroad in Latin America and Australia greatly shaped her ability to foster productive, engaging, and culturally responsive learning environments.

She currently serves as the VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Guild Education, where she leads the integration of DEI principles and best practices across the organization. Her collaborative approach centers around prioritizing relationships to effectively impact organizational culture. As a 25-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Malaika is actively involved in creating access and opportunity for women and their families – particularly from historically underrepresented communities. She firmly believes that access to safe, affordable housing is a fundamental human right and is honored to join the Women’s Affordable Housing Network Board.

Lahna shapes and focuses the company’s investment in its people, culture, and performance. He focuses on all elements of organizational transformation including talent acquisition, leadership development, succession planning, organizational design, employer brand, change management, employee experience and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Lahna has a deep background in human resources leadership at American Century Investments and General Electric’s Aviation business. Throughout his career, Lahna has helped organizations transform their culture while working across functions in global roles leading talent and leadership development, recruiting, compensation and incentive design, HR business partners and the Mergers and Acquisition portfolio. Lahna earned a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership and Human Resources from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and an MBA from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. Lahna is also a Certified Professional Coach (CPC).

Jill brings a wide berth of experience to the real estate and housing industries with vast knowledge in all parts of the real estate life cycle from acquisition, underwriting, asset management, property management, and dispositions. She possesses strong technical knowledge of government funding programs including the LIHTC, HOME, and NHTF.

Jill provides consulting services in Development, State Relations, and DEI in Affordable Housing. She is HCCP certified, and currently serves on the HCCP Board of Governors and Women’s Affordable Housing Network (National) Advisory Panel.

Mattye is a Director with Coats Rose, where she assists developers with tax credits and bond financing, community development, and legislative matters in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, California, Oklahoma, Kansas, and U.S. Virgin Islands. She has supervised the handling of diverse legal matters before federal and state courts in the areas of fair housing, tax matters, insurance, landlord/tenant issues and civil rights discrimination and construction issues. She has also handled the oversight of employment issues, procurement, compliance and other public housing matters. Mattye has closed transactions financed by 9% tax credits, as well as mixed finance transactions utilizing 4% tax credits plus bonds including rebuilding of the Gulf Coast utilizing Go Zone financing after the 2005 and 2007 hurricanes and assists clients with developments that utilize disaster relief funds. She has experience in the U.S. Department of Treasury’s New Market Tax Credit program, Community Development Entities (CDE), commercial and community development, legislation, and governmental affairs. Prior to joining the

of the Dallas Housing Authority (DHA). During this time, she managed the initiatives to leverage millions of dollars to revitalize distressed sectors of Dallas, Texas. She also coordinated efforts to ensure redevelopment through the management of tax credit awards, coordination of public meetings and supervision of historical clearance issues and other regulatory compliance issues. Ms. Jones has supervised the handling of diverse legal matters before federal and state courts in the areas of fair housing, tax matters, insurance, landlord/tenant issues and civil rights discrimination and construction issues.

Heather has specialized in the real estate industry since 1998. During that time, she has provided a variety of accounting and auditing services for numerous limited liability companies, corporations, partnerships, and not-for-profit entities owning various real estate developments. These audits have been prepared for HUD, RD, and various debt and equity providers. She has prepared and reviewed numerous Certificates of Actual Cost for both the contractor and mortgagor as required by HUD, and cost certifications required by different state agencies for utilization of LIHTC. Heather is very experienced with audits that adhere to HUD, IRC Section 42 and RD guidelines. Heather’s portfolio of clients includes primarily multi-engagement affordable housing clients in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. These organizations have entities financed with low-income housing tax credits, RD loans, HUD 202/811 mortgages and direct loans, 223(f), 221(d)(3), 221(d)(4) and 236 HUD-insured mortgages.

Heather serves as DOZ’s Managing Member and Chief Executive Officer, responsible for overseeing the management of the firm, and working directly with the Executive Committee, Members and various department directors to ensure all areas of the firm are working together to meet our clients’ needs and achieve the firm’s goals.

Heather’s duties as an Audit Member include overseeing all aspects of the audit process. Her audit duties include ensuring engagements are properly staffed with the required experience and abilities, scheduling the fieldwork, reviewing financial statements, and meeting all applicable audit and tax deadlines. Throughout the engagement, Heather is in contact with the audit team and client to ensure exceptional client service is provided. In addition, she provides resources for the client concerning acquisition and rehabilitation strategies, grant and loan considerations, and accounting treatment of complex transactions.

Heather annually exceeds the minimum levels of continuing education required for Certified Public Accountants. Heather has also spoken at a number of conferences and trade association meetings on the topics of affordable housing finance and compliance.

Richelle has been in the affordable housing development field since 1994 and has been involved in the development or preservation of over 25,000 units of affordable rental housing. She serves as an owner/developer as well as provides development consulting to owners and housing authorities, with a specialty in LIHTCs, Section 8 rental assistance, and HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Prior to founding Collaborative Housing Solutions, she founded and co-led Tapestry Development Group for nine years, a successful development and consulting organization. She previously served with a large non-profit development organization for twelve years, serving as the President of its real estate development arm in her last position. Her expertise includes multi-layered financing and fostering collaboration between public and private sectors to develop mixed-income housing. She serves as subject matter expert in efforts with state and federal agencies to create new and creative financing programs and policies for affordable housing development. She has served as a speaker and trainer to a variety of stakeholder groups in the affordable housing field. She is active with several trade associations to advocate for sound public policies that support affordable housing. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association and serves as Chair of the RAD Committee of the Georgia Association of Housing and Redevelopment Authorities. She co-founded and for 11 years, co-chaired the Women’s Affordable Housing Network, an Atlanta-based effort to support women in the industry, which has expanded to multiple chapters across the country, and she currently serves on the Advisory Board of the national WAHN. She has earned several recognitions in the real estate industry including a Women in Real Estate Award from the national commercial real estate online platform Connect Media; was named one of “The Leaders” from the Women’s Leadership Initiative of the Atlanta chapter of the Urban Land Institute for her extraordinary contribution to the built environment; was named as one of the top 12 Young Leaders in Affordable Housing in the nation by Affordable Housing Finance magazine; received the Founders Award from WAHN; and received a POW! Award from the online publication Womenetics for serving as a model of a purposeful businesswoman. She is a graduate of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2010. She earned a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Master of City Planning from Georgia Tech. She completed an Executive Education program within the Social Enterprise Initiative at the Harvard Business School. She serves on several committees at her church and her children’s schools, as well as mentoring younger developers in the affordable housing industry.

Mark Shelburne is a housing policy consultant with Novogradac. His work includes consulting with state agencies, local governments, equity providers, lenders, attorneys, and developers on topics including allocation, compliance, HOME, revitalization, supportive housing and tax-exempt bonds. Shelburne previously served as Counsel and Policy Coordinator at the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and Director of the Office of Housing Finance and Development at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. In his career he has revised and/or implemented 38 qualified allocation plans in 16 states, testified before Congress, administered resources to create more than 30,000 affordable apartments, and led work resulting in four national awards. He has degrees in law, planning, and public policy from UNC-Chapel Hill. 

Angie Truitt, J.D., is a Senior Partner at Joseph Chris Partners, where she helps companies and organizations add skilled professionals to their teams and professionals take new career steps in the real estate development and construction industries. Angie also manages the team’s social media, web content, branding, internal recruiting, onboarding, hiring, and training efforts, and she has led many internal and external company initiatives, including launching the Veterans talent and DE&I services.

A practicing commercial litigator in her former life, Angie enjoys working in the affordable housing industry, a niche she has been dedicated to for the last six years.  Angie’s network of affordable housing professionals spans the country and was thrilled for the opportunity to connect that network to the wonderful opportunities NWAHN offers its members and currently serves as the Board’s Vice President of Communications.  Angie is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers.

Angie grew up a military brat and has lived all over the country and in Panama.  Kansas is home, and she earned her BBA in Marketing from her dad’s alma mater, Washburn University, there in 1994.  But she’s lived in the Houston, Texas, area since 1999 after graduating from Baylor University School of Law.  She’s got a daughter in college and five rescue pups.  Angie loves to travel with her daughter, is an avid Dallas Cowboys and Houston Astros fan (and gets plenty of grief for both) and is writing her first book.  She is passionate about all issues related to equality and makes the most amazing banana bread in the world.

Millie Hurtt joined Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH) in May 2014 and works in many sectors of the company including her role as Vice President of Affordable Housing Lending for Ohio Capital Finance Corporation (OCCH’s CDFI lending affiliate) where she assists the Executive Director with all aspects of OCFC’s lending transactions and reporting.

In her prior role as Program Specialist for OCCH, Mrs. Hurtt worked with OCCH’s limited partnership partners to dispose of tax credit projects that reached the 15-year compliance period. Mrs. Hurtt was also previously responsible for the administration of Ohio Capital Impact Corporation’s (OCCH’s philanthropic affiliate) Place-Based Strategies Fund- a grant program to assist communities where OCCH investments are located.

Prior to joining OCCH, Hurtt was employed by Cleveland Housing Network, Inc. as an Assistant Project Manager where she was primarily responsible for developing LIHTC projects from concept through construction completion. Mrs. Hurtt also worked for Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio, a county-designated land bank, as the Compliance and Monitoring Manager overseeing the county’s $40 million NSP 2 Grant. Prior to that, Mrs. Hurtt was the ReBuild Ohio Coordinator for Greater Ohio, a non-profit smart-growth policy organization based in Columbus, Ohio. Mrs. Hurtt received her Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Economics from Kent State University and her Masters of Urban Planning, Design, and Development from Cleveland State University. She is also a certified Housing Development Finance Professional through the National Development Council.

Julia Kaercher is the Vice President of Program Development of Merchants Affordable Housing Corp. Julia assists in project development and funding applications for MAHC and its consulting clients as well as planning community events. Julia started her career in multi-family housing as a part-time volunteer, here at MAHC in 2014. She has grown and excelled in the art of writing applications as she has helped to secure funding from multiple institutions. In 2017, she orchestrated the first community service event where over 50 volunteers helped to landscape six of MAHCs buildings. Julia first learned of the Women’s Affordable Housing Network at AHF in Chicago and was enamored with the idea of a chapter in Indiana. The idea was able to come to fruition after a trip to Georgia to meet with Ashely Northcutt and we started with our first event in August 2018.

As Senior Development Associate, Katessa Archer is responsible for new project development, acquisition, and financing. Her daily responsibilities include analyzing new acquisition and development opportunities, determining project feasibility, overseeing design and construction, structuring partnerships, and negotiating with lenders, investors and third-party vendors. Since joining Dominium in 2018, Archer has worked on a variety of project types including general partner interest acquisition, acquisitions and rehabilitation of existing apartment communities, ground-up new construction projects, as well as adaptive reuse projects.

During her tenure, Archer has been involved in the acquisition and/or development of more than 2600 units, placement, or assumption of nearly $500 million in debt, over $200 million in equity and totaling more than $500 million in total development costs. Archer graduated Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota as an Honors Scholar with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies. She recently moved from Minneapolis to Atlanta to help grow Dominium’s development team throughout the Southeast region.

Jill brings a wide berth of experience to the real estate and housing industries with vast knowledge in all parts of the real estate life cycle from acquisition, underwriting, asset management, property management, and dispositions. She possesses strong technical knowledge of government funding programs including the LIHTC, HOME, and NHTF.

Jill provides consulting services in Development, State Relations, and DEI in Affordable Housing. She is HCCP certified, and currently serves on the HCCP Board of Governors and Women’s Affordable Housing Network (National) Advisory Panel.

Sadie Nott is a Project Manager, Underwriting at WNC, a national tax credit syndicator based in Irvine, CA. In her current remote role based out of Durham, NC, she focuses on Low Income Housing Tax Credit (“LIHTC”) transactions across the East Coast and Midwest and works closely with a range of non-profit and for-profit developer partners. Sadie has significant experience in the structuring and underwriting of both 9% and 4% deals as well as transactions benefiting from state credits or RD and HUD financing. Prior to joining WNC in 2023, Sadie worked in Acquisitions at CAHEC, a regional tax credit syndicator based in Raleigh, NC where she was responsible for both originating equity offers and underwriting deals throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

In 2018, Sadie attended a WAHN luncheon in Atlanta, and her world was forever changed. She organized NCWAHN’s first event in late 2019 and currently serves as President of the chapter. Sadie received a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from UNC-Chapel Hill and a B.A. from Bowdoin College in Visual Art. Originally from the New York City area, you’ll find her on the frisbee field or pickleball court when she’s not exploring North Carolina with her husband and son.

Catalina Vielma is a Senior Vice President of Acquisitions at Red Stone Equity Partners. She originates, underwrites, and closes tax credit transactions across the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, and Chicagoland. Prior to joining Red Stone, she was an originator at two national syndicators, including the National Equity Fund, the country’s largest non-profit syndicator. She held multiple HUD positions, first at the Chicago Multifamily Production Office, where she oversaw FHA’s tax credit pilot program and subsequently, in HQ’s Office of Recapitalization as a Branch Chief focused on the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. At HUD HQ she provided high-level policy analysis and directed transaction managers underwriting RAD LIHTC developments, including the portfolios of San Francisco, El Paso, and Baltimore. She is a board member of Mercy Community Capital and the Illinois Housing Council. She lives in Evanston, Illinois with her wife, daughter, and goldendoodle

Emily Cadik is the Chief Executive Officer of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition (AHTCC), where she leads advocacy to support affordable rental housing financed using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit). Prior to joining the AHTCC, she was a Senior Director of Public Policy at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led policy and advocacy related to the Housing Credit and other affordable housing and community development issues. While at Enterprise she served on the board of the AHTCC, chairing the Legislative Committee, co-chairing the Marketing Committee, and serving on the Executive Committee since 2016. She also helped to lead the A Call To Invest in Our Neighborhoods (ACTION) Campaign, the nationwide coalition of more than 2,000 organizations and businesses advocating on behalf of the Housing Credit, and remains active in this nationwide advocacy effort. In 2017 she received the NHP Foundation’s inaugural Advocacy Award, and in 2016 was named one of Affordable Housing Finance’s Young Leaders.

Before joining Enterprise, she was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she served as a program coordinator for the Moving to Work demonstration and in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. She earned a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin.