Rochelle Mills leads Innovative Housing Opportunities and its Housing Innovation Fund (HIFund) affiliate. HIFund devises creative private financing to deliver catalytic and comprehensive affordable housing developments. Ms. Mills brings a diverse background in architecture, design, construction administration, community planning, writing, and cultural tourism. She is immediate past president of the Southern California Association of NonProfit Housing (SCANPH) and serves on several public and nonprofit boards (including CAL-ALHFA and Arts for LA), services committees, and leader groups.

Steve PonTell is the Chief Executive Officer and President of National CORE. In 1996, Steve founded the La Jolla Institute, a California-based nonprofit think tank that advances a better understanding of the critical elements necessary for both communities and corporations to achieve sustainable economic competitiveness. He is a nationally recognized authority on community development and creating forward-thinking organizations to maximize evolving market environments. Steve has a Bachelor of Science from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo in City and Regional Planning and an EMBA from Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Business.

Gerhard is an architect and urbanist embracing a paradigm shift towards the walkable, multimodal, equitable, sustainable high quality urban living of our future. He has practiced architecture on four continents, with valuable lessons learned in many cultural environments. Gerhard is used to leading large complex developments, and he delights in connecting urban planning, landscape and building design to create holistic value for a specific location. He has been pursuing urban change through a variety of organizations he helped found, or been part of.

Jerome ‘Otis’ Odell is a Principal with national architecture and engineering firm HED. Otis brings over 30 years of professional experience with multiple housing projects throughout California, Colorado, and many States beyond. Otis has been the Principal-in-Charge for a wide variety of multifamily assignments including market rate, high-rise, affordable and senior housing projects.

As a real estate development leader, Ekta brings over 20 years of experience in investing and developing

multifamily residential and mixed-use projects across the nation. At SoLa Impact, she heads the

development department forging a new path for high quality affordable housing and workforce housing

in California’s historically overlooked Black and brown communities. She is a member of the firm’s

Investment Committee responsible for providing oversight for the real estate investments of the firm.

Prior to SoLa Impact, Ekta spent the majority of her career in Southern California with Alliance Residential,

leading ground-up new construction and value-add investments with Prudential and AIG as capital

partners. Ekta has executed over $2.5 billion RE transactions with over 7,000 units in Southern California.

Prior to that, she worked in the New York and Chicago regions on multi-phase, mixed-use, mixed income

public-private partnerships.

Ekta was honored as a leading woman in Commercial Real Estate by Bisnow, Globe Street, Los Angeles

Business Journal. She is a US Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional, Housing Committee

member of HomeAid Orange County, serves on Cornell Alumni Admissions Committee, was appointed to

the City of Santa Ana General Plan Advisory Group, and is a member of Bisnow DEI board. She is a

graduate of Cornell University and holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Michael Massie’s years of broad experience in all facets of residential development, affordable housing, and real estate finance have been developed across a changing real estate landscape. As the Chief Development Officer, he works to identify and secure sources of capital and alternative funding resources to support Jamboree’s mission. In this role, he oversees construction, business development, and housing development.

Michael returned to Jamboree in 2017 after having previously served as Senior Project Manager from 2005 to 2008, and Director of Housing Development from 2008 to 2014. He managed all aspects of Jamboree’s affordable housing development program, including public and private finance, design, entitlement, and construction of more than 2,800 multifamily units throughout California.

To diversify his experience and knowledge, Michael pursued executive opportunities with other major builders of multifamily housing from 2014 to 2017. At The Picerne Group, he oversaw the development of all of the company’s multifamily projects throughout Southern California and was a member of the executive committee. At Related California, he was vice president responsible for the company’s affordable housing developments in San Diego and Los Angeles counties.

Keith McCloskey is a principal in KTGY’s Los Angeles office. He is responsible for establishing

the overall design vision for all of the office’s new architecture and interiors projects and leads a creative

team that is involved in a broad range of projects from low density to high-rise throughout the U.S. Mr.

McCloskey’s comprehensive experience spans nearly 25 years and includes the planning and design of

multifamily, mixed use, senior living, civic and aviation projects. His most recent work has been focused

on high-density urban infill sites, which provide challenging design opportunities in politically-charged,

design-sensitive communities. He is particularly adept at creating sustainable projects that integrate into

the urban fabric, generating a sense of place and individual character of each community. These

residential projects range from affordable and tax credit housing to luxury apartment and condominium

communities. Mr. McCloskey has taken a keen interest in Sustainable Architecture since early in his

career and became a LEED Accredited Professional shortly after the program’s inception over a decade

ago. His work integrates green building design principles into each project, and as a result he has worked

on multiple projects from their design inception through final certification. He has a passion for

researching new technologies and building systems, and recently completed one of the largest intensive

Eco-Roof installations on an apartment community in Portland, Oregon. In addition to leading the Los

Angeles office’s design efforts, Mr. McCloskey has been actively involved in volunteer programs within

the City of Los Angeles including AIA Los Angeles Design Competition Mentoring as well as the

Architecture Construction & Engineering (ACE) Student Mentorship Program.

Matthew Haas is SVP for Key Bank’s CDLI team covering CA, NM, AZ and NV. In this role, as a senior banker,

Matthew works to advance community lending and investment opportunities with for profit and nonprofit developers

of affordable housing for both LIHTC properties and workforce / missing middle housing.

Prior to Key Bank, Matthew Haas was the Director of Investor Relations for the Western US at Berkadia Affordable

Housing Tax Credit Solutions, a national syndicator of affordable housing credits for 2 ½ years and Director of

Investor Relations and Fund Management for 8 years at Merritt Community Capital, a nonprofit CA-only syndicator.

In these two positions, Matthew was able to raise over $600 million in equity for 63 properties financing over 5,000

units of affordable housing.

Matthew has over 25 years of affordable housing and community development experience in three major markets

of NY, Illinois and California having been employed by key organizations and companies involved in the planning,

development and financing of affordable housing. He has held positions as Deputy Director of California Lending at

the Low Income Investment Fund, a national CDFI; Multifamily Manager of LIHTC funds for Community

Investments at Fannie Mae, a GSE; a VP and Client Manager for Community Development lending at Bank of

America; a Senior Acquisitions Officer at National Equity Fund; and Senior Program Manager for Illinois Housing

Development Authority. Matthew’s other professional positions have included Assistant Director of Senior Housing

and Healthcare Development at St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation in Brooklyn, NY and

Assistant Architect and Project Development Manager for the New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation

and Development.

Matthew has an M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a B.A. in Architecture / Environmental

Design from UC Berkeley. Currently, Matthew serves on the Board of Clifford Beers Housing and is Board

Treasurer of Community Health Councils LA as well as a Project Review Committee Member for Innovative

Housing Opportunities.

As an experienced land use lawyer, Elisa Paster is a committed advocate for her clients, guiding and assisting them with development and environmental approvals, planning and placemaking. She specializes in navigating complex entitlement and environmental processes across California, including Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Culver City, Long Beach, Glendale, Beverly Hills, Orange County, the unincorporated County of Los Angeles, and Northern California. Elisa is involved in all aspects of the development process: assisting in due diligence stages, strategizing on development and redevelopment of land, processing applications and overseeing environmental compliance (CEQA/NEPA), representing clients in front of public bodies, including appellate bodies, and defending the entitlements in litigation.

Elisa regularly represents private developers in development of hotels and large-scale developments, mid- size developers in transformative urban mixed- use projects inside and outside former redevelopment areas, and a wide variety of property owners in the Coastal Zone. An important part of Elisa’s practice involves working with affordable housing developers and streamlining the process for these projects. She has consistently taken on complex land use challenges, big or small, and provided the necessary level of advice and guidance to get the job done through effective legal advocacy, strategic advice and personal relationships. Whether a project involves strategic advisement or a full environmental and planning process, Elisa’s extensive range of experience in land use and environmental law is an asset to her clients.

Before law school, she worked as a planner for five years and she is well respected in the professional planning community. Her previous “behind the counter” experience allows her to think creatively about legal issues and provides clients with a unique perspective.

Elisa is a long time Boardmember of Menorah Housing, a provider of low-income senior housing, and the past president of the Westside Urban Forum. She is former member of the City of Santa Monica Planning Commission and a frequent speaker at law, real estate and planning conferences. She is a frequent guest lecturer for Urban Land Institute panels as well.

Elisa is admitted to practice law in Missouri, New Mexico and California.

Zoe Ellas has more than 25 years of professional experience in nonprofit financial

management and affordable housing development. As Deep Green Housing and

Community Development’s Executive Director since 2007, she has more than doubled

the size of the organization’s multifamily housing portfolio to 28 completed projects with

1,626 units of affordable housing and approximately 275 units in construction,

preconstruction, and predevelopment phases. Zoe is known for her pragmatic and level-

headed approach to the continuously changing fields of affordable housing finance,

development, management, and operations. She earned a bachelor’s degree in

Economics and French from Drew University in Madison, NJ, and an MBA from the

Kogod School of Business at American University in Washington, DC.

Founded in a bungalow on the back lot of the Siren Studios campus in Hollywood, Relativity Architects’ first major project was Siren’s “Cube,” a 40-foot-tall space regarded as the tallest "poured-in-place" concrete walled building on the West coast. During the ensuing decade, RA Founder and Principal, Tima Bell, Assoc. AIA, has led Relativity’s studio design and development division. With a show-business family background, Tima understands studios’ physical needs as well as the refined amenities facility managers need to maximize bookings. Relativity’s Los Angeles portfolio includes Dancing With the Stars’ rehearsal/B-roll space, Buzzfeed’s production campus, East End Studios, and the Output recording studio. Relativity has also designed production studios and campuses in Atlanta, New York, Canada, and Europe. Further, Tima has provided expert insights into studio design to The Hollywood Reporter, among other media outlets. In addition to its success with studio construction, RA has a viable hand in Affordable and Multi-Family Housing typologies. The firm has received multiple awards for their Affordable Housing designs. Most recently, 7th + Witmer Apartments won the Los Angeles Business Council's Outstanding Affordable Multifamily Project Award in 2022.