Smitha Seshadri is Executive Vice President of Development at BRIDGE Housing Corporation and leads the organization’s real estate development activities in Northern California. Smitha brings 20+ years of experience with a strong background in architecture, community development and real estate finance. She has successfully structured several complex multi-family affordable housing developments and is responsible for overseeing the execution of several mixed-use/mixed-income developments for BRIDGE in Northern California, including new construction and acquisition-rehab over the past 5.5 years. Earlier this year, BRIDGE was honored with the “Nonprofit Developer of the Year Award” from the San Francisco Business Times for delivering approximately 1,000 new and rehabbed affordable housing units in the Bay Area over the past 2 years. Her team is currently working on 7 construction projects with a total of 735 affordable housing units and several new construction projects in predevelopment. Prior to BRIDGE, Smitha served as Vice President of Real Estate at Habitat for Humanity, San Francisco and Director of Development for the Santa Clara Housing Authority.

Ms. Seshadri holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California and Satellite Affordable Housing Associates.

Susie Criscimagna is Vice President of Real Estate Development at Eden Housing. Since joining the organization in 2013, she has managed and overseen affordable housing developments for families, seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, and formerly homeless individuals. As Vice President, she guides a team in implementing all aspects of affordable housing development, including entitlements and environmental approvals, securing public and private financing, and overseeing design, construction, and lease-up of projects. Her projects include new construction, acquisition and rehabilitation, and joint ventures with other developers.

Prior to her career in affordable housing development, she conducted housing research at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Her research on the national housing market focused on affordable housing, rental markets, green building and mortgage markets.

Lisa Gutierrez is a Senior Vice President at U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance where she serves as the Director of Business Development for Affordable Housing. In this role, Lisa leads the affordable housing equity, debt, and multi-investor funds originations teams, nationally. Her expertise includes managing low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and tax-exempt bond business development efforts. Lisa specializes in all types of multifamily housing finance including: LIHTC, tax-exempt bonds, mixed income, market rate and various state and local programs.

Lisa has been with U.S. Bank since 2006, all of which has been in the Affordable Multifamily Housing finance space. As a graduate of California State University Sacramento, B.A. in Public Relations, Lisa is active in the LIHTC industry and currently serves as the board chair for the Housing Trust of Silicon Valley, and board member of the California Housing Consortium, and National Association of Affordable Housing (NAAHL), and past board chair of California Community Reinvestment Corporation (CCRC).

In 2023, Lisa was inducted into California Housing Consortium's Housing Hall of Fame. She was also recognized by Women We Admire as one of Sacramento's notable women leaders in both 2025 and 2026. Lisa has been named three times to U.S. Bank's Legends of Possible, the company's highest honor for top performers.

Rosa T. Sheng, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C is a Principal and Director of Equity Diversity Inclusion at SmithGroup, while also leading as AIASF President 2018 and Founding Chair of Equity by Design. As a design architect with 24 years of experience in the built environment, Rosa has led a variety of award-winning and internationally acclaimed projects from the aesthetically minimal, highly technical development of the glass structures for Apple’s original high-profile retail stores, to the innovative and sustainable LEED NC Gold–certified Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business at Mills College in Oakland, California.

Rosa's thought leadership and activism has been recognized for catalyzing a national movement for equitable practice in Architecture including three pivotal surveys, workshops, critical writing, and public speaking outreach nationally and abroad. Press coverage of her critical work with Equity by Design include Architect Magazine, Architectural Record, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, TEDxPhiladelphia and KQED/NPR.

Tara Shabahang is a Partner in the Real Estate Transactions and Finance group at the San Francisco office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. She represents real estate developers, investors, property owners and operators in all aspects of real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, financing, joint ventures and leasing. Tara leads her firm’s borrower-side finance practice with expertise in mortgage and mezzanine debt, construction financing, secured and unsecured lines of credit and CMBS loan servicing. Her project coverage is national and spans a variety of asset classes, including office, multifamily, retail, industrial, hotel and mixed-use. With a particular focus on commercial real estate development, Tara is trusted by some of the Bay Area’s leading developers and investors to navigate large-scale development projects, from the evaluation and acquisition of a development site, through project entitlement and construction, until assets are operational and stabilized. Tara is an active member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) as well as her firm’s DEI and Women’s Initiative committees. Tara was named to Legal 500’s 2025 Next Generation Partner list for Real Estate, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s 2025 list of Rising Stars. In addition, she has been named to Best Lawyers in America’s Ones to Watch list in Real Estate Law from 2022-2024. Tara holds a B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from University of California, Davis.

As Vice President of Real Estate and Workplace Services at BioMarin, she oversees Real Estate and Workplace, Capital Projects and Engineering, Site Operations, Security, and Sustainability. She directs the long-term strategy for BioMarin's global portfolio of more than 1.5 million square feet of office, laboratory, manufacturing, and warehouse space. Before joining BioMarin, Sherry served as Senior Director of Real Estate at Genentech, where she led strategic planning for the company's growing 6 million-square-foot real estate portfolio and helped deliver a cohesive campus experience for more than 12,000 employees.

Denise Pinkston has over 30 years of experience in real estate and development including acquisitions, asset and construction management, marketing, leasing, planning/entitlements, transit and green building, planning management, and public affairs. Ms. Pinkston was named one of the Bay Area’s Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times in 2012, 2013, 2016 and was named to their Forever Influential Honor Roll in 2014.

Prior to TMG: Ms. Pinkston directed Current Planning, Code Enforcement, Housing, and Redevelopment as the Marin County Planning Services Coordinator. She served as a zoning officer, planning commissioner, chamber of commerce board member, and instructor at SFSU and Mills College.

Ms. Pinkston cares deeply about improving housing and transportation programs and policies and has served in the following policy leadership roles:

Board Chair of MVGO and EmeryGoRound shuttles;

Chair Bay Area Council Housing Committee

Chair &Vice Chair Berkeley Zoning Board

Moderator, Technical Committee, MTC Committee to House the Bay Area (CASA)

Member SPUR Housing Committee

Technical advisor on State bills to ease rules for ADUs and Student Housing

Ms. Pinkston attended the University of California at Berkeley where she earned a B.A. in History, and a Masters in City and Regional Planning.

Jennifer advises clients on land use and environmental matters arising from the development of commercial, residential, medical, and mixed-use projects in California, with a special emphasis on natural resources issues. She guides private, nonprofit, and public sector entities on all phases of project development from the earliest stages of design through completion, including acquisition, due diligence, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance, entitlement and permitting, and construction. Jennifer is particularly adept at advising on complex natural resources matters, including those concerning endangered species and wetlands under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), the California Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the federal Endangered Species Act and its California counterpart (ESA and CESA), and Section 1603 of the California Fish and Game Code (streambed alteration agreements). As part of this work, she regularly manages permitting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, state and local water quality control boards, and the California Coastal Commission, among other federal and state agencies and local governments. Jennifer frequently advises clients (from both the project applicant and landowner side) on conservation easements and other similar mitigation approaches to achieve permit obligations. She also has extensive experience with state housing legislation and local referenda, helping clients anticipate regulatory changes on the horizon. Jennifer has successfully ushered a diverse collection of high-profile projects through the state’s rigorous permitting approval process, including corporate campuses, mixed-use projects, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and large residential developments. Jennifer’s strong technical foundation, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in environmental science and previous environmental policy experience, aid in her ability to distil nuanced issues into pragmatic solutions. Prior to beginning her legal career, Jennifer established and implemented biodiversity conservation practices for governments and public institutions worldwide as the director of the Conservation International’s Regional Marine Strategies program in Washington, D.C. Before joining Allen Matkins, Jennifer was a partner and head of the land use practice at Stice & Block LLP in Oakland, California.