Kimberly Driggins is the Executive Director of the Washington Housing Conservancy (WHC). Launched in 2018, WHC preserves affordable workforce housing, prevents displacement, and promotes economic mobility, especially for moderate to low-income African Americans and other people of color. WHC is committed to creating thriving, inclusive, mixed-income communities throughout the D.C. region.

Ms. Driggins has an extensive background in urban planning and real estate development and prior to her appointment at WHC, she served as Director of Strategic Planning/Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department for three years. Ms. Driggins also served as Associate Director for Citywide Planning for the District of Columbia’s Office of Planning from 2008-2015.

Ms. Driggins is a nationally recognized expert in urban redevelopment and placemaking and has innovative projects in both Detroit and Washington, DC. She currently serves on the boards of PennPraxis, the National Landing Business Improvement District (BID), and was Board Chairperson for Gehl Institute from 2017-2019. She has a BA degree from Hampton University, an MPP from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Ms. Driggins was awarded the prestigious Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2015

Brian Allan Jackson (AJ) serves as President of LEO Impact Capital, an investment management

platform focused on acquiring, operating, and investing in workforce housing. Using an Impact

Framework, LEO aims to enhance residents' financial well-being while providing competitive returns

for investors. Its business lines cover investments (debt and equity), asset management, and advisory

services. LEO is a subsidiary of JBG SMTH (NYSE: JBGS).

AJ joined JBG SMITH as Executive Vice President for Social Impact Investing and built the Washington

Housing Initiative, an innovative, market-driven approach to preserve and create affordable

workforce housing. In that role, he led the formation of the Impact Pool, an investment platform that

has provided capital for the preservation of more than $1 billion of affordable workforce housing. AJ

is a member of JBG SMITH’s Investment Committee and its Sustainability Committee.

Prior to joining JBG SMITH, AJ was a Managing Partner with EYA, LLC, a Washington, DC area urban

infill development company. He led EYA’s participation in more than one billion dollars of double

and triple bottom line real estate developments.

Earlier in his career, AJ served as Chief of Staff to the Administrator of the U.S. General Services

Administration (GSA) and on the staff of the Budget Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

AJ serves on the Advisory Board of Center Creek Capital Group , a mission-oriented housing

investment and development firm. He also serves on the Board of Up For Growth, a national,

cross-sector member network committed to solving the housing shortage and affordability crisis

through data-driven research and evidence- based policy. AJ is a Trustee of the Urban Land

Institute and Chair of the Advisory Board of ULI’s Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real

Estate.

AJ was honored as a Minority Business Leader by the Washington Business Journal. He is a

Trustee of the Federal City Council and past president and a life director of the Maryland

Building Industry Association. AJ earned a BA with Honors in economics from the University of

Alabama and an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School.

Drew Hubbard was appointed Interim Director of the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) on October 1, 2021 by Mayor Muriel Bowser. He’s held several leadership positions within DHCD, including as Deputy Director and Chief Administrative Officer, where he oversaw human resources, contracting and procurement, and stewardship of the agency’s budget.

Drew has over a decade of experience in the legislative and executive branches of the District of Columbia. His experience includes many years on staff at the Council of the District of Columbia, where he served as a Legislative Director and Committee Director with a primary focus on affordable housing, workforce development and re-entry policy. He also served as the Federal Relations-Policy Analyst for the Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs within the Executive Office of the Mayor.

Immediately prior to coming to DHCD, Mr. Hubbard served as an Associate Director for the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES). At DOES, he was responsible for senior management, strategic planning, and cross-program coordination of the Office of Apprenticeship Information and Training, the First Source Program, and the Business Services Group. In that role, he was responsible for executing the realignment of employer-facing programs and identify resources to establish an easily accessible menu of value-added business services aimed at engaging companies in order to cultivate placement opportunities for other agency units and programs servicing District resident employment needs.

Mr. Hubbard holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Morehouse College and a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School. Mr. Hubbard is a resident of the Woodridge neighborhood in Ward 5, where he resides with his wife and 2 children.

Jim Knight has served as Executive Director and President of Jubilee Housing since 2002. Under Jim’s leadership, Jubilee completed a renovation campaign that modernized its entire historic portfolio. Working with the Board, philanthropic partners and several DC agencies, renovation of the last of seven buildings was completed in 2010. More recently, Jim led the Jubilee Life Initiative that expands Jubilee’s mission into three new properties, increasing its housing stock by 40%, expanding its educational supports opportunities by nearly 100%, and creating a new supportive housing program that welcomes men and women returning home after incarceration. Jim has unique insight at the cross-section of housing finance and the needs of the families that affordable housing serves.

Before his tenure at Jubilee Housing, Jim led the men’s transitional program at Samaritan Inns in Washington, DC, was a facilities manager and rehabilitation coordinator at Knox Area Rescue Ministries in Knoxville, TN, and completed a yearlong Discipleship Year Program internship at Jubilee Housing. Jim is a member of the Housing Production Trust Fund’s Advisory Board, is a board member and past chair-person at CNHED, is a founding board member of Life Asset, and is active at Bread of Life Church. He lives in Ward 4 with his wife Wendy and two children Ella Grace and Jack.

Mr. Antoine is President and a Principal at Torti Gallas + Partners, where his work focuses on the relationship

between architecture, urban design, and planning in lower density neighborhoods and communities. His efforts

to implement housing policy and market response through appropriate and contextual architecture and

neighborhood planning have manifested themselves nationwide in over seventy revitalization and newly

developed projects during his 25+ year tenure at Torti Gallas.

Murphy practices as both a professional architect and a professional planner, using urban design to inextricably

link the two practices. He bridges an all-too-common divide between the two professions by bringing the

planner’s priorities of policy implementation, community benefit, and public collaboration to bear on his

architectural contributions. In recognition of his significant impact on architecture and society at a national level

through the promotion of affordable housing, Mr. Antoine was elevated to the American Institute of Architects

College of Fellows in 2020.

Mr. Antoine’s career has culminated in an urban design, planning and architecture expertise that has been

tapped by the AIA, CNU, HUD, the National Building Museum, and the National Charrette Institute, where he

has contributed as a speaker, presenter, juror, and exhibitor. His projects with Torti Gallas have been honored

with awards from the APA, CNU, AIA, HUD, NAHB, Residential Architect and Builder magazines.

Murphy is a member of the AIA, CNU, and the APA, and a past nationally elected Chair of the APA’s New

Urbanism Division. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, and Masters’ Degrees in Urban and

Environmental Planning and in Architecture, all from the University of Virginia.

Winell Belfonte is a partner in CohnReznick’s Affordable Housing and Not-for-Profit and Education Industry

practices. She serves as the partner in charge of the Firm's New York office affordable housing practice. In this

capacity, she is the lead service provider and business advisor to her clients and accountable for the

dissemination and implementation of technical issues for affordable housing and not-for-profit clients.

Winell has 30 years of experience providing services to a broad range of clients. Her extensive experience

comes in the areas of audit, accounting, and tax for not-for-profit and for-profit clients including real estate

developers, investors, syndicators, contractors, and property managers, as well as charities and foundations.

Her business advisory expertise includes strategic planning, the design and implementation of internal control

structures, financial analysis, budgets, regulatory compliance, and investor requirements.

As a frequent speaker, Winell has become well known for her technical expertise. She has spoken to many

not-for-profit and affordable housing audiences and graduated from a nine-month community leadership

program with Leadership of Greater Washington in 2010.

Matt Robinson has 17 years of experience in the real estate industry and pursues multi-family residential, mixed-use acquisition and development opportunities for MRP Realty. Since joining the firm in 2007, Matt has overseen the entitlement, development, and repositioning of over 3.2 million square feet including over 1,100 units. In his seven years at TCC prior to joining MRP, Matt developed a total of 1.5 million square feet comprising 924 residential units and 542,000 square feet of retail and commercial space totaling over $654 million. Before joining TCC, he was an architect with Dimella Shaffer Associates in Boston, Massachusetts focused primarily on age-restricted residential and hotel projects. Matt graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and received his MSRED from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As Managing Partner, Brett Meringoff’s responsibilities include leading the company’s acquisitions and development activities, with a focus on large-scale redevelopment and mixed-income housing, as well as the strategic direction of the company.

Prior to joining Fairstead, Brett was Senior Vice President and development partner at WinnDevelopment, one of the oldest and largest affordable housing developers in the country. Under Brett’s leadership, projects entitled, in development and completed, totaled more than 4,900 units in 19 properties. At the time of his departure, there were 5 projects totaling nearly 1,000 units in the predevelopment pipeline.

In 2019, Brett was appointed by Governor Northam to the Board of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. He also currently serves on the Board of the Latin American Youth Center in Washington DC, which has been providing educational and recreational programs for youths in the DC metropolitan area for nearly 50 years. Brett previously served on the Green/Energy Committee of the National Leased Housing Association, the Young Leaders Education Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), DC Real Estate Group, the Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic Regional Advisory Board (MARAB), and as a ULI Mentor. Brett received a Bachelor Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph LeMense is the managing director of community development & nonprofit banking at United Bank, the largest headquartered community bank in Greater Washington. With over 40 years of experience, LeMense guides the Bank’s nonprofit business development and lending initiatives throughout the Bank’s markets in eight states and the District. He focuses on providing personalized financial solutions to mission-based organizations involved in community development, affordable housing, education, social services and trade associations. LeMense joined United Bank in 2004, most recently serving as a senior vice president of commercial banking. In this role, he developed and managed long-term lending relationships, primarily in the nonprofit, biotech and government contracting industries. LeMense’s areas of expertise include tax exempt bond finance, tax increment finance, Property Assessed Clean Energy (“PACE”) financing and Low Income Housing Tax Credit (“LIHTC”) and New Market Tax Credit (“NMTC”) financing. A fifth-generation Washingtonian and fourth-generation graduate of Georgetown University, LeMense is a board member of the Jubilee Housing Advisory Board and a former mayoral appointee to the D.C. Public Charter School Credit Enhancement Fund Committee. He is an active volunteer and advisor with the Georgetown University Alumni Club of Washington, D.C. as well as a guest lecturer at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. A 2015 graduate of Leadership Montgomery, Joe was also a charter member and past president of the Metro Bethesda Rotary Club.

With over two decades of construction experience under his belt, Ben Apfelbaum leads DAVIS project teams as Director of our burgeoning Multi-Family Residential group. From concept to preconstruction all the way through file closeout, he supervises office and field activities to ensure each step of the building process is run as smoothly as possible. Ben has an immense skillset, acquired through his work on some of the best multifamily residential projects in the DC region, ranging from affordable units to high-end condominiums. His incredible work history has always represented DAVIS well and reflected our comprehensive approach to construction. Ben’s expertise has proved invaluable throughout his time at DAVIS, and he continues to provide insights to the building community by working with organizations like Urban Land Institute.

Donald Kann has planned, directed, and designed numerous large-scale, multi-family and mixed-use projects in the mid-Atlantic region throughout his 46-year career practicing architecture. As a Principal at Waldon Studio Architects, Mr. Kann oversees the Affordable Housing and Mixed-Use Studio, bringing specialized expertise in urban in-fill projects and design for the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. As a Qualified Historic Architect, in accordance with Federal Regulations 36 CFR 61, he has been instrumental in developing a highly recognized practice in Historic Restoration in Baltimore and Maryland. Additionally, he is a member of the Baltimore County Design Review Commission, and has previously served as the Chair of the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) in Baltimore City, Board Member of Preservation Maryland, Baltimore Heritage and the Maryland Historic District Commissions, AIA Baltimore, and lectured at a variety of public forums on a range of housing, preservation and design issues.

Matthew Greeson is a member at Reno & Cavanaugh who focuses on complex

real estate transactions with an emphasis on mixed-use transactions that combine

commercial space with affordable and/or market-rate residential units. He

represents developers, property owners, investors, landlords, and tenants in the

negotiation of a wide variety of real estate instruments including ground leases,

governmental disposition agreements, purchase and sale agreements, leases, and

other related agreements. Matt closes transactions employing public-private

partnership initiatives for acquisition and development and utilizing low-income

housing tax credits, tax-exempt and conventional debt, and other private and public capital sources.

Education

 University of Virginia School of Law, J.D.

 Executive Editor, Journal of Law and Politics

 Colgate University, B.A. in History, magna cum laude

Bar Admission

 Admitted to the District of Columbia and Virginia Bars

Selected Transactions

 Representation of developers in the District of Columbia and across the country in mixed-use, mixed-

credit, and mixed-income projects that include market-rate and affordable residential components as

well as retail and other uses, including projects subject to ground leases from local governments and

other public entities, and utilizing low-income housing tax credits, tax-exempt and conventional debt,

and other private and public capital sources, and assisted by project-based HAP contracts and other

similar rental assistance.

 Representation of the purchasers of various apartment projects subsidized by various housing

agencies including USDA Rural Development, HUD, and state tax credit agencies.

 Representation of a California housing authority on the residential and commercial aspects of the

major redevelopment of a 700-unit public housing project into a 1,400 unit-mixed use development

combining affordable and market-rate housing, parks, community amenities and commercial and

retail space.

 Representation of public housing authorities in public housing conversions and financing under

HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.

Major Prior Work Experience

 Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, Associate

Professional Associations

 ABA Affordable Housing and Community Development Forum

 DC Building Industry Association

 Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND)

 Virginia Housing Alliance

Julia R. Gordon serves as the Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing

Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Ms. Gordon

was nominated for this role by President Biden and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May

12, 2022. Ms. Gordon brings to HUD more than 30 years of experience in housing finance,

policy, and advocacy in both the public and private sectors. Throughout her career, Ms. Gordon

has been both a strong advocate for and hands-on practitioner working to achieve equal

justice, fairness and equity in housing, and consumer protections.

As Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner, Ms. Gordon is

responsible for HUD’s policies, programs, and operations supporting the nation’s homebuyers,

homeowners, renters, and communities. She is responsible for the Federal Housing

Administration’s (FHA) Single Family, Multifamily and Healthcare mortgage insurance programs

which currently serve over 8 million homeowners, some 890,000 renters, and approximately

4,000 healthcare facilities across the U.S. and its territories. In addition, Ms. Gordon is

responsible for HUD’s Multifamily assisted housing portfolio which serves more than 1.2 million

low-income residents, the administration of HUD’s housing counseling program, and the

development and oversight of federal standards for the design and construction of

manufactured homes.

Prior to joining HUD, Ms. Gordon was most recently the President of the National Community

Stabilization Trust (NCST) from 2019-2022 and Executive Vice President of NCST from 2015-

2019. At NCST, Ms. Gordon was a passionate advocate and leader for housing equality and

neighborhood investment, launching multiple new initiatives supporting neighborhood

stabilization and affordable housing. From 2012 through 2015, Ms. Gordon was a senior leader

at the Center for American Progress where she led the Center’s work to address access to

affordable homeownership and rental housing, and safe financial products and services.

In previous roles, including a leadership role the Federal Housing Finance Agency and at the

Center for Responsible Lending, Ms. Gordon was instrumental in grassroots efforts to shape

mortgage and housing finance laws, regulations, and programs to protect homeownership and

family wealth, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and the Making Home

Affordable program.

Ms. Gordon received her bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard College and her J.D.

from Harvard Law School. She resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband, Geoffrey

Berman, and her daughter, Rochelle.