Jill Homan is from Clayton, North Carolina, and serves as Deputy Director, Economy & Trade, Campaign Director, and Senior Advisor to the President & CEO at AFPI. Over a two-decade career in private equity, Homan has focused on investing in low-income communities, including Opportunity Zones. She is recognized for her expertise in Opportunity Zones and has worked closely with legislative and administrative members to advocate for effective regulations and promote economic development in underserved areas. In addition, Homan’s commitment to community development is evident in her efforts to own, operate, and preserve quality workforce housing.

Before working in economic development and finance, Homan served on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant and press secretary. She was formerly an elected member of the Republican National Committee, held senior leadership positions with the RNC, and served as a site selection committee member for the 2016 and 2020 Republican National Conventions.

Homan earned her Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Policy degrees from Duke University, where she focused on finance and urban revitalization. She is an Accredited Professional in Leadership Energy and Environmental Design ® and has founded an organization of several hundred women dedicated to helping educate women on investing in institutional real estate. She currently serves on the Economic Investment Committee for the State of North Carolina, the Triangle East Chamber Board of Directors, and its Economic Development Committee.

Steve Glickman is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the

Opportunity Zones (OZ) program — a tax incentive he helped conceive,

draft, and champion into federal law as Co-Founder and CEO of the

Economic Innovation Group between 2013-2018. Widely known as the

“Godfather of Opportunity Zones,” Steve is now the founder of Develop

Advisors, the first independent advisory firm dedicated exclusively to

Opportunity Zone Funds, and he has spent nearly 15 years shaping how

public and private capital can be directed into America’s most

underinvested communities and advising the fund managers and

developers putting the program to work.

Steve also serves on the Board of Arctaris Impact Investors, a national

Opportunity Zones investment firm, a senior advisor to Landmark

Properties, one of America’s largest student housing developers. He has previously advised some of

the most prominent Opportunity Zones fund managers in the country, including CIM Group, EJF

Capital, Revolution, and Somera Road, and he was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at CohnReznick, a top-

tier, national accounting and consulting firm. Steve was a longtime Adjunct Assistant Professor at

Georgetown University, and he is the co-author of The Guide to Making Opportunity Zones Work, the

definitive practitioner reference on OZ fund structuring and execution.

He is also Co-Founder of Statt, a venture-backed AI SaaS platform for public policy, regulatory,

government relations, and public affairs professionals.

Earlier in his career, Steve received multiple presidential appointments in the Obama Administration,

including Director of International Economics for the National Security Council and National

Economic Council in the White House, Chief of Staff for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at

the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Deputy Associate Counsel to the President. Before entering

public service, he practiced law as an investigative attorney — including as Majority Counsel to the

U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where he led congressional hearings on

the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League

Baseball; as an Honors Program Attorney in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special

Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia; and as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers.

Steve received his B.A. and M.A., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University, his J.D. from

Columbia Law School, and his LL.M. in public international law, with highest honors, from the London

School of Economics. His work has been featured in leading national outlets including The Wall Street

Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, The Washington Post,

Politico, and NPR, and he is a sought-after speaker at industry gatherings on Opportunity Zones,

economic development, and public policy.

As Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Falcone Group, Alfonso Costa Jr. oversees the development of multifamily apartment communities and condominium projects, leading public-private partnership opportunities as well as the company’s operational and strategic initiatives.

His current pipeline of mixed-use development projects includes more than 2,000 residential units and 200,000 square feet of retail & self-storage, with a total value exceeding $1 billion. Such projects include “Block C-East” at Miami WorldCenter, and the “Horizon of Oakland Park,” a mixed-use public-private-partnership with the City of Oakland Park.

Prior to joining the Falcone Group, Alfonso served as Deputy Chief of Staff & Opportunity Zones lead for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he oversaw policy for the $50 billion annually-budgeted Cabinet agency, which maintains a wide range of housing and community development programs, a $1.3 trillion mortgage insurance portfolio, and approximately 7,000 employees across 57 offices nationwide.

As an expert on the bi-partisan Opportunity Zones program, he held the title of Chairman’s delegate and HUD’s lead representative on the Federal Government’s inter-agency Opportunity and Revitalization Council, and for his efforts he was recognized in the Opportunity Zone Magazine’s “Top 25 OZ Influencers” list for both 2020 and 2021.

A former 5th-grade teacher as a Teach for America corps member, Alfonso is now an active social advocate through philanthropic & academic volunteer efforts on both the local and national levels.

In his home State of Florida, he is the Program Chair of ULI Florida’s Affordable & Workforce Housing Council (AWHC), Advisory Board Member & recent Chair of the Nova Southeastern University Master’s in Real Estate Development (MSRED) Program, recent Member of the City of West Palm Beach Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, Heart & Spirit Society member for the Boca Helping Hands food-giving non-profit organization, and an In Jacob’s Shoes of Hope Hero member for the shoes/socks/school supplies non-profit organization.

Nationally, he serves as a Member of the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board, National Housing Taskforce, Housing Advisory Council Member of the Bipartisan Policy Center, Board Member of the Home Builders Institute, and Full Member of the Urban Land Institute.

He earned his law degree from Harvard University, master’s degree from the University of Oxford, and bachelor’s degree from Yale University, where he played both Division-I basketball and Division-I lacrosse while serving as Chair of the Yale Athletic Department’s Thomas W. Ford Community Outreach Committee.

As a former college athlete, Angel understands the preparation it takes to know your team, know the game plan and execute it for the win. She uses this same approach when it comes to working with clients. Angel is always looking for that competitive advantage business owners can use to realize tax savings.

Since beginning her public accounting career in 2010, Angel has focused on tax planning and compliance, as well as reporting and minimization strategies for clients within the real estate and construction industry. She has deep expertise in the area of Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ) and serves as one of the firm’s leaders in this area.

NAIOP Northern Ohio (Commercial Real Estate Development Association) (Education Committee Chair)

Case Western Reserve University Spartan Club (President)

Ohio Society of CPAs

American Institute of CPAs

Crain’s Cleveland Business 40 Under 40 award (2024)

Cleveland Leadership Center’s Bridge Builders Program (Class of 2021)

Bethany Baptist Church

Frequent speaker on the topic of Qualified Opportunity Zones

Angel loves watching and playing all sports, but especially loves cheering for Cleveland’s sports teams and the U.S. women’s soccer team. If not for her star role as an accountant at Cohen & Co, Angel’s dream job would be coaching women’s softball. She also loves spending time with her dogs in the park. Angel lives in Fairview Park, Ohio.

Mr. Jonathan D. Tower is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Arctaris Impact Fund, LP, Arctaris Royalty Partners, LLC, and three predecessor Arctaris impact investment funds. Mr. Tower invests in growth-oriented businesses in the manufacturing, technology, and services industries with heavy emphasis on underserved and underrepresented banking markets.

Mr. Tower has over 15 years of industry experience, investing in private equity and private debt, including three interim Chief Executive Officer roles in private equity-backed companies. He has worked closely with portfolio companies in the manufacturing, technology, and services industries to achieve their growth objectives, including Capterra (acquired by Gartner), Verid (acquired by EMC), QuoteShip (acquired by ICGE), Moguldom Media (acquired by InteractiveOne), and Xoom (acquired by PayPal).

Prior thereto, Mr. Tower was a Managing Director, Operating Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Dutchess Capital Management LLC. He held responsibilities both in private equity deal execution and maximizing value in portfolio companies, working with management teams to develop growth or turnaround strategies.

At Fidelity Ventures, he executed private equity and venture capital investments, focusing on the enterprise technology, security and communications sectors.

At IBM, Mr. Tower was a member of the Corporate Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions and Debt Capital Market groups, where he facilitated the issuance of more than $2 billion in term debt, managed $250 million of A/R factoring transactions, led venture investments in five expansion-stage technology businesses, and executed two corporate divestitures that generated $300 million in profit.

Prior to IBM, Mr. Tower was a Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development at Vodium.com. From 1996 to 1999, he was a Financial Journalist at Bloomberg News. Mr. Tower has published articles on corporate finance, derivatives and risk management in Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Magazine, International Herald Tribune, and the New York Times.

Mr. Tower received an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School in 2002 and a B.A. degree in English and Mathematics from Georgetown University in 1996.

P. David Bramble has been working in real estate investment for over 20 years. He dedicates his time to sourcing & capitalizing transactions and overseeing project underwriting and execution. As a corporate and real estate attorney by training, David brings a deep knowledge of all aspects of the real estate cycle. Prior to MCB, David served as the director of commercial lending for a regionally based full-service lending firm –Madison Funding – which he co- founded in 2000. Prior to devoting all his time to commercial real estate investment, David practiced law in the transactions group of Steptoe & Johnson LLP where he provided corporate and real estate advisory services. His practice focused on complex workouts, primarily in the real estate and financial products space.

David serves as the Chairman of the Board of Lendistry, a fintech enabled CDFI focused on providing small business capital to underserved communities nationwide. He serves on the investment committee and board of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation which invests in innovative people, projects, and ideas that improve the quality of life in Baltimore and beyond. He also serves on the boards of Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital, Ronald McDonald House, UPENN Institute for Urban Research, The Abell Foundation, and Baltimore Tree Trust.

David received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and A.B. from Princeton University.

David received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an A.B. from Princeton University.

Ross Baird is the founder and CEO of Blueprint Local, an investment firm focused on Opportunity Zone real estate and community development. Since 2017, he has been an active OZ investor, practitioner, and policy advocate, including work on the program’s 2025 extension and expansion.

Blueprint Local has invested approximately $250 million of equity across more than two dozen projects, primarily in multifamily and mixed-use developments across the Southeast, Texas, and Mid-Atlantic.

Ross previously co-founded Village Capital, is the author of The Innovation Blind Spot, and has taught at the University of Virginia since 2012. He is a UVA graduate and Marshall Scholar

Sam Spencer is CEO and Managing Director of CEI-Boulos Capital Management, a real estate investment fund management company focused on delivering both competitive financial returns and social impact. The company serves banks, family offices, and other institutional investors, and has a national scope. CEI-Boulos is a joint venture between CEI, a community development finance institution, and The Boulos Company, an integrated commercial real estate firm.

The company’s first Opportunity Zone fund is the Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund. The fund invests in high-impact commercial real estate projects across the seventeen-state Community Reinvestment Act footprint of its sole investor, Woodforest National Bank, with the goal of ensuring that these investments benefit the economically distressed communities in which the projects are located. In 2020, the Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund was recognized by Forbes and the Sorenson Impact Center as one of the “The Forbes OZ 20: Top Opportunity Zone Catalysts,” and one of the ten most innovative and impact focused Opportunity Zone funds in the country. In 2021, the fund was the winner in the Societal and Community Impact Innovation category of the Banking Administration Institute (BAI) Global Innovation Awards.

With the demonstrated success of the Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund, CEI-Boulos has since launched two more funds in 2022 with NBT Bank and Allivate Impact Capital.

Spencer was previously Senior Vice President for Investments at CEI Capital Management, of the nation’s leading allocator of federal New Markets Tax Credits. Spencer has also been an entrepreneur in the energy field and a real estate developer. He served on the Clinton White House staff for four years, including as Special Assistant to Vice President Al Gore. For eight years he served as Democratic National Committeeman for Maine. He is a board member of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a leading state-wide land trust, where he serves as the Chair of the Public Policy Committee, on the Executive Committee, the Lands Committee, the Governance Committee, the DEIJ Working Group, and on the board of an affiliated LLC. He has also previously served as president of the board of Opportunity Maine, an education policy non-profit, and as president of the Portland Development Corporation, the city’s economic development and loan authority, and on the board of Maine and Company, a non-profit focused on state business attraction. As a high school student, he served as Head Page of the U.S. Senate. He received a BA degree cum laude in government from Harvard College and MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

Kelli Brooks manages project financing for Urban Atlantic’s investments and developments. She oversees all underwriting and financial analysis for investment and development opportunities, including market research and due diligence, as well as the financing process from the initial investment decision through project financing. She also manages the negotiations of loan and partnership agreements, tax credit equity documents for both Low Income Housing Tax Credits and New Markets Tax Credits. She is involved in underwriting and structuring the company’s tax-based financing including PILOT and TIF. Since joining Urban Atlantic in 2008, she has structured more than $500 million in the financing of development projects and deployed $188 million in New Markets Tax Credits, leveraging in excess of $1 billion in real estate and operating businesses. Prior to joining Urban Atlantic, Ms. Brooks was an analyst with Jones Lang LaSalle and Assistant to the Chief Financial Officer for Edwards Day Property Investments.

Ms. Brooks holds a BS in Economics from Brigham Young University and an MBA in Real Estate Finance from American University.

Tom Skinner is a founding member of Redbrick LMD and is one of the firm’s three Managing Partners. He has invested in and developed close to $2 billion in real estate assets and established a pipeline of over $4 billion in future development projects.

Prior to founding Redbrick, Tom invested in or founded numerous operating businesses primarily in the real estate, technology and financial services industries. Tom began his professional career at McKinsey & Co. where he worked with financial institutions on strategy issues. Tom earned his Ph.D. in economics from MIT and his BA in economics from Oxford University.

Abe Schlisselfeld, CPA, EA, is a National Real Estate Practice Leader at CBIZ and a Shareholder at CBIZ CPA’swho has been serving clients since 1995. Located in New  York, he oversees operations, manages business development efforts and consults on  key clients for CBIZ.  

Prior to becoming a National Real Estate Practice Leaderin 2025, Abe was Managing  Partner of Marks Paneth (now CBIZ) and led the Real Estate Group. In that role, he  advised commercial and residential real estate owners, real estate management firms,  and real estate investment trusts (REITs) on all facets of accounting and taxation. Abe  has explored the tax benefits and implications of the Qualified Opportunity Zones  program since its introduction in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, allowing him to  become a sought-after speaker on the topic, and regularly contributes his expertise to  discussions of other pressing industry issues. Abe was named a Notable Leader in  Accounting and Consulting by Crain’s New York Business (2022) and a Notable in Real  Estate by Crain’s (2021).  
Abe is a member of the National Advisory Committee for CBIZ Financial Services, and a  member of the Board of Directors of CBIZ CPA’s.
Professional Affiliations