Tristi Charpentier, Louisiana AFN Co-Chair & Vice President, People-Centered Initiatives at Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation

Jannease Seastrunk, Louisiana AFN Steering Committee Member & Senior Vice President of Community Relations and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Officer at Red River Bank

Isabel Barrios, Director, Disaster Recovery & Resilience at the Greater New Orleans Foundation

Jessica Allen, CEO of Propeller

Propeller, a New Orleans-based organization supporting entrepreneurs in tackling social and environmental disparities, will present new research exploring the Greater New Orleans region’s unique capital access landscape, including key insights into how small businesses access capital, highlight opportunities to address persistent barriers, and identify actionable pathways for lenders, investors, funders, business support organizations, and other stakeholders to work together to advance equitable small business growth across the region.

Ron Brooks Jr., President at River City Capital
Kim Carter Evans, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at TruFund Financial Services

This fireside chat examines various CDFI models — credit unions, banks, loan funds, venture capital, and mission-based lenders — and how their collaboration enhances economic mobility throughout the South. Speakers share how their institutions structure capital and manage risk, and where those differences create opportunities to work together.

Brandon Rapp, Louisiana AFN Program Officer

Hosted by Louisiana Asset Funders Network, AFN South & Propeller

Speakers and attendees are invited to a networking reception, followed immediately by optional dine-around dinners.

Victoria Adams Phipps, Louisiana AFN Co-Chair & Program Officer and Vice President of Global Philanthropy at JPMorganChase

Brody Wamble, Community Affairs Officer at Simmons Bank

Dafina Williams, Executive Vice President, Chief Public Policy Officer & Head of Government Affairs at Opportunity Finance Network

This plenary presentation shares data and research on the current challenges and opportunities facing CDFIs in the region, especially in light of recent federal policy changes.

Dafina Williams, Executive Vice President, Chief Public Policy Officer & Head of Government Affairs at Opportunity Finance Network
Ed Sivak, President at Hope Enterprise Corporation 

This fireside chat explores how CDFIs and funders can work collectively to help shift the regional and federal policy landscape, including the impact of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. The conversation examines where Southern CDFIs already have a voice in Washington and where that voice still needs to be built.

Lending Is Not Enough: Technical Assistance, Partnership & Collaboration as Capital (Barnett B)
Angela Zenon, Vice President of National Lending at TruFund Financial Services
Michael Rivera, Director of Lending at Communities Unlimited, Inc.
Don Lawhorn, Business Consultant at SBDC Greater New Orleans and River Region and Division of Business at Xavier University of Louisiana

Capital is most effective paired with capacity-building — coaching and technical assistance that help borrowers deploy financing well and grow sustainably. This session explores why TA functions as underwriting infrastructure, not charity, outlines its three phases, and offers guidance on mapping partners, building referral pathways, and funding TA through shared-cost models.

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Bound Together: Small Business & Homeownership in American Wealth-Building (Music Room)
Katy Reckdahl, Writer/Editor at The Lens NOLA
Nicole Barnes, Executive Director at Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative
Charles E.J. Phipps, Vice President for Policy, Advocacy & Legal Affairs at Urban League of Louisiana & SEE CHANGE Collective
Corban Rogers, New Orleans Youth Alliance

Small business cannot be understood apart from housing. The same maps that denied mortgages also denied business credit, and home equity has long been a primary source of business capital. This session traces that throughline, examines equity as startup capital, and explores treating housing and business as one client relationship.

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Leveraging and Developing a CDFI Network in Partnership with Philanthropy (Green Room)
Katy Leopard, Memphis AFN Program Officer
Charles Blake, Little Rock Market Executive at Southern Bancorp
Norman Jones III, Community Development Advisor at Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

This session explores how to develop a collective statewide platform to strengthen community finance infrastructure. Arkansas’s and Memphis’s AFN networks showcase a framework for this model, raising the question of what Louisiana might borrow, where local conditions call for a different approach, and what a homegrown platform could look like.

*Denotes subject to change

Courageous, Patient Capital: Designing Funds That Dare, with the Discipline to Last (Music Room)
Andreanecia Morris, Executive Director at HousingNOLA
Kiara Scott, Commercial Development Officer at Credit Human
Lisa Mazique, Fund Manager at Community Development Capital
Dr. Kim Carter-Evans, TruFund

Conventional capital is impatient and risk-averse by design — exactly why it underserves the businesses CDFIs exist to reach. This session highlights funds brave enough to say yes and rigorous enough to last, covering patient capital structures, character-based underwriting for the missing middle, and loss reserves and blended stacks that responsibly expand risk capacity.

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Financial Wellness as a Lending Outcome: Measuring Borrower Health with the Rigor We Apply to Portfolios (Green Room)
Jaimmé A. Collins, General Counsel at Liberty Bank and Trust Co.
Sylvester Johnson, Senior Capital Access Manager at Propeller
Percy Manson, Credit Human
Chuck Morse, Executive Director at Thrive New Orleans

The goal is not loan volume, but borrower financial health — an owner drowning personally cannot build a healthy business. This session explores why personal finances and viability are inseparable, how to define wellness as a measurable outcome, and practical tools for coaching and credit-building, framing wellness as empowerment, not control.

*Denotes subject to change

Brett Aresco, Content Manager, Business & Social Impact at Prudential 

AFN will preview the release of Advancing Economic Opportunity with CDFI Partners: What’s Possible?—a foundational brief that explains the role of CDFIs and how funders can partner with them across their full toolkit of grantmaking, investing, and convening. This “prequel” builds upon AFN’s series on specific CDFI strategies to equip funders to act with confidence and intention, including:

• Small Business: Leveraging CDFIs to Increase Wealth Generation and Equity
• Small Business: Leveraging CDFIs for Southern Small Businesses
• Homeownership: Affordable and Sustainable Homeownership Through CDFIs

This will be followed by a facilitated table discussion. Attendees can also register for our upcoming webinar titled Banding Together: How Funders and CDFIs Can Advance Shared Prosperity Now on September 17 at 1 p.m. EDT to learn more.

Affordable Housing Opportunities (Music Room)
Daisy Overton LaGrue, Deputy Director at HousingNOLA
Brenda Breaux, Executive Director at New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA)
Kiyadh Burt, Vice President of Policy at Hope Policy Institute

New Orleans carries a distinct affordable housing landscape: legacy blight, a redevelopment authority holding significant land, and a gap between need and production. This session explores where real opportunity exists in Louisiana, from land disposition to financing tools, and what the new ROAD to Housing Act could mean for production.

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Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: Preliminary Analysis of Southeastern Low Income Housing Tax Credit Funding (Barnett B)
Dontá Council, Senior Adviser on the Community and Economic Development Team at Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Norman Jones III, Community Development Advisor at Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

The Federal Reserve Bank will present a preliminary analysis of Southeastern LIHTC funding, covering findings and implications for affordable housing investment across the South. The data offers a first regional look at where LIHTC capital is landing, and where it isn’t.

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Innovation in Community Lending: New Tools & Models That Widen the Door (Foyer)
Michael Grote, Principal at Alembic Community Development

This participant-led session features representatives from CDFIs and foundations sharing new and innovative tools, products, and models in community lending. Designed to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and exchange, the session spotlights emerging approaches that expand access and deepen community finance impact.

*Denotes subject to change

Jessica Allen, Propeller
Brandon Rapp, Louisiana Asset Funders Network