Symposium Speakers

Congressman Bennie Thompson (MS - 2)

Born in a state with a unique history of racial inequality, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson draws inspiration from the legacies of Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry and Henry Kirksey. The Bolton, Mississippi native considers it an honor to walk the path Mississippi civil rights icons paved decades ago.


Serving his 13th term in the United States House of Representatives, Thompson represents Mississippi’s Second Congressional District where he has spent his entire life fighting to improve the lives of all people.


Congressman Bennie G. Thompson is the longest-serving African American elected official in the State of Mississippi and the lone Democrat in the Mississippi Congressional Delegation.

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Senator Tina Smith (MN)

Tina Smith serves as United States Senator for Minnesota. She is a fierce advocate for Minnesotans and is focused on continuing the progressive legacy of the seat she holds. Tina was born on March 4, 1958 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and grew up in Santa Fe. In 1980, she graduated from Stanford University and in 1984, earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Tina then moved to Minnesota to work at General Mills and raise a family with her husband, Archie. They have been married for more than 30 years and have two sons, Sam and Mason. 


In 2014, Tina was elected to serve as Minnesota’s 48th Lieutenant Governor. As Lieutenant Governor, she has traveled to every corner of the state to talk with, learn from, and work on behalf of Minnesotans. Tina is proud to have worked on issues like tax fairness. In Minnesota, she helped push to make sure the wealthiest two percent to pay their fair share which resulted in lower income taxes for everyone else in the state—and all while balancing the state’s budget.

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Ann Carpenter, Assistant Vice President

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Ann Carpenter is an assistant vice president managing the applied research and policy efforts of the community and economic development (CED) group. Her recent work includes studies on land contracts, heirs' property, and strategies to increase the production of mixed-income housing. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, Carpenter was a senior research associate at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). There, she specialized in the areas of community resilience, emergency management planning, and sustainability. Her work has been published by the Brookings Institution and in several scholarly journals. She recently served as a reviewer for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Carpenter earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Michigan and master's and doctorate degrees in city and regional planning from Georgia Tech. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) of Atlanta's Center for Leadership Class of 2017. She serves on the board of directors of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership Inc. (ANDP) and on the advisory board of ULI Atlanta.

Cathy Glover, Deputy Administrator, Single Family Housing

USDA Rural Development

Cathy Glover started her career in housing and farm related programs in 1988 with the Farmers Home Administrator in Illinois before moving to Washington, DC headquarters office in 2004.  She has served in varies rolls at headquarters, including Director of the Single-Family Housing Direct Loan Division (2014-2015), Assistant Deputy Administrator (2015-2020), and Executive Director, Single Family Guaranteed Loan Program (February – July 2020). Cathy was appointed Deputy Administrator, Single Family Housing in July 2020. 

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Chad Parker, Deputy Administrator, Community Facilities

USDA Rural Development

Chad Parker started work at USDA in 1991 with the Rural Electrification Administration. He has worked with USDA Rural Development for 27 years and presently serves as the Deputy Administrator, Community Facilities Program.  Chad served as the Assistant Administrator, Telecommunication Programs, where he was responsible for the ReConnect Program, Telecommunication Infrastructure Loan Program, Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program, Community Connect, and the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program; as well as having previously administered USDA Rural Development’s Cooperative Programs; Business Programs; Single Family Housing Programs; and Community Facilities Programs. 

David M. Lipsetz, President & CEO, Housing Assitance Council

David Lipsetz, President and Chief Executive Officer

Housing Assistance Council

David Lipsetz is the President & CEO at the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) and a leading expert in affordable housing and sustainable community development. David came to HAC after holding several White House-appointed positions, most recently serving as the Associate Administrator for Rural Housing and Community Facilities at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA.) His office oversaw policy development and program administration of more than $100 billion in direct lending, mortgage guarantees, grants and technical assistance for community and economic development in rural America.

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Dr. Karama Neal, President

Southern Bancorp Community Partners

Dr. Karama Neal serves as President for Southern Bancorp Community Partners (SBCP) where she oversees all asset building and public policy programs as well as partner relations, grant reporting, and staff supervision. Prior to joining SBCP in 2009, Dr. Neal served as an adjunct professor and program director at Emory University, where she earned a Ph.D. in genetics. In addition to holding a M.A. in bioethics and health policy from Loyola University Chicago and a B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College, Dr. Neal has completed the Impact Investing Programme at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. She serves on the board of the Little Rock Branch of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank and is a frequently requested speaker and panel member regarding economic opportunity.

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Nancie-Ann Bodell, Deputy Administrator, Multifamily Housing

USDA Rural Development

Nancie-Ann Bodell was named Deputy Administrator of Multifamily Housing at USDA’s Rural Housing Service in October 2019. Nancie-Ann began her affordable housing career in 1988 with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Providence, Rhode Island Field Office. Throughout her career at HUD, she worked within the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, reflecting a passionate commitment to ensuring access to affordable housing opportunities for very low-income families and other vulnerable populations such as the elderly and disabled. 

Steven K. Washington, Director of the Office of Policy Development and Coordination (OPDC) in the HUD office of Community Planning and Development (CPD)

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Steve currently serves as Director of the Office of Policy Development and Coordination (OPDC) in the HUD office of Community Planning and Development (CPD).  In this capacity he manages and provides oversight of various Policy Development and Coordination programs including both the Section 4 and Rural Capacity Building (RCB) for Community and Affordable Housing Grant programs.  He is also responsible for the resolution / closing of outstanding CPD Office of Inspector General (OIG) Audits and the closing of expired grants for programs such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership and the Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP) – Homeless grant programs.  Other duties include the oversight of the Economic Development Initiative (EDI) and Neighborhood Initiative (NI) Congressional Earmark grant programs.

Todd M. Richardson, General Deputy Assistant Secretary
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Todd M. Richardson, General Deputy Assistant Secretary

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Todd Richardson heads HUD’s research arm of approximately 145 staff that manage national surveys, conduct, and manage research and program evaluations, and develop program parameter data to support HUD’s major programs. He has developed several funding allocations formulas for HUD programs, including the Indian Housing Block Grant Formula, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program formula, and formulas to allocate post-disaster supplemental appropriations. He used data from multiple federal sources to create detailed housing unit damages post Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. He is also author of a study on how well the Community Development Block Grant targets funds to its intended beneficiaries and has managed numerous program evaluations, including the long-running Moving To Opportunity evaluation that measure the impact on poor families of moving from high poverty neighborhoods to low poverty neighborhoods.