NALHFA 2026 Speakers

Additional speaker information will be added to this page on a rolling basis.

Michael J. Sorrell, ED. D. (Keynote)
President, Quinn College

Dr. Michael Sorrell is the transformative president of Paul Quinn College who, in 2007, chose to forgo a potential NBA executive role to lead a struggling historically Black college on the brink of closure. What began as an interim appointment became one of higher education’s most remarkable turnaround stories. As the longest-tenured president in the college’s history, Dr. Sorrell reimagined Paul Quinn through a bold, values-driven vision centered on entrepreneurship, innovation, and his signature “WE Over Me” philosophy. Under his leadership, the 151-year-old institution achieved financial stability, national recognition, and groundbreaking initiatives like the WE Over Me Farm to address food insecurity in the surrounding community. Named one of Fortune’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” and widely recognized for his authenticity and impact, Dr. Sorrell is a powerful storyteller who challenges leaders to embrace purpose, adapt with courage, and leave every organization better than they found it.

JACK bALLOU
Municipal Advisor, Caine Mitter

Jack Ballou has four years of experience advising HFAs. Mr. Ballou provides a range of financial advisory and quantitative services for both single-family and multifamily housing. He specializes in the best execution strategy for structuring new money and refunding bond issues, bond program development and management, consolidated cash flow projections, capital adequacy studies, and rating agency consultation.

Gloria Boyd
Executive Director, housing group, J.P. Morgan

Gloria Boyd, Executive Director, joined J.P. Morgan’s Housing Group in June 2018, after having spent 12 years at New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Gloria is assigned and provides lead account coverage to the following HFA clients: California HFA, Louisiana HC, MassHousing, New York City HDC, Pennsylvania HFA, Rhode Island HMFC, and Vermont HFA. At NYSHCR, Gloria held various positions, including most recently Vice President of Bond Finance. In that role, she managed the structuring, marketing, sale, and issuance of over $18 billion of the Agencies’ single-family, multifamily, local government, and tobacco settlement securitization bond issues. Gloria holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Princeton University.

Josh Brandwein
Director of Government Affairs, NALHFA

Tanya Dempsey
Principal, CSG Advisors

Tanya Dempsey is a Principal at CSG Advisors with more than 15 years of public sector experience advising housing authorities on strategic planning, real estate transactions, and operational and financial transformation. Since joining CSG in 2015, she has guided agencies across the country—including Chicago, Sacramento, Minneapolis, Hartford, Delaware, and Philadelphia—on long-term portfolio strategies, RAD conversions, and complex affordable housing financings involving 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, tax-exempt bonds, conventional financing, and other federal mortgage tools. Tanya has closed more than 45 projects totaling approximately 5,300 units and over $50 million in financings, generating significant value for public housing clients. She previously served as Interim Chief Financial Officer for the Indianapolis Housing Agency and held senior leadership roles at the New York City Housing Authority, where she contributed to one of the nation’s largest tax credit transactions. Deeply committed to strengthening public agencies and expanding affordable housing access, Tanya brings a practical, results-driven approach to ensuring long-term sustainability and impact.

Kathryn Driver
Executive Director, HFA of Pinellas County, Florida

Kathryn Driver has been the Executive Director since March 2014. Ms. Driver is responsible for all aspects and transactions of the HFA to assist in accomplishing the HFA's mission of alleviating a shortage of affordable housing in Pinellas County through the issuance of single-family mortgage revenue bonds and down payment assistance for low- to moderate-income first-time homebuyers and also through the issuance of tax-exempt and taxable multifamily bonds to help finance the new construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of multifamily developments for very low-, low- and moderate-income renters. Prior to her appointment as Executive Director, Ms. Driver served as Vice President at RBC Capital Markets (and William R. Hough & Co. prior to its merger with RBC). She has over 30 years of experience in the municipal finance and housing finance field. Ms. Driver serves as President of the Florida Association of Local Housing Finance Authorities, is a Board Member of the National Association of Local Housing Finance Authorities, and is a member of the Florida Housing Coalition, the National chapter of Women in Public Finance, and is Past-President of the Florida chapter of Women in Public Finance.

Patricia Ho
Municipal Advisor, Caine Mitter

Patricia Ho has 11 years of housing-related public finance experience. She is experienced in the management of TBA programs, the structuring of mortgage-backed securities, and the execution of their sale in the secondary market. She oversees the daily operations for all Caine Mitter clients who utilize the TBA/Secondary Market. She also has extensive experience in structuring and advising on single-family mortgage revenue bond issuance.

Susan Jun
Senior Housing Banker, Raymond James

Susan is a senior housing banker in Raymond James’ National Housing Group.  She joined the firm in March 2024 from Citi, where she served as lead banker to several major state housing finance agencies across the country. She brings more than 30 years of municipal investment banking experience encompassing not only affordable housing finance in both single-family and multifamily, but also derivatives and quantitative expertise in other municipal sectors. Susan is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she served as the past President of Women in Public Finance.

Mark Kudlowitz
Senior Policy Director, LISC

Mark is a Senior Policy Director and advocates for federal policies that support LISC’s national priorities, including affordable housing, rural development, community development financial institutions, and sustainable development. Before LISC, Mark worked as the Policy Director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs and also worked for over seven years at the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Mark managed affordable housing and community development programs at the District of Columbia’s Department of Housing and Community Development and held multiple positions at the Housing Assistance Council, a national rural affordable housing organization. Mark earned his B.A. from the University of Florida and master’s degree from the University of Michigan.

Tirnu Lin
Senior Vice President, Capital Markets

Tinru Lin is a Senior Vice President in the Capital Markets group at New York City Housing Development Corporation, the largest multi-family housing bond issuer in the nation. She joined HDC in 2009 after completing her graduate degree from The Milano School of Urban Policy and Management at New School University. At HDC, Tinru focuses on program design, transaction structuring, and quantitative analysis for efficient and effective financing solutions to address the City’s affordable housing challenges. Prior to HDC, Tinru received a Bachelor of Laws degree from National Taiwan University and worked at the law firm LCS & Partners in areas including securitization and project finance.

Robert J. (R.J.) McGrail
Director, ACI, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

R.J. is principal investigator and director of the Lincoln Institute project Accelerating Community Investment: Bringing New Partners to the Community Investment System (ACI). The project seeks to increase the efficacy and benefits of philanthropic impact investing portfolios and their connectivity to local community investment ecosystems through a combination of field research and convening leaders in the community investment system—with particular focus on housing and economic development finance authorities, development of potential investment opportunities for mission investors, and collaboration with other Lincoln Institute program areas.

Before joining the Lincoln Institute in 2019, R.J. served as policy and program impact officer for MassDevelopment, Massachusetts’s quasi-public economic and housing development authority. In this role, he led priority organizational development, strategic planning, program impact, and policy development strategies, enabling collaborations among non-traditional state and regional capital providers, philanthropic partners, and national thought leaders in community and economic development. Prior to his work at MassDevelopment, he served in numerous roles in the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick, including as a policy adviser to the governor and to the Commonwealth’s secretary of labor. R.J. also serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Working Cities Challenge steering committee, as a board member of the Milken Institute’s Center for Financial Markets Public Finance Advisory Council, and as an invited lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is a graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and holds an MA in public administration from Suffolk University in Boston.

Tiffany Mobley
Partner, Novogradac

Tiffany Mobley is a partner in the Austin, Texas, office of Novogradac, where she specializes in affordable housing and provides audit, tax, and consulting services for affordable housing owners and developers. She has extensive experience in the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and tax-exempt bond financed transactions, including those subject to the auditing requirements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and nonprofit organizations, including those subject to the requirements of OMB Uniform Guidance. Her consulting experience includes the preparation of LIHTC cost certifications, as well as mortgagers and contractors cost certifications for HUD. She received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from Texas State University and is licensed as a certified public accountant in Texas.

Jonathan Paine
Executive Director, NALHFA

 

Michelle Pernicek
Partner, Kutak Rock LLP

Michelle Pernicek is a partner in the Omaha office of Kutak Rock LLP and a member of the firm’s public finance group. Ms. Pernicek practices in the area of public finance and affordable housing financing. She primarily serves as bond counsel and bond purchaser’s counsel in multifamily housing financings across the country.  Prior to joining Kutak Rock, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Frankie J. Moore of the Nebraska Court of Appeals. Ms. Pernicek earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her J. D., with distinction, from the University of Nebraska College of Law. She is admitted to practice in California and Nebraska.

Jimmy Pokorny
Principal, Novogradac

Jimmy Pokorny is a principal with Novogradac & Company LLP in the Austin, Texas, office. Jimmy joined the company in 2013. He has significant experience in providing audit and tax services in the real estate industry. In addition, he specializes in assisting development owners with compliance of various U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs, as well as preparing cost certifications and other various HUD/low-income housing tax credit engagements. Jimmy received his bachelor’s degree with a concentration in accounting from Sam Houston State University and is licensed as a certified public accountant in Texas.

William Wilcox
Bond Program Manager, San Francisco MOHCD

William Wilcox joined the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) in 2022 as the bond program manager. He oversees all conduit bond issuance, the development of new housing finance tools, state and federal housing finance policy advocacy, and provides in-house technical expertise across multi-family development at MOHCD. William earned his Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California Berkeley’s Goldman School with a focus on housing policy. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago.