About Us

Alexa Sewell, NYHC Co-Chair Settlement Housing

Alexa Sewell became Settlement Housing Fund’s chief executive on February 1, 2014. Ms. Sewell was previously Senior Vice President for Corporate Strategy and External Affairs at The Community Preservation Corporation, a nationally recognized leader in affordable housing finance. Before that, she was Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Staff for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, responsible for policy development and external affairs. She also worked in Washington as staff to the Appropriations Committee, as a policy analyst for The National Alliance to End Homelessness, and as a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development. Ms. Sewell has a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Southern California.

Mathew Wambua, NYHC Co-Chair Merchants Capital President

Mathew M. Wambua joined The Richman Group of Companies as President of RHR Funding LLC in October 2013. In his new role, Mr. Wambua is charged with establishing and expanding Richman’s mortgage lending platform, nationally and within the New York market. Presently, The Richman Group comprises one of the largest equity investors in affordable housing and one of the nation’s largest residential property owners and developers. In March 2011, Mr. Wambua was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the nation’s largest municipal housing agency, with a workforce of more than 2,000 employees and an annual budget of approximately $1.2 billion. HPD served as the primary steward of Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP), which called for the creation or preservation of 165,000 units of affordable housing. During his tenure, Mr. Wambua oversaw the financing of approximately 47,000 housing units, representing a $6 billion investment. From 2008 through 2011, Mr. Wambua served as Executive Vice President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the most prolific multifamily bond issuing entity in the nation. HDC ranks as the third largest affordable housing lender nationally, and over the course of the last decade, has issued more than $11 billion in tax-exempt and taxable bonds to finance the NHMP, as well as provided more than $1 billion in direct capital subsidies to increase long-term affordability. From 2004 through 2008, Mr. Wambua was Senior Policy Advisor for the New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Daniel Doctoroff, where he coordinated and oversaw a citywide portfolio of economic development agencies, boards and commissions, as well as oversaw all economic development initiatives within the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. Mr. Wambua earned a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has taught real estate finance at NYU’s Graduate School of Public Service and managerial economics at the New School’s Graduate School of Public Policy.

Sharmi Sobhan, NYHC Treasurer Chase Community Development Banking Executive Director

Sharmi Sobhan is a Senior Banker in the Chase Community Development Banking Group’s Real Estate Lending division. Prior to joining Chase, her career was focused on international microfinance with organizations such as Save the Children and Grameen Foundation. In addition, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Haiti and completed a Fulbright scholarship in Sri Lanka. She also serves on the NY Loan Committee of the Enterprise Community Loan Fund, on the Local Advisory Committee of LISC NYC, and on the board of WHEDco.

Ralph Fasano, NYHC Secretary Concern for Independent Living Executive Director

Ralph Fasano has been the Executive Director of Concern for Independent Living, since 1993. Concern is the largest provider of Supportive Housing on Long Island and one of the largest in NYS. The organization houses over 1,000 people in over 240 different sites. In the past eight years Concern has raised over $200 million in funding to develop new housing. Mr. Fasano is the current President of the Association for Community Living, a statewide association representing 130 housing agencies. He served as the Chair of the Nassau-Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless for four years until February, 2,000. He has over 30 years experience developing and operating residences for formerly homeless individuals and families. Mr. Fasano is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from New York University. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, Bay Ridge Prep, the Long Island Residential Association and was the Chair of the Brookhaven Service Advisory Council. He was a member of the Suffolk County Task Force on Homelessness and was the Chair of its Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Committee. He serves on the Suffolk County DSS Commissioners Advisory Council and was the Chair of the Suffolk Housing Work Group. He has served on the Supportive Housing Network’s Steering Committee and is currently its Treasurer. He recently received “The Benefactors” award from the Long Island Chapter of the AIA and the 2012 “Visionary” award from NAMI for his work in developing housing. Governor Cuomo appointed him to serve on the Behavioral Health Services Advisory Committee in 2014.

Christine Coletta Hirschen Singer & Epstein LLP Partner

Christine A. Coletta practices in all areas of real estate, with an emphasis on mixed-use and multifamily affordable residential development. She advises for-profit and not-for-profit clients on all aspects of real estate development, including acquisition, deal structuring, financing, and commercial leasing. Prior to joining Hirschen Singer & Epstein LLP, Ms. Coletta was an associate in the real estate department of an international law firm, where she represented real estate developers and joint venture partners in connection with the financing, acquisition, and development of commercial properties. She has also held positions with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Fifth Avenue Committee, a not-for-profit community development corporation based in Brooklyn. Ms. Coletta is admitted to practice in New York and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002 from Brown University with honors in the Department of Environmental Studies. She received her law degree from Boston College Law School in 2008, where she graduated magna cum laude, Order of the Coif and was the topics editor of the Boston College Law Review and founding member of the Community Economic Development Law Group. Christine sits on the boards of directors of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and Big Initiatives, Inc.

Nicole Ferreira Beacon Communities LLC Executive Vice President Development

Nicole Ferreira leads Beacon Communities New York office, where she oversees a team of real estate development professionals building and rehabilitating affordable housing properties across New York and Connecticut. Beacon Communities is a multifamily affordable housing developer that owns and manages approximately 19,000 apartments in 13 states and the District of Columbia. The portfolio includes affordable housing, market-rate housing, and mixed-income housing.

Prior to joining Beacon Communities, Nicole served as Senior Vice President of Multifamily Finance at New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). She was responsible for the strategic leadership of all multifamily finance programs, debt issuance, architect/engineer, and environmental review processes that supported New York State’s $20 billion commitment to affordable housing and homelessness; the program created and preserved 100,000 affordable units over five years (2017-2021), including an additional 6,000 supportive housing units. Under Nicole’s leadership, NYS issued over $2 billion in debt annually to support the production and preservation of affordable units across the state.

She joined HCR from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), where she served as Executive Vice President for Real Estate. NYCHA houses over 500,000 NYC residents in a portfolio of 176,000 units across 335 developments. NYCHA is home to 1 in 15 New Yorkers.

As a leader of the executive team, Nicole oversaw the design and execution of strategic initiatives for both the preservation of existing public housing and the construction of new affordable housing on underused NYCHA land. Under Nicole’s leadership, NYCHA’s development division began implementing the Next Generation NYCHA 10-year strategic plan, which created 17,000 new units of affordable and market-rate housing, preserved 15,000 units of public housing utilizing HUD Section 8 programs, and generated NYCHA hundreds of millions of dollars in financial returns to invest in aging infrastructure. Nicole also oversaw a portfolio of approximately 2.7 million square feet of non-residential real estate; comprised of community facilities and ground-floor retail spaces. She was responsible for the comprehensive strategy to maximize the usage of and revenue from the non-residential portfolio.

Nicole’s groundbreaking work at NYCHA earned her the “2017 Citizens Housing & Planning Council Ibo Balton Community Planner Award,” which recognized the housing authority for achieving its first-ever conversion under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Moreover, the 1,400 unit transaction also leveraged FEMA resources from Superstorm Sandy—a first-of-its-kind transaction in the nation where a housing authority mixed these two programs to create a more climate-resilient community.

Prior to NYCHA, she was Director of Acquisitions at Workforce Housing Group.

Over the past 10 years, Nicole has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, the Pratt Graduate School of Real Estate, and the New York University Schack Institute of Real Estate.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Master of Science in Real Estate from New York University.

Todd Gomez Bank of America Merrill Lynch Senior Vice President

Todd A. Gomez is the North Region Executive for Community Development Banking (CDB) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He is responsible for managing a $2.0B loan portfolio and leading a team focused on providing a broad range of debt and equity financing solutions to developers of affordable multifamily housing in the Northeast and Midwest. Mr. Gomez joined CDB in 2008 from Banc of America Securities where he was Managing Director of the Affordable Housing Finance Group. In his prior position, Mr. Gomez lead a team that was responsible for providing investment banking and advisory services to residential developers, real estate management companies and owner/operators of affordable housing throughout the U.S. Prior to joining BAS in 2004, Mr. Gomez served as the Chief Financial Officer of the Chicago Housing Authority where he was responsible for all financing, cash management, accounting, risk management, and financial reporting activity of the Authority. In addition, Mr. Gomez had responsibility for managing the Authority’s $1.5B annual budget. Mr. Gomez worked for over 13 years in affordable housing finance and corporate banking prior to joining the CHA in 2000. Mr. Gomez specialized in financing multifamily and single family loan programs through state and local HFAs, as well as acquisition, rehabilitation, portfolio restructuring and program development for real estate developers throughout the U.S. Mr. Gomez has experience in structuring all types of taxable and tax-exempt multifamily financing transactions including: Section 8, FHA-insured, privately-insured, unenhanced and non-rated. Mr. Gomez received his AB in Economics from Dartmouth College and a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and Real Estate from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Mr. Gomez was named a Fellow in the 2002-03 class of Leadership Greater Chicago. He currently serves on the Boards of EL Education, Enterprise NY Advisory Council (Co-Chair), the Community Preservation Corporation (Audit Comm. Chair), NYU Furman Center/Moelis Institute (National Housing Policy Chair), the Housing Partnership Development Corporation, and the South Mountain YMCA (NJ).

Daniel Moritz The Arker Companies Principal

Daniel is responsible for financial control and planning for all development projects including the financial affairs of the various companies. This includes preparation of development and operating budgets and financial planning, financing, tax credit compliance, monitoring expenditures, and reporting results to investors. Daniel graduated cum laude from Cornell University, with a major in Finance and Economics. He worked several years for UBShoning financial engineering and underwriting skills. Daniel joined The Arker Companies in 2006 and uses his finance background to help the creative process of real estate development and project financing. Daniel is a member of the Executive Board of the New York Housing Conference, an affiliate of the National Housing Conference.

Matthew Murphy NYU Furman Center Executive Director

Anthony Richardson CREA, LLC Managing Director, NY Syndications

Anthony Richardson is Managing Director of New York Syndications at CREA, LLC, a full-service Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Syndicator forming long-term relationships with investors and developers that cultivate success and improve lives. With over 20 years in business, CREA has raised over $8.3 billion in equity, contributing to the formation of over 65,000 homes in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and one U.S. territory. In his role, Anthony leads the expansion of CREA’s New York footprint and, among other things, serves as the primary contact for the New York state and local housing agencies.

Most recently, Anthony was the Executive Vice President for Development at the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), one of the leading municipal housing finance agencies in the United States. During his tenure, HDC issued over $10 billion in multifamily housing bonds and consistently ranked as the top issuer in that category. Under his leadership, HDC’s Development department underwrote and coordinated numerous new construction and preservation transactions for Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan.

Prior to joining HDC, Anthony served as Director of Multifamily New Construction Programs at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), where he played a key role in the agency’s financing of more than 6,000 new residential homes. He has also held financial advisory, fixed-income sales and brokerage positions at Ernst & Young, M.R. Beal & Company, and Cantor Fitzgerald, respectively.

Anthony earned his bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College and holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), as well as an MPA in public and economic policy from The London School of Economics & Political Science. He serves on the boards of several industry advocacy groups such as the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, the New York City Housing Partnership, the New York Housing Conference, and the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Additionally, Anthony represents the New York City Comptroller on the Carnegie Hall Board of Trustees and is a member of the School Leadership Team at P.S. 11 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

Gary Rodney Tishman Speyer Managing Director, Affordable Housing Acquisitions & Development

Mr. Rodney joined Tishman Speyer in 2020 to launch the firm’s affordable housing platform with an initial focus on the metropolitan New York region. In his role, Mr. Rodney looks for opportunities to buy, redevelop and build ground-up housing that is affordable for low, moderate, and middle-income individuals and families. Prior to joining Tishman Speyer, Mr. Rodney spent 4 years serving as the Chairman of CREA, LLC, a national syndicator of the low-income housing tax credit, where he was responsible for working with the senior management team to help shape the company’s direction and finance affordable housing across the country. Mr. Rodney was previously appointed by the Mayor of New York City to serve as the President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation. He has over 20 years of experience across the government, non-profit, and private sectors. Mr. Rodney is a current member of the boards of the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, the Community Preservation Corporation, and the New York Housing Conference. He holds his BA from the University of Rochester and his MS in Urban Planning from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Mirtha Santana Urban Hub at Cornell Tech Fellow

Lloyd W. Brown, II; Board Emeritus Citi Managing Director; Director of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and Fair Lending

Lloyd W. Brown, II serves as Director, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Reporting for Citi. He is responsible for providing strategic oversight for Citi’s activities under CRA and HMDA. He works with the businesses to set and fulfill CRA lending, investment and service goals; oversees the data integrity process; and establishes procedural guidelines related thereto. Mr. Brown has served as Executive Vice President and Head of Government Affairs and Community Development at The Bank of New York Mellon; and Vice President, Assistant General Counsel & CRA Officer in the Legal Department of IBJ Schroder Bank & Trust. He also has been a bank examiner in the Multinational Banking Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Carol Lamberg, Lifetime Trustee

Carol Lamberg worked at Settlement Housing Fund since its inception in 1969 and served as its Executive Director from 1983 until early 2014.  Under Carol’s leadership, Settlement Housing produced more than 8,700 apartments in 55 developments, retaining ownership through partnerships or affiliates of 29 buildings including more than 1,300 apartments, with concentrations of housing in Brooklyn, the Bronx and lower Manhattan.  Most of these developments are mixed-income buildings, occupied by low- and moderate-income families including some 30% who were once homeless.  Carol’s signature projects include Semiperm Housing, which provides longer term transitional housing with on-site services to single parents leaving the shelter system, and the New Settlement Community Campus, a public school and community center with pool, dance studio, green roof terrace and multi-purpose spaces in the southwest Bronx neighborhood where Settlement Housing has its largest collection of housing and programs.  Carol is currently working on a book about the history of the New Settlement development, the largest of the Koch 10-year housing plan, and another major revitalization project within the Two Bridges Redevelopment Area, where Settlement Housing created over 1,700 units of affordable housing in several sites on the Lower East Side. Ms. Lamberg’s first employers were Edward Banfield and James Q. Wilson, who hired her to work on their book, Urban Politics, which was published in the mid-1960s. She was vice president of the housing consulting group Roger Schafer Associates, and in that capacity worked for the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, Knickerbocker Hospital (NY), and Settlement Housing Fund, among others.  Ms. Lamberg also served as staff director of the New York Housing Conference and has drafted amendments to the Housing Act of 1937, the National Housing Act, and the New York State Private Housing Finance Law. She is regional vice president of the National Housing Conference, and has lectured at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the New School for Social Research. She graduated from Radcliffe College and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard in 1976-77.