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Meet the Team

With a collective 35 years of experience in economic mobility and 40 years in capital activation, our team has deployed $94M in community investments. We bring expertise across nonprofit, corporate, philanthropic, and entrepreneurial sectors in the U.S. and abroad, designing direct cash programs, creating inclusive financial tools, and structuring catalytic investments to close funding and capital gaps in the current financial system.

Amel brings a wealth of experience working across private and non-profit sectors. She was previously the Program Manager of a non-profit in New Jersey...
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Amel Khalil

Marketing and Communications Manager

Angelica, a DACA recipient, brings her fervent dedication to social justice and extensive experience in grassroots activism to Impact Charitable as the Economic Mobility Program Coordinator...
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Angelica Guzman Rendon, LL.M, MSc

Program Specialist

Cindy believes the power of relationships and the intentionality of capital will create a more equitable world. She has deep experience as a Colorado thought leader...
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Cindy Willard

Senior Director Capital Activation

Hannah believes in using gifts, talents and passions to strengthen organizations and increase impact in supporting local communities. She has extensive experience in...
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Hannah DeAlto, CPA, MAcc

Controller

Jack strongly believes in supporting organizations that make a positive impact on their communities. Previously the accountant for 5 K-12 public schools in New Hampshire...
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Jack Wixson

Senior Accountant

James is driven by his commitment to equity and inclusion in all he does. He believes relationships are how we better understand each other and find...
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James McClair

Director of Operations

Marlen is invested in how disproportionately impacted households, including non-English speaking, immigrant, and informal economy participating households...
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Marlen Guerrero, LMSW

Senior Program Manager

Rich believes in the interconnectedness of everyone’s well-being and is dedicated to creating more equitable paths to opportunity. He is focused on dismantling the broken systems...
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Rich Hoops

Executive Director

Tanya strongly believes in and is deeply passionate about creating an equal world by democratizing access and opportunities for all. She’s an advocate for concessionary funding...
Read more

Tanya Jain

Senior Investment Analyst

Jourdan believes in reimaging how capital is deployed to reach those most structurally excluded and dismantling barriers that prevent individuals and communities...
Read more

Jourdan McGinn

Senior Director Economic Mobility

With skills in program and project management, partnership development, and organizational strategy, Payton thrives on helping organizations build systems...
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Payton Hoops McCasland

Client and Project Manager

Rich believes in the interconnectedness of everyone’s well-being and is dedicated to creating more equitable paths to opportunity. He is focused on dismantling the broken systems...
Read more

Rich Hoops

Executive Director

Tanya strongly believes in and is deeply passionate about creating an equal world by democratizing access and opportunities for all. She’s an advocate for concessionary funding...
Read more

Tanya Jain

Senior Investment Analyst

Meet Our Board & Advisors

Impact Charitable’s Board of Directors provides strategic oversight and governance to guide the organization’s mission and growth.

The board brings backgrounds in finance, law, impact investing, philanthropy, and nonprofit leadership. Collectively, members have structured and advised on more than $1 billion in community-focused investments and contribute over 100 years of combined experience across capital activation, policy, and fund management.

Their expertise strengthens Impact Charitable’s ability to design and deploy catalytic capital strategies that expand housing, ownership, and economic opportunity.

Alicia DeLia, is an economist, fundraiser and impact advisor working towards economic empowerment and prosperity. She has spent her career unlocking capital for impact leaders who...
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Alicia DeLia

Board Member

Caitlin Morelli is the co-founder of Worthmore, an impact investment advisory firm that helps purpose-driven leaders turn bold ideas into strategies backed by the right capital...
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Caitlin Morelli

Board Member

Ed Briscoe founded Impact Charitable in 2014 and stepped down from day to day leadership in 2020. Ed is the Founder and Managing Director of Weave Social Finance...
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Ed Briscoe

Founder and Board President

Krysta Copeland joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2019 and currently serves as Vice President & Associate General Counsel. Ms. Copeland primarily supports...
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Krysta Copeland

Board Member

Randy engages in activities, including transaction structuring, tax credit syndication, debt financing, origination, underwriting, asset management, and compliance...
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Randy Kahn

Board Member

Sandhya Nakhasi is an executive leader and champion of reimagining a more equitable financial system. She is a co-CEO at Common Future after serving as Managing Director of Impact...
Read more

Sandhya Nakhasi

Board Member

Sondra has spent thirty years investing in a better world. She was most recently the CFO of Capital Sisters International for over a decade...
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Sondra Greene

Board Member

Susan Graf is dedicated to helping socially and environmentally conscious organizations by connecting them to the resources and capital they need to fulfill...
Read more

Susan Graf

Board Member

Julia Janai Parker has worked in both the public and private sector in community development, affordable housing and impact investing....
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Julia Parker

Board Member

Mark spent much of his career delivering products and businesses that generated more than $2.0 billion in revenue in the telecommunications...
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Mark Newhouse

Board Member

Haroun Cowans is a prominent social, financial, and philanthropic leader with over two decades of experience leading development and investment in the Five Points District of Denver...
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Haroun Cowans

Board Member

Join the Team

Are you a driven, entrepreneurial-minded, go-getter who is interested in catalyzing impact?

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DISCLAIMER: This communication is provided by Impact Charitable for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment, legal, or tax advice, nor a solicitation to buy or sell any financial instrument. It includes general information that may not be suitable for all readers and should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that any views or opinions expressed will come to pass. Investing carries risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Donors and partners are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, or tax advisors regarding their specific circumstances.

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Amel Khalil

Marketing and Communications Manager

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Amel brings a wealth of experience working across private and non-profit sectors. She was previously the Program Manager of a non-profit in New Jersey, where she coordinated specialized empowerment programming for the Muslim and Middle Eastern community of New Jersey. In addition to the onboarding and management of all programming for schools, mosques, and community centers, she did grant writing, grant reporting, program management, and administered direct cash, utility bill payments, gift cards, and food boxes to communities across NJ.

She currently consults across a number of different organizations and brings a depth of experience in communications, project management, direct service, and grants management.

Angelica Guzman Rendon, LL.M, MSc

Program Specialist

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Angelica, a DACA recipient, brings her fervent dedication to social justice and extensive experience in grassroots activism to Impact Charitable as the Economic Mobility Program Coordinator. With a resolute commitment to immigrant rights and refugee resettlement, Angelica has actively organized within these movements, embodying her unwavering drive to effect positive change.

Armed with a Master's degree in Crisis and Security Management alongside another in Human Rights Law, Angelica possesses a comprehensive grasp of systemic challenges and adept policy analysis skills. Her tenure in the non-profit sector, including her work with the ACLU of Utah, further honed her ability to advocate for civil liberties and uphold principles of equality.

Motivated by her belief in the transformative potential of economic mobility, Angelica is enthusiastic about leveraging her diverse skill set to empower communities and catalyze lasting change at Impact Charitable. In her leisure time, she remains deeply engaged with her community, enjoys spending time with her family and friends, relishing the Utah scenery.

Cindy Willard

Senior Director Capital Activation

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Cindy believes the power of relationships and the intentionality of capital will create a more equitable world. She has deep experience as a Colorado thought leader in philanthropic strategy, grantmaking and program development.

She began her career in journalism and community relations and has since built extensive experience as a catalyst for community capital. In her various positions at community, private and corporate foundations, Cindy acted as a lead investor in the first statewide pay-for-success project in Colorado to expand access to family therapy designed to reduce recidivism. She has facilitated a pipeline for program-related investments and grants that support education and capital for entrepreneurs and employment. And, she led a statewide research project that informed initiatives to support dropout prevention for girls and economic security for low-income, single mothers.

In her work, Cindy draws from her own community involvement, serving on numerous boards and advisory councils including as a Board member for Vital Healthcare Capital, a national CDFI, and a fellow through the Just Economy Institute.

After graduating from the University of Kansas with a BS in journalism with distinction, she went on to earn a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Regis University, where she later served as affiliate faculty in the Global Nonprofit Leadership department. She lives in Colorado with her husband and dog where she is an aspiring ceramicist, outdoor enthusiast, and avid reader.

Hannah DeAlto, CPA, MAcc

Controller

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Hannah believes in using gifts, talents and passions to strengthen organizations and increase impact in supporting local communities. She has extensive experience in overseeing daily accounting functions and internal controls, budget and audit coordination, financial reporting, and grant compliance, working in nonprofit financial leadership roles for the past 7 years.

Hannah served as the Controller at an international nonprofit foundation focused on implementing sustainable solutions in fragile and conflict-affected areas where she focused on establishing streamlined systems for financial management as a foundation for institutional growth. Prior to that, Hannah acted as the Director of Finance at a dynamic community food bank, where she developed an innovative solution to channel grant funds to grass-roots organizations.

Hannah has a BS and Masters in Accounting from the University of Arizona and is a CPA in Colorado and Arizona. She enjoys volunteering with her local church and acting as a member of the Colorado Society of CPAs. Outside of work, Hannah delights in spending time with her husband and two small children, exploring Colorado, reading, and investing in building community.

Jack Wixson

Senior Accountant

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Jack strongly believes in supporting organizations that make a positive impact on their communities. Previously the accountant for 5 K-12 public schools in New Hampshire, Jack has experience managing a variety of accounting functions for multiple organizations at once. In addition, he led grant reporting for each school and contributed to the efficient use of their operating budgets.

Jack has a BS in Accounting and Marketing from the University of New Hampshire. He recently moved to Colorado with his girlfriend, where they spend as much time outdoors as they can and love to explore national parks.

James McClair

Director of Operations

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James is driven by his commitment to equity and inclusion in all he does. He believes relationships are how we better understand each other and find the intersections between our interests, backgrounds and opportunities.

He worked for 21 years with Oppenheimer Funds in a wide variety of roles as a business analyst, customer service lead, retirement plan senior specialist, and fraud analyst. In each role James used his ability to ask difficult questions and desire to see more than one perspective to drive success in sometimes unconventional ways. He was also an active member of two business resource groups helping to bring equity and education to the Black and Latino communities. Most recently, James entered the impact investing field with a personal focus on diversity and inclusion within the philanthropic and investment sectors.

James has spent the last 14 years helping members of his community experience other cultures and perspectives both locally and internationally in India, Honduras, Uganda, Rwanda, and Peru. As co-leader and creator of the International Advocacy Team at Highlands Church Denver, he has developed programming and led teams to build relationships and support projects identified by communities in these regions.

James has a BA in Biology from Denison University, where he played basketball, ran track, and sang in an acapella group. Music and sports have been a big part of James’ life and continue with his wife Rachael and two boys. Today the entire family continues to perform and play around the Denver area and beach volleyball courts wherever possible.

Marlen Guerrero, LMSW

Senior Program Manager

Marlen is invested in how disproportionately impacted households, including non-English speaking, immigrant, and informal economy participating households, access assistance programs during times of crisis. She works to center the service seeker experience when designing program components to maintain dignity and foster trust.

Marlen began her career in disaster recovery, helping homeowners navigate philanthropic funds and federal funds to repair their homes after natural disasters. Later, as a program manager, she focused on designing and implementing direct financial and rental assistance programs for COVID-impacted households.

Marlen received her BA from Colby College in Biology and Sociology. She received her Master's in Social Work from the University of Houston, with a focus on Political and Macro Social Work, and is a licensed social worker. She currently resides in her hometown of Houston, Texas.

Rich Hoops

Executive Director

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Rich believes in the interconnectedness of everyone’s well-being and is dedicated to creating more equitable paths to opportunity. He is focused on dismantling the broken systems of capital that exist and building a new system that creates access to resources that support a better life for all of us.

He has extensive private sector experience in both corporate and entrepreneurial settings. In his corporate career, he held senior management and executive positions in sales, marketing and business development. He founded a for-profit company, a social enterprise, and co-founded two nonprofit organizations. More recently, Rich committed himself to leading in the social sector gaining significant experience in nonprofit management, philanthropy, and impact investing over the past 15 years.

Locally, Rich serves as board chair of Thrive, an organization supporting individuals to move towards self-sufficiency through work and is a member of Social Venture Partners-Denver. Nationally, he serves on the advisory board for the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. In addition to his work in the US, Rich is actively engaged in the social enterprise sector in East Africa as both investor and advisor to early-stage social enterprises and as board chair for Blood:Water Mission, a nonprofit that partners with community-based organizations in the fight against the HIV/AIDs and water crises.

Rich has a BA from the University of Missouri-Colombia and an MBA in Organizational Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago. When not working, Rich enjoys camping, skiing, biking, fly-fishing, and spending time with his four daughters.

Tanya Jain

Senior Investment Analyst

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Tanya strongly believes in and is deeply passionate about creating an equal world by democratizing access and opportunities for all. She’s an advocate for concessionary funding, which she believes can bridge the gap left by private markets and promote equitable growth.

In the past, she has worked extensively with civic organizations and state governments in ideating program design and implementation strategies aimed at improving community outcomes. She’s also worked with various impact investing organizations, where she has conducted investment due diligence. She’s also played a pivotal role in helping investment funds think about their theory of change.

Tanya holds a degree in Economics from the University of Delhi, India, and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, USA. She has also earned her CFA Level 1.

Jourdan McGinn

Senior Director Economic Mobility

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Jourdan believes in reimagining how capital is deployed to reach those most structurally excluded and dismantling barriers that prevent individuals and communities from realizing their full potential.

She is the former Deputy Executive Director for Partners In Health Sierra Leone, helping to rebuild the health system after the devastating West Africa Ebola outbreak.

Prior to that, Jourdan was the Director of Program Design for One Acre Fund (OAF) Kenya, a social enterprise working with small-holder farmers across rural Africa, where she built the first-ever Program Design team. The Program Design team used novel human-centered design methodologies coupled with evidence generated from pilot and R&D initiatives to optimize program design and build high-impact products.

She also supported and incubated emerging community-based human rights organizations and grassroots leaders from across Uganda following the occupation of the Lord's Resistance Army.

Throughout this work, Jourdan has used direct cash as a tool in addressing poverty and systemic injustice, running nearly two dozen direct cash programs across the globe. She has an MSc in Public Health & Economics from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BA from Seattle University in Communications & African Studies. She lives in Colorado Springs with her partner and little girl Charlie, where she spends as much time outdoors as possible and loves boxing, hiking, and adventuring.

Payton Hoops McCasland

Client and Project Manager

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With skills in program and project management, partnership development, and organizational strategy, Payton thrives on helping organizations build systems that function more efficiently and effectively. She believes in the transformative power of cross-sector leadership and is excited about being part of a team that is focused on unlocking access to funding and addressing critical capital gaps.

Payton has worked in both the nonprofit and for profits sectors over the past decade. In her previous role as a Senior Program Associate for Cause Strategy Partners, she worked to connect talented professionals to their cause through nonprofit board matching, placement and training. Payton earned her B.A. in Sociology, Human Rights, and Public Policy from Colorado College. Payton now serves as the Capital Activation Client and Project Manager at Impact Charitable, where she is committed to creating opportunities and pathways for overlooked and under-resourced communities.

Outside of work, Payton enjoys spending quality time with her partner and their dog, learning to play pickleball, and adventuring throughout Colorado. She is passionate about opportunities to connect with her community and to nature, and serves as a volunteer program facilitator for SOS Outreach, an organization committed to providing mentorship and leadership development to youth through powerful outdoor experiences.

Alicia DeLia

Board Member

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Alicia DeLia, is an economist, fundraiser and impact advisor working towards economic empowerment and prosperity. She has spent her career unlocking capital for impact leaders who too often go unseen—more than $100M for BIPOC and women-led enterprises worldwide. Alicia’s consulting and advisory firm, Día (DeLia Impact Advisors) helps dynamic social enterprises grow– and ensure social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and impact fund managers have the financial resources and partnerships they need to thrive. Día also supports capital allocators, from faith- based investors to family offices and young inheritors, in placing capital more strategically-particularly within underserved ecosystems that have been historically marginalized.

Alicia’s work challenges entrenched mindsets around capital allocation, and helps to replace bias and mistrust with financial partnerships grounded in dignity and care. For over 15 years, Alicia has created and shaped new models of impact financing, due diligence and restorative capital allocation across the United States, Latin America and Africa. Her leadership at organizations including RUNWAY, Rising Tide Capital, Shared Interest, The Guild and other pioneering organizations reflects a commitment to utilizing capital as a tool to finance brilliant ideas, heal and connect communities worldwide and accelerate human & ecological thriving.

Caitlin Morelli

Board Member

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Caitlin Morelli is the co-founder of Worthmore, an impact investment advisory firm that helps purpose-driven leaders turn bold ideas into strategies backed by the right capital. Worthmore partners with asset holders, capital entrepreneurs, and mission-driven institutions to design strategies, build investment vehicles, and move money where it matters most. Previously she worked in the Office of the CEO of Common Future, managing two acquisitions, writing about new economic models on her publication, The Great Near, and leading investments and strategic partnerships into mission-driven enterprises. Her global career spans teaching a course on human-centered design at Beijing Women’s University, regularly speaking at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, and serving as a Junior Trade Commissioner at the Consulate General of Canada. She has led fundraising for The Global Good Fund, a social enterprise incubator, and worked with Scene Health (formerly emocha) as a Venture for America Fellow, driving business development to improve medication adherence through innovative health-tech solutions.

Ed Briscoe

Founder and Board President

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Ed Briscoe founded Impact Charitable in 2014 and stepped down from day to day leadership in 2020. Ed is the Founder and Managing Director of Weave Social Finance, a provider of consulting and investment banking services to social enterprises and businesses based in low-income communities. Through his career, Ed has directed, structured, and facilitated over $480 million in investments benefiting low income communities. His newest venture is the Colorado Housing Accelerator Fund.

Ed’s experience in the organizational leadership and management of charitable organizations includes serving on the Board of Directors and chair of the credit committee for Colorado Enterprise Fund and the first investor and board member for Knotty Tie Co.

Ed has a B.S. in business administration from Samford University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University with concentrations in finance, strategy, and human and organizational performance.

Krysta Copeland

Board Member

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Krysta Copeland joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2019 and currently serves as Vice President & Associate General Counsel. Ms. Copeland primarily supports the Foundation’s Innovative Finance team, which structures program-related investments (PRIs) worldwide, including debt, equity, convertible grants, and guarantees. By leading the implementation of PRIs, she also strengthens the Foundation’s programmatic work in energy, food, health, economic opportunity, innovation, and climate change mitigation. She is the lead lawyer for Rockefeller Foundation Impact Investment Management, the Foundation’s investment advisory arm. She also supports the Foundation’s endowment office and serves as secretary of the Investment and PRI Committees.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Copeland was a corporate attorney at Latham & Watkins in both London and Washington, DC. She primarily represented fund sponsors and institutional investors, leading all legal aspects of fund formation, fundraising, governance and compliance. She also represented issuers and investment banks in international debt and equity offerings.

Ms. Copeland is admitted in New York and D.C. and is a member of the National Bar Association and American Bar Association. She earned her J.D. from the Howard University School of Law and her B.A. in Political Science and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Randy Kahn

Board Member

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Randy engages in activities, including transaction structuring, tax credit syndication, debt financing, origination, underwriting, asset management, and compliance. He has worked in community development finance since 1996, including low-income housing finance, project finance, and private equity deal analysis in both the U.S. and abroad. He has helped raise and deploy over $1 billion of debt and equity funds for not-for-profits, government instrumentalities, and private clients. Randy formerly served as the head of a regional CDFI. As a member of executive management, Randy oversees Greenline Community Ventures, LLC, which specializes in capital markets solutions for economic development activities. Greenline’s principals and staff have strong backgrounds in investment banking; commercial lending; community development; asset management and/or program compliance. To date, Greenline principals have: raised over $1.3 billion in capital; invested over $2.5 billion of debt or equity into projects and businesses; and managed asset portfolios of over $1billion. The company is minority owned and controlled with a national footprint.

Randy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He was raised in Colorado and retains strong connections to Denver and Crested Butte. He currently lives in the Washington DC area.

Sandhya Nakhasi

Board Member

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Sandhya Nakhasi is an executive leader and champion of reimagining a more equitable financial system. She is a co-CEO at Common Future after serving as Managing Director of Impact Investments, where she used an experimental approach to stewarding and growing a portfolio of field defining, equitable lending and community-led investment programs. In her career to date, she has worked at public, private, and non-profit financial institutions where she developed her expertise in impact investing, credit analysis, portfolio risk management, and portfolio operations.

Sondra Greene

Board Member

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Sondra has spent thirty years investing in a better world. She was most recently the CFO of Capital Sisters International for over a decade, during which time she launched and managed the Sister Bonds® Investment Fund – retail investors buy zero interest bonds to fund microloans for women in developing countries, specifically Guatemala, the Philippines and Afghanistan.

Prior to that she spent fifteen years raising private capital for public infrastructure projects in the UK, Europe and around the world.

At Barclays Capital in London, she advised governments and companies developing projects in the transportation and social infrastructure sectors. She subsequently helped launch and grow the London office of Macquarie Bank’s infrastructure funds business.

Sondra is on the Board of the National Diaper Bank Network which aims to ensure that families in the United States have access to their basic needs, and she is an angel investor with Next Wave Impact, women investing in entrepreneurs creating positive social impact.

She has an Economics Degree from Brandeis and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Susan Graf

Board Member

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Susan Graf is dedicated to helping socially and environmentally conscious organizations by connecting them to the resources and capital they need to fulfill their missions. Currently VP for Regional Development for Alpine Bank, Susan is a seasoned executive and board leader who leverages her extensive experience in corporate governance, business development, operations and human resource management to nurture the growth of impactful organizations. In 2016, Susan was tapped by San Francisco-based New Resource Bank to lead their expansion into Colorado and open their first loan production office in Boulder, thus adding ‘banker’ to her career quiver. New Resource, a national, B Corp bank serving sustainable businesses and nonprofits, hired Susan as their SVP Regional Development Manager to capitalize on her leadership experience in these target markets.

Graf became the first female President and CEO of the Boulder Chamber in 2004. She led the Boulder Chamber of Commerce for eight years; which included oversight of the Boulder Economic Council, Small Business Development Center and the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Susan collaborated with the City of Boulder to develop a joint Economic Vitality Program that included new city Business Liaison staff, a microloan fund, the city’s Flexible Rebate incentives package, and a joint proactive business outreach program. She has served in leadership roles on the boards of the Colorado Enterprise Fund, Boulder Community Health, Naturally Boulder, Workforce Boulder County and currently serves on the Finance Committee of the Emergency Family Assistance Association. Graf holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Colorado, is a Senior Professional in Human Resources from the Society of Human Resource Management and is a Wharton Certified Employee Benefit Specialist.

Graf is a long-time Boulder resident and fully embraces the Colorado lifestyle, as she can frequently be found hiking or road biking with her husband or girlfriends.

Julia Parker

Julia Parker

Board Member

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Julia Janai Parker has worked in both the public and private sector in community development, affordable housing and impact investing.

After stints working in the US Senate and with the City of Omaha, Julia started her nonprofit career at Building Bright Futures, a nonprofit incubator supporting organizations focused on educational outcomes for children experiencing the violence of poverty. She went on to start a nonprofit strategy consultancy, Park4029 that worked with small, high growth mission-based organizations. Julia then served as Executive Director of Omaha Small Business Network (OSBN), a community development entity.

Julia has a passion for investing in BIPOC entrepreneurs and business owners which she did as Director of Economic Development at Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation a Boston area CDFI. She focused on debt capital strategy, economic mobility, financial literacy and entrepreneurship for returning citizens. Julia also served as Senior Investments Manager at Connect Humanity, a nonprofit lender focused on digital equity and internet access for all. Most recently, Julia served as Chief Lending and Impact Officer at Appalachian Community Capital, a CDFI intermediary operating in 12 states and home to the Green Bank for Rural America.

She currently leads Park4029 Consulting full-time and holds fractional positions at the New Economy Project as Manager of Cooperative and Community Investments and at the Boston Ujima Project as Managing Director of the Ujima Fund.

Julia also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology in Boston.

Julia holds a BA in Political Science and a BA in International Relations from Creighton University and a MS in Urban Studies from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Julia has an MBA from Boston College Carroll School of Management focusing on Finance and Entrepreneurship.

In her spare time, Julia enjoys being a guest on Star Trek podcasts and doing pop culture reviews on You-Tube for her favorite nonprofit The House of Afros, Capes and Curls.

Mark Newhouse

Board Member

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Mark spent much of his career delivering products and businesses that generated more than $2.0 billion in revenue in the telecommunications, consumer electronics, and cleantech markets. Mark is a true pioneer in the field of Optical Communications. Any signal moving through the Internet may travel over some of the 30 million kilometers of LEAF® fiber, which he and Yanming Liu invented. Multi-wavelength optical amplifiers developed by the technology organizations he grew and ran may amplify that Internet signal. Optical switches pioneered and deployed by the Corning division that he founded and led may then switch that Internet signal. Mark completed his time at Corning in Shanghai, where he was a Senior Vice President of Corning Incorporated.

Over the last several years in Colorado, Mark has been investing in and advising a variety of startup companies. In 2017 he was named a General Partner of the Innosphere Fund. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of SWIR Visions Systems, Epic River, and Boulder AI. Since coming to Colorado, Mark has invested much of his time in exploring new models of philanthropy.

At the onset of the COVID pandemic, Mark co-founded the Left Behind Workers Fund (LBWF), which is providing assistance to recently unemployed workers without documentation. LBWF has raised, from both private and public sources, and has distributed, $25 million to help these workers at their time of greatest need. This work led to the founding of Aidkit, which is now providing a technology platform to support seven different financial assistance programs, including the Denver Basic Income Project.

Mark was an investor in NPX’s first private-pay-for-success transaction. As an Advisor to NPX, he helped bring this new philanthropy model to Colorado in the form of NPX’s Colorado Donor Impact Fund.

Mark is the founder of the Social Venture Partners Impact Investing Group. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Denver Social Venture Partners, Impact Charitable, and The Denver Foundation.

Haroun Cowans

Board Member

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Haroun Cowans is a prominent social, financial, and philanthropic leader with over two decades of experience leading development and investment in the Five Points District of Denver, Colorado. Haroun is responsible for Goshen Development’s operations, client relations, partnerships, business development, and strategic leadership. Prior to founding Goshen, Haroun oversaw a $350M privately owned real estate portfolio, including development, asset management, property management, and brokerage. He has held many leadership positions in real estate and finance but considers his greatest passion his work as an associate pastor at Church in the City – Beth Abraham. Outside of ministry, Haroun is the Founder and Managing Principal of Goshen Development.

Haroun has built strong relationships to the Five Points and greater Denver community through his extensive work and board appointments. Throughout his career, Haroun has held many different positions in real-estate and finance including managing retail financial branches, raising capital for startups, financial advising, financial services at Merrill Lynch, Chief Real Estate Officer and commercial real estate broker. Haroun has been appointed by the Mayor to serve on the Denver Board of Human Services and the Advisory Committee for Housing People Experiencing Homelessness. He is a board member of the following organizations: Colorado Enterprise Fund, Five Points Business Improvement District, Historic Denver, Denver Health Foundation, Denver African American Philanthropists (co-chair), and Black Resilience in Colorado. He has previously served on the boards of Denver East YMCA, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and Youth Biz (chair). Notably, Haroun has been featured in the Denver Post, Denver Channel 7 News, Denver Channel 9 News, 303 Magazine, Westword, Business Den and has been cover stories for Denver Business Journal, Denverite and Vice Magazine.

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