Alameda County CAN Steering Committee
Kimberly S. Jones, Esq.
Chair
Policy Advocate, California Reinvestment Coalition
Kimberly S. Jones, Esq. is the policy advocate for the California Reinvestment Coalition (“CRC”), which is a membership organization representing approximately 275 community-based organizations and public agencies throughout the state. As policy advocate, Jones has participated in CRC’s efforts on behalf of low income and economically disadvantaged communities of color in the fight against unfair policies and practices in mortgage foreclosure, and predatory lending practices, such as refund anticipation loans and overdraft fees. Jones participated in CRC’s advocacy efforts with the Obama Administration’s transition team, federal bank regulators as well as congressional representatives. She has also been active in CRC’s negotiation and monitoring of banks’ Community Reinvestment Act activities. In addition, Jones writes a monthly legal column, ‘Balancing the Scales,’ for Long Island Pulse magazine.
Ms. Jones is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. She received a Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ms. Jones also holds a Master of Public Administration degree from City University of New York – Baruch College. She is admitted to the practice of law by the New York State Bar and is an inactive member of the California State Bar. She currently resides in Oakland, California.
Don Little Cloud Davenport
Vice Chair
Executive Director, San Antonio CDC
Mr. Don ‘Little Cloud’ Davenport has devoted 20 years to creating a decent environment and living standard for everyone in Oakland’s San Antonio District and the greater city beyond, believing that our neighborhoods determine our future and that of our youth. He has sought full participation of everyone in a multicultural district, initially as Chairman of the District Council and later as the Executive Director of the San Antonio Community Development Corporation (SACDC) whose founding he facilitated in 1980. As its first president he arranged for the acquisition of the San Antonio District House.
Presently, Don is engaged in the Lower San Antonio Annie E. Casey Collaborative working to engage more residents and area businesses into the process of building a stronger community. Don Davenport is a graduate of University of Michigan where he received both bachelors and master’s degrees.
Carlos Uribe
Secretary
Oakland Head Organizer, ACORN
Bio coming soon.
Ellie Carothers Kelly
Treasurer
Associate, Self-Help California
Ellie Carothers Kelly is an associate at Self-Help’s California Office. Self-Help is one of the nation’s largest Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) committed to creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity for people of color, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families and communities. Over its 29-year history, Self-Help has provided more than $5.5 billion in financing to over 60,000 borrowers. In 2008, Self-Help Federal Credit Union merged with People’s Community Partnership Federal Credit Union in West Oakland.
At Self-Help, Ellie is leading the California initiative to deliver financing tools for foreclosure acquisition and disposition strategies. She is also involved in Self-Help Federal Credit Union’s efforts to launch an innovative micro-branch model to serve low-income communities with responsible financial products. Ellie joined Self-Help in the summer of 2007 after receiving her MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Prior to business school, Ellie worked in strategy consulting with The Parthenon Group and for the Center for Effective Philanthropy, a nonprofit research organization, in Boston, MA.
Lauren Leimbach
Program Chair
Executive Director, Community Financial Resources
Lauren Leimbach spent over 20 years in the financial services industry working for Bank of America, the Federal Reserve, and Providian Financial. She has a wide-ranging background in new financial product/service development, automation and payment systems, marketing strategy, operational implementation, production management, and organizational planning. She also provides consulting support on management tools, program implementation and organizational development strategies to non-profit organizations. Lauren has a BA in Economics and an MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan.
Jeff Butler
Public Relations & Development Chair
Business Program Director
Anew America Community Corporation
Jeff Butler is currently Business Incubation Program Director for AnewAmerica Community Corp., a Berkelely-based nonprofit. Before that, he created and managed the microenterprise program of the Mayfair Improvement Initiative, focusing on low-income Latino neighborhoods in East San Jose.
Prior to Mayfair, Jeff held a variety of business positions in both large corporations and start-up companies in the U.S. and in Europe. He has also been a newspaper reporter and an ESL (English as a Second Language) instructor.
Jeff has lived in several countries including Guatemala, Somalia and Germany, and speaks fluent Spanish, German and English.
Andy Nelsen
Urban Strategies Council Representative
Director of Economic Opportunity, Urban Strategies Council
Andrew Nelsen has been on staff at Urban Strategies Council since 2001. Mr. Nelsen directs the Council’s Economic Opportunity work focusing on economic development and redevelopment issues, and on income and asset development for low-income families. Mr. Nelsen served as co-coordinator of the Oak to 9th Community Benefits Coalition, a coalition of resident groups engaged in a campaign to secure a Community Benefits Agreement as part of a large waterfront redevelopment project in Oakland. He currently heads up the council’s foreclosure prevention intervention and remediation work. A major component of that work is planning for the establishment of a Community Land Trust composed primarily of REO properties.
Before joining Urban Strategies Council, Mr. Nelsen served as Director of Research for Project Emerge, a substance abuse policy group in Oakland, CA . Mr. Nelsen has also worked as a labor and community organizer and he holds an MA in Social Welfare Policy from Brandeis University and a BA in Political Science from San Francisco State University.
Alameda County CAN Coordinator:
Lisa Forti
Program Coordinator, Income and Asset Development, Urban Strategies Council
On staff at Urban Strategies Council since January 2007, Lisa works to promote income and asset building strategies for low-income communities including identifying low-cost financial products, developing employer-based asset building programs, working to increase the uptake of public benefits, and staffing the Alameda County Community Asset Network (AC CAN). She also supports the Council’s Equitable Economic Development and Workforce Development efforts. Lisa earned her Master of Science in Social Work at Columbia University where she specialized in public policy pertaining to poverty and income inequality; she received her Bachelor of Social Work at Wheelock College in Boston and McGill University in Montreal.