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Board of Directors

pamela kestner

President

Global Policy Leadership Academy
Chief of Staff

Pamela Kestner has dedicated the last two decades of her career to effectively reducing homelessness in Virginia at both state and local levels. Before taking on her position with Global Policy Leadership Academy, she served as Co-Lead for the Homelessness Solutions Team with LeSar Development Consultants. Prior to that, Pamela was the Chief Deputy at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. There, she implemented Virginia’s first statewide rental assistance program, which ensured tenants would remain housed and landlords whole during the COVD-19 Pandemic. Eviction prevention has been a main focal point in her career, pushing Pam to create–and maintain–affordable housing solutions for Virginia’s most vulnerable residents.

jay grant

Vice President

City of Newport News 
Administrator of Housing and Neighborhood Services

Jay Grant serves as Administrator of Housing and Neighborhood Services for the City of Newport News, where his focus is strengthening housing affordability and facilitating neighborhood revitalization in effort to continually enhance quality of life.  Prior to working for the City, Jay was the Executive Director for the Hampton Roads office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). He and his office specialized in affordable housing production/preservation, wealth-building, small business assistance, commercial corridor revitalization, and community resilience in effort to support a thriving region.  Prior to LISC, Jay gained leadership, community/economic development, and housing experience at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Jay currently serves on the boards of the Elizabeth River Trail Foundation, Ivy Community Outreach, Portsmouth Partnership, The Agape School of the Virginia Peninsula, and The Public Health Foundation, Inc., as well as serves on the Virginia Tech Newport News Center Advisory Council and Vision Driven 757 Advisory Board.  He holds a B.S. in Marketing Management from Virginia Tech and a Master’s degree in City & Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

mike chiappa

Treasurer

True Ground Housing Partners
Director of Real Estate Development

Mike Chiappa has served as Senior Vice President of Real Estate at True Ground Housing Partners since January 2023. He has held numerous roles at True Ground including Vice President of Real Estate Development and Director of Real Estate Development. 

Mike oversees all aspects of True Ground’s $1 billion+ real estate development portfolio, including acquisition, entitlement, financial underwriting, legal documentation, and construction management, in addition to asset management since September 2022.

Under his leadership, True Ground has significantly expanded its regional geographic footprint with 25 affordable apartment communities that house more than 6,000 neighbors. True Ground has properties across Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties in Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and opened its first community in Washington, DC in 2025. He oversees an additional 1,000+ units under construction, with 1,800+ more in predevelopment across the region.

Mike joined True Ground in 2013 and served as the project manager for the nonprofit’s first 4%/9% hybrid tax credit project, the award-winning Columbia Hills, a 229-unit development that was completed in 2018. He has doubled the size of the real estate team since 2018, attracting top talent to fuel the organization’s growth.

joy myers

Secretary

Doorways
Chief Development Officer

Joy started off her career as an Americorps VISTA serving rural communities in Appalachia. Now, she uses her experiences from the VISTA program and other fundraising roles to help Doorways create accessible pathways out of homelessness, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Before working at Doorways, she was the Chief Development Officer at the Campagna Center in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a strong advocate for social justice who is committed to supporting the lives of those in need.

jordan bishop

Board Member

J.P. Morgan
Senior Community Development Banker

Jordan is a senior community development banker for J.P. Morgan. He is a seasoned commercial real estate finance executive with extensive experience in affordable housing, financial analysis, and strategic planning. Jordan is adept at structuring, underwriting, and closing complex transactions, including LIHTC and bond-financed developments.

Jeff Bourne

Board Member

The Branch Group, Inc
Chief Legal Officer

allison domson

Board Member

Williams Mullen
Partner

Allison Domson focuses on representing real estate developers, commercial lending institutions and syndicators in connection with tax credit financing transactions involving low-income housing tax credits, historic rehabilitation tax credits and New Markets Tax Credits. She works with real estate developers, bankers and syndicators in all aspects of structuring tax credit deals, including the acquisition and development of the underlying real estate, financing the construction and/or rehabilitation of the tax credit property and negotiating the partnership investment documents. In addition, Allison serves as vice chair of the board and as past chair of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

bernard harkless

Board Member

Lynx Ventures
Principal

Bernard manages development and execution of Lynx projects, relying on his experience in architecture, construction, and urban planning. Prior to joining Lynx, Bernard developed luxury condominiums, apartments, and affordable housing in New York City and gained significant experience in construction management with Clark Construction in Washington, DC. Bernard currently serves as board chairman of Storefront for Community Design, and on the board of the Partnership for Housing Affordability. He holds a degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and dual master’s degrees in real estate development and city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

valerie liggins

Board Member

The Cameron Foundation
Vice President for Programs

Valerie has served The Cameron Foundation as Senior Program Officer for Community Health since July of 2008. There, she helps transform communities that have been impacted by poor health through philanthropic support. She also manages grant portfolios of nonprofits, government agencies, and faith-based organizations for a multitude of Virginia cities and counties.

sunshine mathon

Board Member

Piedmont Housing Alliance
Executive Director

Sunshine Mathon is the Executive Director of Piedmont Housing Alliance in Charlottesville, VA. Committed to supporting locally-responsive, climate-resilient communities, he has led the development of over 1,300 healthy, efficient homes in Texas and Virginia. As a nationally-recognized leader at the intersection of community-centered housing development and economic reinvestment, Sunshine has consulted with a wide variety of local and national housing intermediaries.  With a broad range of professional experiences, Sunshine strives for collaborative work at three interconnected scales: relationship-building through one-on-one connections; cultivating place-based community development that centers residents’ lived-expertise; and guiding policy-shift through impact and innovation.   Sunshine holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin and B.S. in Physics from Bates College in Maine. 

Dimitri McDaniel

Board Member

Klein Hornig
Associate

Dimitri focuses his practice on structuring, negotiating, closing, and preserving affordable multifamily housing projects. Through his representation of for-profit and non-profit developers, Dimitri assists clients through all phases of their LIHTC transaction, including acquisition, financing applications, joint venture partnerships, long-term ground leases, tax-exempt bonds, construction and permanent debt financing, layers of local/state subordinate debt or mezzanine debt, and complex Hybrid 9-4 Twinning structures and other multi-phase and mixed-use redevelopment projects. To support growing clients, Dimitri has cultivated a construction law practice and nonprofit organization practice ensuring that every client can feel confident that their deal and corporate needs are adequately addressed.

Shiree Monterio Bryson

Board Member

7 and M Development
Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Shiree is setting a new standard for real estate development that puts local communities first. Inspired by four generations of entrepreneurs who came before her, in 2017 Shiree founded 7+M, a boutique real estate development firm. Her firm is firmly rooted in cultivating communities and neighborhoods that are  more inclusive, sustainable, and progressive places – now and for future generations.   Prior to founding 7+M,  Shiree has a unique perspective and experience of almost 25 years in affordable housing rooted by her extensive education and professional background in policy, program, property management and construction.  Shiree was a Project Director at WinnCompanies. She was responsible for managing real estate development projects that preserved and created new affordable housing units, and her specialty was preserving and rehabilitating low-income housing.

Lisa Porter

Board Member

Beyond Housing
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer

Lisa is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at Beyond Housing (“The Housing Authority of the City of Bristol, VA”) and has been a leading housing advocate in Southwest Virginia for more than 35 years.  BH is the second oldest housing authority in the Commonwealth, and under Lisa’s leadership, has built a holistic approach to affordable housing and development that prioritizes work with individuals, neighborhoods, and the larger community to define and shape affordable housing options.  Innovative work at the agency has led to BH being designated with a HUD EnVision Center, being designated as a Moving to Work (MTW) agency, and being awarded a HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant.  Lisa also serves on the United Way Tennessee/Virginia Board of Directors and the Bristol Tennessee/Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Government Relations Committee and is a past president of the Little Ten  Housing Authorities of Southwest Virginia and the Virginia Association of Housing and Community Development Officials (VAHCDO).