David E. Provost

President

New York

David Provost has 35 years of progressive business leadership expertise in positions ranging from president of a $90 million computer-leasing corporation to chief financial officer of a national nonprofit. He currently serves as the chief financial officer for the Corporation for Supportive Housing.  For the past 28 years, Mr. Provost has focused his career on promoting social and economic justice, primarily in rural communities.  Mr. Provost holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting, with honors, from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts; and a master’s degree in business administration from Boston University, in Massachusetts.

Nalani Fujimori Kaina

Vice President

Hawaii

Nalani Fujimori Kaina is the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, Hawaii’s oldest and largest statewide nonprofit organization providing free civil legal services to the poor. Ms. Kaina joined Legal Aid in 1999 as a staff attorney on the island of Moloka`i. She is a commissioner on the Access to Justice Commission, a past president and current director of Hawaii Women Lawyers, a member of the ACLU of Hawaii’s Litigation Committee, and the chair of the Hawaii State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Previously, she sat on the boards of the Maui County Bar Association, Molokai Occupational Center and Hale Ho´okipa, an outpatient substance abuse treatment center on Molokai.

Ms. Kaina received the 2013 Ho´okele Award from the Hawaii Community Foundation, 2011 Rhoda Lewis Award from the Hawaii Women’s Legal Foundation and the 2008 Hawaii State Bar Association’s C. Fredrick Schutte Award. She was also a 2014 Pacific Business News American Savings Bank Business Leader of the Year finalist. Ms. Kaina graduated from New York University School of Law and received her bachelor’s degree from Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Frank Bravo

Secretary

California

Frank Bravo is the community lending officer for First Republic Bank. He has more than 20 years of banking experience, which includes an in-depth understanding of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), multifamily mortgage revenue bonds and low-income housing tax credit programs. He also has more than 16 years of experience in community and affordable housing development, economic development and financing. During the past nine years, Mr. Bravo has focused on bringing financial resources to rural communities of California, specifically farm worker housing and infrastructure finance. Mr. Bravo’s most recent assignment calls for the development and implementation of a community lending strategy for First Republic Bank’s bicoastal markets. Mr. Bravo currently serves on the boards of the Kings County Management & Development Corporation and the California Community Reinvestment Corporation. He has a bachelor’s degree in biological science from University of California, Davis.

Rachel Morse

Board Treasurer

Alaska

Rachel Morse is the assistant vice chancellor for Alumni Relations at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and the executive director of the UAA Alumni Association. She is also the system governance chair for University of Alaska. Her past experience includes work with rural communities in Alaska on projects that include environmental stewardship, housing, early childhood education and other social services. Ms. Morse also served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe. She has a master’s degree in business administration from University of Alaska Anchorage and a master’s degree in forestry and natural resources management from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

Richard Elías

Board Member

Arizona

Richard Elías has represented District Five on the Pima County Board of Supervisors since February 2002. He works for and is a vocal advocate for affordable housing, eliminating health-care disparities, nurturing youth development and providing quality education in the Sonoran Desert. He works to protect the desert region’s precious water supplies and shrinking wildlife habitat; to diversify and improve the desert’s housing stock and repair and reinvest in its aging urban infrastructure. He works to make Pima County more hospitable and prosperous; a better place for people to work and play. He seeks to bring everyone together in a spirit of community cooperation to enhance their quality of life. Mr. Elías entered public office after a lengthy career in government and nonprofit affordable housing development.

A fifth-generation Tucsonan, Mr. Elías is the son of a longtime local union printer, and was a union shop steward with Retail Clerk’s Union Local 727 (now United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99) when he worked in the grocery industry before completing college. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history, with a minor in Mexican-American studies, from the University of Arizona.

Joe Herring

Board Member

Idaho

Joe Herring has been professionally involved in workforce, community and economic development since 1980. He retired from his position as president of Region IV Development Association in the fall of 2017 after serving in that capacity since 1986. As president, Joe led the organization with success in creating collaborations and promoting sustainable growth throughout Idaho. During this same period, Mr. Herring also served as president of Business Lending Solutions, a SBA Certified Development Company financing small business development. He co-founded the Idaho-Nevada Community Development Financial Institution and continues to serve on its board of directors. Joe remains committed to community development through leadership roles on regional organization boards and consulting. He holds bachelor’s degrees in city and regional planning, and in geography.

Lyle Meeks

Board Member

Montana

Lyle Meeks is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe and a Blackfeet Indian Reservation native. He is a licensed professional engineer with 40 years of experience in development and rehabilitation of public drinking water and wastewater facilities as well as commercial, recreational and industrial projects. Mr. Meeks is past chairman of the Montana Section of the American Water Works Association and received the George Warren Fuller Award given by that organization for constructive leadership in the Montana drinking water industry. Mr. Meeks was utilities manager for water, wastewater, and storm drain systems in Great Falls, Montana. He holds a civil engineering degree from Montana State University.

Marty Miller

Board Member

Washington

Marty Miller is the executive director of the Yakima-based Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing (ORFH), a nonprofit housing developer and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) serving rural Washington. He has more than 20 years of affordable housing development experience. Mr. Miller also is active in advocacy and serves on several boards including the National Rural Housing Coalition and the National Farmworker Housing Directors Association. He has a master’s degree in economic development from Eastern University in Pennsylvania.

Claudia O’Grady

Board Member

Utah

Claudia O’Grady has been involved in community development, and particularly affordable housing solutions, for more than 22 years. She began her career working for a Utah-based nonprofit developer of affordable multifamily housing, where she served as the executive director for more than a decade. The organization focused on small project development in rural communities throughout Utah. Later she joined Homestead Capital, a regional syndicator of Low Income Housing Tax Credits, where she developed investor relationships and placed equity investments in tax credit housing throughout the Intermountain West. Since 2009, Claudia has served as the vice president, multifamily financing, for Utah Housing Corporation, the state housing finance agency. She oversees the state’s housing credit program and multifamily lending programs. Ms. O’Grady also serves on the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Advisory Commission where she helps develop redevelopment strategies in blight areas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University.

Vickie Kitseallyboy Oldman-John

Board Member

New Mexico

Vickie specializes in culturally relevant approaches to organizational development. She has over 20 years of expertise in strategic planning, board development, leadership training, team building, asset building and executive coaching to Native and rural communities. Vickie has been a lead trainer, technical assistance provider and executive coach in various capacity building initiatives funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund, including YouthBuild USA, NeighborWorks® America, Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Native American Indian Housing Council. Vickie has a Master of Social Work with a concentration in Community Planning and Administration from New Mexico Highlands University. She also holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Arizona State University. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo tribe, and her clans are Black Streak of the Forest People, Mud People, One Who Walks Around People, and Folding Arm People.

Gary Severson

Board Member

Colorado

Gary Severson has addressed regional and community issues with multiple stakeholders, diverse groups, government agencies and communities for more than 45 years. He is the retired executive director of Northwest Colorado Council of Governments and the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives recognized him for leadership in regionalism. He earned USDA’s Rural Community Assistance National Leadership Award and is listed in the National Heritage Registry of Who’s Who. He was appointed to the USDA Secretary’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Advisory Committee. He is also an appointed community representative on the USDA Forest Services’ National Collaboration Cadre where he develops collaborative approaches to ecological, social, and economic restoration for national forests and their adjacent communities. He earned degrees in history, public address and group communications from Drake University.

John Sheehan

Board Member

California

John Sheehan retired in 2012 as executive director of Plumas Corporation, a nonprofit focusing on economic and business development, visitor attraction and conservation of natural resources in Plumas County. He has more than 40 years of community development experience working with nonprofits and various government agencies. He is currently president of the Trustees at Feather River Community College and serves on the Feather River Stewardship Coalition and Plumas County Coordination (intergovernmental) boards. Mr. Sheehan also served on the boards of the California Coalition for Rural Housing and California Rural Development Council.