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Contact: Kristin Lawton, 202.408.9788

Jan 12, 2010

CFED Welcomes New Board Members and Staff

Washington. D.C. — The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), a national nonprofit dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income people, is pleased to announce the following staff and board changes.

New Staff Member
Stephen Crawford has joined CFED as Vice President for Policy and Research at CFED. He comes from the Brookings Institution where he served as Deputy Director of Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program and where he currently serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

New Board Members
Melissa Bradley-Burns, Sarah Rosen Wartell, and Robert Kottler have all joined CFED’s Board of Directors. In addition, Brandee McHale has been named Vice Chairman. Biographies for all four members are listed below.

Melissa Bradley-Burns is a Senior Strategist for Green For All. Her primary role is leading the Capital Access Program - working to provide human, social and financial capital to entrepreneurs and businesses in an effort to create, scale and sustain green jobs. Melissa currently serves as an Advisor to Renewal 2 Investment Fund and holds board positions with Georgetown University Board of Governors, Green America, the Tides Network and the Tides Foundation. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Georgetown University and a Master’s in Business Administration in Marketing from American University.

Robert Kottler heads small-business banking for the banking business of Capital One Financial Corporation. He previously led Capital One’s branch, branch real estate and business-banking functions for Capital One in its “de novo” markets, including Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Prior to the merger of Capital One Financial Corporation and Hibernia Corporation in November 2005, Mr. Kottler served as Hibernia’s Chief Sales Support Officer. Before that, he was responsible for Hibernia’s branch expansion in Texas. He holds a bachelor of science degree in management and a master’s degree in business administration, each from Tulane University. He also is a graduate of the Graduate School of Retail Banking, Consumer Bankers Association, at the University of Virginia.

Brandee McHale is currently the Director of Programs at the Citi Foundation, and is responsible for strategic grant making. Previously, she was the Director of Operations for Citi Community Capital (CCC) the largest, private-sector, affordable housing and community development financing entity in the United States. Other assignments with the Citi Foundation have included positions in the Community Relations, Corporate CRA and Community Development arenas. In 2005 Brandee left Citi to spend two years with the Ford Foundation developing a portfolio of investments that support low-income households. She holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Policy and has served on the boards of a variety of institutions. These include the NY Regional Association of Grantmakers, the NYC LISC Advisory Board, the Asset Funders Network and Partners for Livable Communities.

Sarah Rosen Wartell is Executive Vice President of the Center for American Progress and its advocacy arm, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, two organizations she helped to found in 2003. She was co-author of the original business plan to create a progressive “action tank” and has managed these organizations through rapid growth and evolution in a changing context. Sarah previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the Clinton administration. Prior to the White House, Sarah was a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Federal Housing Administration in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She has served as a consultant to the Millennial Housing Commission and the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation. She also practiced law with the Washington, D.C. firm of Arnold & Porter. She is a graduate of the Yale Law School and Princeton University.

CFED expands economic opportunity by helping Americans start and grow businesses, go to college, own a home and save for their children’s and own economic futures. We identify promising ideas, test and refine them in communities to find out what works, craft policies and products to help good ideas reach scale, and develop partnerships to promote lasting change. We bring together community practice, public policy and private markets in new and effective ways to achieve greater economic impact.

Established in 1979 as the Corporation for Enterprise Development, CFED works nationally and internationally through its offices in Washington, DC; Durham, North Carolina; and San Francisco, California.