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Strategic Advisors

innovation@cfed is supported by a distinguished group of individuals who serve as Strategic Advisors. They provide guidance, intending to help take the innovation@cfed program to new heights. The Strategic Advisors meet annually to brainstorm ideas as we grow our learning community and lend their highly sought-after expertise to the dynamic range of areas in which innovation@cfed focuses.

Deepak Bhargava, Melissa L. Bradley, William J. (Bill) Bynum, Denise E. Cavanaugh, John Cleveland, Kriss Deiglmeier, Sara K. Gould, Luis Granados, Langdon Morris, Dana Pancrazi, Pete Plastrik, Geeta Rao Gupta, Jonathan Reiss, Doug Rosen, Jennifer Tescher, Michael Torrens

Deepak Bhargava
Deepak Bhargava is Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change the policies and institutions that affect their lives. Prior to his appointment as Executive Director of the Center in 2002, Deepak served as the Center's Director of Public Policy. He also directed the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, a coalition of grassroots groups established in 2000 to give low-income people a voice in the reauthorization of the federal welfare law and other areas critical to poor people. During his tenure as Executive Director, Deepak has sharpened the Center's focus on grassroots community organizing as the central strategy for social justice and on public policy change as the key lever to improve poor people's lives. He conceived and led the Center's work on immigration reform, which has resulted in the creation of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), a leading grassroots network pressing for changes in the country's immigration laws. He has spearheaded the creation of innovative new projects like Generation Change, a program that recruits, trains and places the next generation of community organizers, and the Community Voting Project, which brings large numbers of low-income voters into the electoral process. Bhargava has also overseen a dramatic internal transformation of the organization over the past years, resulting in a younger, more diverse board and staff, a new physical home at 1536 U Street, and greater focus of the organization's work on strengthening and aligning community organizations towards policy change. Deepak has provided intellectual leadership on a variety of issues including the future of the progressive movement in the United States, poverty, racial justice, immigration reform, community organizing, and economic justice. He has written on these issues for a range of publications including The Washington Post, The Nation, and The American Prospect. His strategy memo co-authored with Seth Borgos "A Proposition for the Future" provided a roadmap for how the field of grassroots organizing and the Center needed to adapt to changing circumstances, and proved highly influential in the field. His groundbreaking article co-authored with Jean Haridsty, "Wrong About the Right," influenced how many progressives think about the strategies necessary to achieve lasting social change. Deepak has testified before Congress on more than 20 occasions. Deepak currently serves on the boards of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, the Discount Foundation, the League of Education Voters, The Nation editorial board, and the National Advisory Board for the Open Society Institute. He is a past board member of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the Applied Research Center. Born in Bangalore, India, Deepak immigrated to the United States when he was a child. He grew up in New York City and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College. He lives in Washington, DC with his partner Harry Hanbury, a documentary filmmaker.

Melissa L. Bradley
Melissa Bradley is Chief Executive Officer of Tides, which promotes positive social change by working with donors to increase and organize resources, providing nonprofit management services to over 200 projects across the U.S. and operating green nonprofit centers. Prior to joining Tides, Melissa founded and served as Managing Director of New Capitalist™, whose mission is to leverage human, financial and social capital to create economically profitable and sustainable individuals, businesses and communities. In this role she has facilitated over $20MM in private equity transactions for seed stage companies, generated an average of 20 percent return on behalf of investors, and created proprietary investment vehicles instrumental in capital sourcing for minority-owned firms.

Melissa serves as a regular consultant to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation on Family Economic Security and Civic Engagement. She is formerly a Senior Strategist for Green For All. In this role she created the Capital Access Program and assisted in the creation of the Energy Efficiency Opportunity Fund and the Green Jobs Award Program.

She is also founder of The Entrepreneurial Development Institute (TEDI), an international, non-governmental organization, serving youth, ages 7 to 21, and their families, whose mission is to serve as a catalyst for permanent social change, economic development and community empowerment. Selected as an “Outstanding National Youth Entrepreneurship Program” by the Kauffman Foundation, the organization is based in Washington, DC with 16 satellite offices throughout the United States and three international locations.

Melissa currently serves as an Advisor to Renewal 2 Investment Fund. She also holds board positions with CFED, Georgetown University Board of Governors, Victory Fund and Green America (Chair).

Her prior work experience includes serving as Vice President at UBS in the Private Client Group and serving as a Financial Regulatory Affairs Fellow with the US Department of Treasury.

Ms. Bradley’s educational background includes graduation from Georgetown University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the School of Business, and a Master’s in Business Administration in Marketing from American University in 1993.

William J. (Bill) Bynum
Bill is responsible for the strategic direction of ECD/HOPE (Enterprise Corporation of the Delta/Hope Community Credit Union), a regional community development financial institution, intermediary and policy center that addresses development needs confronting low-wealth people and communities. ECD/HOPE has generated over $600 million in financing for entrepreneurs, homebuyers and community development projects, benefiting more than 40,000 individuals in the Delta, Katrina-affected areas and other distressed communities across the Mid South. Bill became ECD's CEO when the organization was established in 1994, and founded HOPE in 1995. Bynum previously helped establish Self-Help, a pioneer in the development banking industry, and was program director at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. A University of North Carolina graduate, Bynum is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and recipient of the Annie Vamper Award by the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, Rural Hero Award by the National Rural Assembly; and National Supporter of Entrepreneurship by Ernst & Young and the Kauffman Foundation. Bill's board service includes the Foundation for the Mid South, Mississippi Access to Justice Commission, Mississippi Children's Museum, Regions Bank Community Development Corporation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. He currently serves as Chairman of the President's Community Development Advisory Board.

Denise E. Cavanaugh
Denise Cavanaugh has been intrigued by the ways that organizations prosper, decline and renew ever since her early assignments as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru, Parent Coordinator with Head Start in Chicago and Program Officer with VISTA in West Virginia. All three organizations provided a firsthand, frontline view of the challenges of organization development. Denise stepped into the corporate world in 1974 by starting a management consulting firm in Washington, DC, that provided organization development services to nonprofit groups, healthcare organizations, entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies.In 1985, Ann Hagan and Jane Pierson joined Denise to create Cavanaugh, Hagan & Pierson. This long running partnership - now enriched with a new partner, Joshua Mintz - has developed into a smart, trusted ally for organization leaders across many sectors of the economy. In particular, Denise brings a keen sense of strategy to each assignment and is eager to work with an organization's stakeholders to take a tough-minded look at future scenarios that could bring the organization's mission, goals and values to life.Denise is a graduate of St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana where she earned a B. A. degree in economics and sociology and has a folder full of certificates from an eclectic mix of professional development seminars.

John Cleveland
John Cleveland is Vice President and a founder of the Innovation Network for Communities, a national nonprofit that develops and spreads scalable innovations that transform the performance of community systems. John has more than 30 years of experience spanning the public, education, nonprofit and private sectors. He has done extensive work across the country in human, social and natural capital formation strategies, including work in sustainable development, green building design, organizational learning, socially responsible businesses, school reform and economic development. Prior to founding the Innovation Network for Communities with Pete Plastrik, John was a partner in Integral Assets Consulting, a for-profit consulting company that specializes in large scale systems change projects, with a focus on the intersection between private markets and public good. John has written extensively on a broad range of subjects, including systems theory, learning theory, organizational change, sustainable development, innovation, continuous improvement and world class manufacturing strategy. John has also served on numerous private and public boards, including the West Michigan Land Conservancy, Crystal Flash and University Prep Academy. He is currently on the boards of New Urban Learning, the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago, I-GO, Sacoma International, CK Technologies and Progressive Architecture and Engineering.John graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in City Planning from Yale University.

Kriss Deiglmeier
Kriss Deiglmeier is the Executive Director for the Center for Social Innovation at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Upon coming to CSI, Kriss embarked on a strategic planning process that set forth a new mission and strategy focused on breaking down sector boundaries.Kriss has more than 20 years of management experience spanning the business, social enterprise, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Prior to Stanford, Kriss worked as a management consultant to foundation, business and nonprofit enterprises. She served as Chief Operating Officer for Juma Ventures, San Francisco’s premier nonprofit organization dedicated to ending cycles of poverty by ensuring youth access to higher education. Before joining Juma, she worked with the United Way of King County in Seattle, Larkin Street Youth Center in San Francisco, and was manager and lead buyer for Nordstrom in Palo Alto, CA.Kriss has presented nationally and internationally on topics including social entrepreneurship and public-private partnerships. She has guest lectured at the University of California Berkeley, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Hitotsubashi University, Kyoto University, Kyushu University, and Nagoya University. She co-authored the articles, "Leading the Social Purpose Business: An Examination of Organizational Culture" and "Managing the Social Enterprise." Her most recent article is "Rediscovering Social Innovation." Kriss received her B.A. from the University of Washington, and her M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sara K. Gould
Sara K. Gould will be joining the Foundation Center in January 2011 as the Atlantic Senior Fellow. In this new position, funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, she will work with both organizations and the philanthropic community to advance the focus on social justice philanthropy. Sara previously served as the president and Chief Executive Officer of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the women's foundation engaged nationally to build women's power to drive social change in the United States. Her presidency began July 1, 2004, after serving four years as the foundation's Executive Director. A leading expert on women's economic security, Sara joined the Ms. Foundation in 1986 to lead new work in the field of women's economic development. In this capacity, she spearheaded the Collaborative Fund for Women's Economic Development, a pioneering grant-making initiative, which has provided more than $10 million in support of organizations creating jobs for low-income women. She also created the Institute for Women's Empowerment, which has provided thousands of grassroots leaders with the skills and resources to help women achieve greater economic independence. Sara currently serves on the Boards of the Center for Community Change and The Women's Funding Network. Prior to joining the Ms. Foundation, she held positions with the CFED, Women's Action Alliance and Massachusetts Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation. Sara holds a master's degree in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University, awarded in 1977, and a bachelor's degree in political science from Grand Valley State University, in Allendale, Michigan.

Originally from Grand Haven, Michigan, she now resides in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband Rick Surpin, president of Independence Care System, and their son, Jacob.

Luis Granados
Luis Granados is the Executive Director for the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA). During his tenure, he has worked to increasingly make asset building the focus of the organization. At the same time, he has worked to make low- and moderate-income individuals, particularly Spanish-speaking Latinos, the primary constituency for the organization. During his tenure at MEDA, he has worked to develop programs that are relevant to MEDA's low- and moderate income constituency. In this regard, he has led the development: of a business development program, whose services focuses on the long-term sustainability of local-serving businesses; a first-time homeownership program that focuses its efforts on improving the financial standing of working class families who have the goal of owning their home; policy program which seeks to address the issue of asset development from a legislative perspective. Combined these programs provide asset development services to over 1,000 families per year. In addition, he was worked to bring community groups together and bring resources for the benefit of the Mission. In this regard, Luis was one of the founding members of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC), a collaboration of five organizations focused on implementing land use planning policies to stop the displacement of working class individuals from the Mission District. He is also the one of the founders of the San Francisco Homeownership Center, a collaboration of several homeownership counseling groups, financial institutions and the public agencies working to increase homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income individuals in San Francisco. He is also a member of the Mission Asset Fund, which seeks to create an ongoing, sustainable asset fund for the Mission District. Luis has a Master's of City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelors of Science from the University of California at Davis.

Langdon Morris
Langdon Morris is a founder of and partner at InnovationLabs and an affiliate of WDHB Consulting Group. His work focuses on innovation, strategy, and collaboration methodologies to solve complex problems with very high levels of creativity and innovation. Recent clients include: NASA, American Heart Association, SAP, Gemplus, the Federal Reserve Bank, France Telecom, Stanford University Medical Center, the University of Minnesota Medical School, Cap Gemini, DuPont, Wipro, L'Oreal, Accor Hotels and many others. He is also Senior Practice Scholar of the Ackoff Center at the University of Pennsylvania where he is researching complex social and business systems, a Senior Fellow of the Economic Opportunities Program of The Aspen Institute and a member of the Scientific Committee of Business Digest, Paris. Langdon has taught MBA courses in strategy at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires. He is the author or co-author of numerous white papers and six highly acclaimed books, with editions in Japanese, Korean, and French: "4th Generation R&D: Managing Knowledge," "Technology, and Innovation," "Managing the Evolving Corporation," "The Knowledge Channel: Corporate Strategies for the Internet," "The War for America: Morality, Ideology, and the Big Lies of American Politics," "Beyond Earth: The Future of Humans in Space" and "Permanent Innovation."He is a former contributing editor of Knowledge Management magazine, and his articles have appeared there as well as in Learning and Training Innovations magazine, Business Digest, Internet Journal, Indian Management and Laboratory Design Journal. He is also a compelling public speaker, and appears frequently at conferences and workshops worldwide.

Dana Pancrazi
Dana Pancrazi is Senior Program Officer at the F.B. Heron Foundation in New York City. She covers Texas and designated strategic partners working nationally. In her role, she is responsible for helping to deploy the full range of Heron’s “philanthropic toolbox” including grants, program-related investments and market-rate mission-related investments as appropriate. Prior to joining Heron, Dana was a financial advisor/philanthropic nonprofit specialist with Merrill Lynch in La Jolla, California. She holds Series 7, 63 and 65 securities licenses. Dana also served on the San Diego Economic Development Corporation’s Advisory Board for the Indicators of Sustainable Competitiveness and as a member of the Advisory Council to the Chancellor for the California State University’s 23 campus system. Dana is a native Californian and earned a bachelor of science degree in agricultural business and public policy from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Pete Plastrik
Peter Plastrik is cofounder and President, Innovation Network for Communities (INC), a nonprofit national network of community system innovators. Before founding INC with John Cleveland, Peter served as a partner in Integral Assets Consulting, a firm that specialized in strategic planning, innovation development and organizational development with nonprofits, foundations, networks and social enterprises. He was also CEO of New Urban learning, a nonprofit that managed innovative schools in Detroit. He also served as a senior executive of the Michigan Partnership for New Education, a public-private partnership seeking reform of the state education system. Before that, he served in a number of public service positions, including Chief Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Commerce, President of the Michigan Strategic Fund and Executive Director of Governor James Blanchard’s Jobs and Economic Development Cabinet Council.A prolific author, Peter wrote “Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government” and “The Reinventor’s Fieldbook: Tools for Transforming Your Government” with coauthor David Osborne. He is also a veteran newspaper reporter, having worked for Booth Newspapers in the State Capitol (Lansing, Michigan) Bureau and The Kalamazoo Gazette.

Geeta Rao Gupta
Geeta Rao Gupta is Senior Fellow to the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, she served as President of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). An internationally renowned expert on gender and development, Rao Gupta has more than 20 years of experience in women's health and is a leading global authority on women's role in development programs. She frequently lends expertise on issues such as gender mainstreaming in development, women's health, HIV and AIDS, women's economic empowerment, private sector roles in development, strategies to empower women and advance gender equality and women and poverty.

Prior to becoming President of ICRW, she held a number of positions with the organization including consultant, researcher and officer. She also served as co-chair of the U. N. Secretary General's High Level Panel on Youth Employment and co-chaired the U. N. Millennium Project's Task Force on Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women from 2002-2005. She also serves as an advisor to the UNAIDS Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. Geeta was the recipient of the 2007 Washington Business Journal's "Women Who Mean Business" Award and is frequently recognized for her commitment to quality research and dedication to the protection and fulfillment of women's human rights.

She is regularly sought out by the development community and media, and has been quoted by The Washington Post, The New York Times and USA Today, as well as other national and international news sources. Geeta holds Ph. D. in social psychology from Bangalore University, India; a M. Phil. , M. A. and B. A. in psychology from University of Delhi.

Jonathan Reiss
Jonathan Reiss is Founder and Managing Director of Analytical Synthesis, LLC, a risk- and market-analysis firm that develops innovative financial products or strategies to improve the well-being of individuals, organizations and governments. He has 25 years of experience applying quantitative methods and insights to create financial solutions. Jonathan spent most of his career with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc. (now AllianceBernstein, LP) where, among other positions, he was head of international fixed income investments and Director of Fixed Income Research. Jonathan has also developed advanced wealth planning tools and provided advice to high net worth families and large institutions. He is the author or coauthor of many publications including: Hedging Your Hedge-Fund Bet (Barrons, July 31, 2006); The Enviable Dilemma: Sell, Hold or Hedge your Highly Concentrated Stock (Journal of Wealth Management, Fall 2004); The Impact of Expected Return Uncertainty on Long Horizon Risk and Allocation Decisions (Analytical Synthesis Working Paper No. 2, 2005); and Revisiting Mean Variance Optimization (Journal of Portfolio Management, Summer 2001).

Doug Rosen
Doug Rosen is Executive Vice President of Alco Investment Company, a Seattle-based company in the real estate and private equity business. Alco also owns and operates Alaskan Copper Companies Inc. , a diversified industrial company that has wholesale metal distribution and custom fabrication businesses on the west coast. Doug has served on a number of community boards in the Seattle area. He is the past board president of the Stroum Jewish Community Center of Greater Seattle and is currently the incoming board president of the Kline Galland Center, a nonprofit community organization offering high quality skilled nursing care, assisted living and adult day care services. Doug received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976 and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington in 1970. Doug recently joined the board of CFED.

Jennifer Tescher
Jennifer Tescher is the Director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, launched in 2004 to promote and enhance financial services access and services to the underbanked. Toward that goal, CFSI develops and distributes real-world tested research and strategy, provides funding to promising companies, and facilitates cross-sector business collaboration. The Center is a nonprofit affiliate of ShoreBank Corporation, the nation's leading community development bank holding company. Jennifer has been part of the ShoreBank family since 1996 in a variety of capacities, focused primarily on the development and implementation of new financial products and services.

Jennifer has guided CFSI since its inception, and has already achieved notable success in raising the profile of underbanked access and asset-building as an objective for the industry. She has become a nationally known expert on this topic, with a monthly column in American Banker, frequent interviews and articles in the financial services press, and major speaking engagements at a broad spectrum of industry events, including BAI's Retail Delivery; SourceMedia's Best Practices in Retail Financial Services, Card Forum, and ATM, Debit and Prepaid Forum; and the Underbanked Financial Services Forum, which she chairs as co-producer. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors for both the Center for Economic Progress as well as the Credit Builders Alliance, and is a member of Bank of America's National Community Advisory Council. She also serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council, advising the Board on the exercise of its responsibilities under the Consumer Credit Protection Act and on other matters of consumer financial services. A recipient of the Crain's Chicago Business "40 Under 40" Award for 2006, Jennifer received undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and a public policy degree from the University of Chicago.

Michael Torrens
Michael Torrens is Director of Analysis, Assessment and Accreditation at Utah State University in Logan, UT. Prior to joining Utah State, Torrens was CFED’s Director of Development Finance and served as a key member of the innovation@cfed team. He is an innovator in the field of market and asset-building and managed CFED’s Local Capital Markets Investment Fund, investing in product and market innovations. During his tenure at CFED, he developed asset-building strategies for individuals and families; tools that leverage products, services, and training for entrepreneurs; investments that strengthen the capacity of Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs); research on the links between enterprise development and poverty reduction; policies that preserve affordable rental housing; and research on key factors that link private, public, and non-profit actors, pioneering market innovations that expand economic opportunity and build assets for all Americans.Prior to joining CFED, Mr. Torrens served in various capacities at New Jersey Community Capital, New Jersey’s first statewide CDFI. He began his career in community development finance at EDCS in Harare, Zimbabwe. His international work includes two years assisting local development and peer lending programs throughout the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and program evaluation work in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Mr. Torrens also served as coordinator for JVS’s SBA-certified microenterprise loan fund in Boston in 1998.