Ohio Fair Lending Conference

33rd Annual Ohio Fair Lending and Vital Communities Conference.

Moderators

Charles Bromley
Founder, Ohio Fair Lending Coalition
Charles H. Bromley, founder and director of the Ohio Fair Lending Coalition, has had a career in advocacy and research work, developing innovative programs to overcome historic patterns of racial and lending discrimination. As Executive Director of National Neighbors, he was a member of the national coalition that saw the enactment of the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments and the Amendment of the 1975 Home Mortgage Act in 1989. Recognition for his achievements include the Liberty Bell Award from the Cleveland Bar Association, The Ohio Civil Rights Commission Award, The Governor’s Award, Greater Community Shares Social Justice Award, and the Outstanding Graduate Award from the College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

Charles Bromley is a Presidential Fellow of the SAGES program at Case Western Reserve University and adjunct faculty at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University. In addition to his work in Civil Rights, Mr. Bromley founded Greater Cleveland Community Shares, which led to the development of social justice funds in Columbus, Toledo, and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Zach Germaniuk
Director, Neighborhood Stabilization for Slavic Village Development
Zach Germaniuk is the Director of Neighborhood Stabilization for Slavic Village Development. His work ensures that the residents of the Broadway-Slavic Village community will have stable housing conditions and an improved quality of life. Neighborhood revitalization that Zach has worked on has included building relationships with members of the community, encouraged active participation in the Slavic Village Development activities. As he continues to practice law, this Cleveland-Marshall College of law graduate seeks to empower residents to address vacant and abandoned properties. He provides critical information to renters regarding landlord/tenant law and communicates essential housing information to those residents with low and moderate incomes.

Slavic Village Development (SVD) is a non-profit community development corporation serving the North and South Broadway neighborhoods of Cleveland, Ohio. With an investment of $160 million over the past 25 years, Slavic Village Development has proven itself to be an aggressive and capable community development organization.

Dennis Keating
Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies and Law
Dennis Keating is an Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies and Law. He is a former Director of the Master of Urban Planning, Design and Development (MUPDD) Program. He formerly served as Chair of the Department of Urban Studies, Director of the Office of Student Services, Acting Director of several graduate programs, and Associate Dean and Acting Dean of the College of Urban Affairs.

Dr. Keating has been President of the Housing and Built Environment Research Council of the International Sociological Association. He has taught courses on shrinking cities, housing, neighborhood development, urban planning, and land use law, as well as the Planning Capstone Studio, the undergrad Senior Seminar, and Contemporary Urban Issues. He has published widely in these fields. His most recent research includes the mortgage foreclosure crisis and its aftermath, including the responses of cities like Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County Land Bank, and the arts as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization. In Fall, 2003, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow. He retired as a full time faculty member in 2015 but continues part time teaching and conducting research.

Keith Benjamin
Director, Community Services and Devolopment City of South Euclid
Keith Ari Benjamin is the director of community development & services for the City of South Euclid, a diverse, inner-ring suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and also serves as a Councilman in the Village of Bratenahl. In addition to his work for cities, Benjamin is the co-founder of a regional cultural competency training program for police officers throughout Ohio and Michigan. Benjamin holds a Bachelor of Arts in communications from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree in Psychology with a specialization in Diversity Management from Cleveland State University.

PANELISTS

Frank Ford
VAPAC Chair
Senior Policy Advisor Fair Housing Center
Frank Ford is Senior Policy Advisor at the Fair Housing Center and serves as Chair of the Greater Cleveland Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council (VAPAC). He is an attorney who has worked in the field of community development for over 40 years. From 2013 to 2022 Frank was Senior Policy Advisor at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy where he led VAPAC policy initiatives and conducted housing research focusing on disparate impacts on people of color communities. In 2013 a research study he led on the outcomes of property emerging from foreclosure was published by Harvard University. From 1999 to 2013 Frank was Senior Vice President for Research & Development at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP) where he directed CNP’s Land Assembly, Vacant Property Reform and Neighborhood StabilizationInitiatives.

From 1991 through 1998 Frank was Associate Director for Urban Programs at the Colorado Center for Community Development at the University of Colorado at Denver where he taught community development and conducted applied research. In Denver he published one of the first studies in the U.S. to document racial disparities in lending to small businesses – this study was cited by Attorney General Janet Reno in her Martin Luther King Day speech in Birmingham, Alabama in 1997. A study he conducted on home mortgage lending discrimination was the subject of a news story aired by Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News in 1993. From 1986 through 1990 Frank served as Executive Director of the Union-Miles Development Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1986 he litigated the first case under Ohio’s Nuisance Abatement Property Receivership Law. Frank graduated from Kenyon College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, and received his Juris Doctor Degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Sarah Saadian

Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Field Organizing
As Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Field Organizing, Sarah Saadian oversees NLIHC’s broad policy portfolio and field mobilization efforts. With over a decade of experience successfully advancing affordable housing policies on Capitol Hill, Sarah has testified before Congress and has been quoted in major media outlets on a wide range of issues. Prior to joining NLIHC in 2016, Sarah worked as a senior analyst at Enterprise Community Partners and as policy counsel at Rapoza Associates. She graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 2009 after receiving her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in 2005, and she has been a member of the Virginia State Bar since 2009.

Jo Ingles
Journalist & Producer, Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau
Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.

After working for more than a decade at WOSU-AM, Jo was hired by the Ohio Public Radio/TV News Bureau in 1999. Her work has been featured on national networks such as National Public Radio, Marketplace, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium and the BBC. She is often a guest on radio talk shows heard on Ohio’s public radio stations. In addition, she’s a regular guest on WOSU-TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, WOSU Radio’s “All Sides with Ann Fisher” and other radio and television shows throughout the state. Jo also writes for respected publications such as Columbus Monthly and the Reuters News Service. She has won many awards for her work across all of those platforms. She is currently the president of the Ohio Radio and TV Correspondent’s Association, a board member for the Ohio Legislative Correspondent’s Association and a board member for the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters. Jo is also the media adviser for the Ohio Wesleyan University, “Transcript” newspaper. She also teaches radio productions courses there.

Dr. Thomas Sutton
Professor of Political Science
Director, Community Research Institute Baldwin Wallace College
Burton D. Morgan Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies
Dr. Thomas Sutton directs the Community Research Institute (CRI), which engages students in applied research with local and regional nonprofit and government agencies. He coordinates the public & nonprofit management major/minor and the Africana studies minor. He also develops and coordinates innovation and entrepreneurship programs for the Center for Innovation and Growth (CIG).

Sutton serves as independent political analyst for WEWS Channel 5, providing periodic analysis of local and national political developments and events. Also, she has 13 years of prior experience in nonprofit management, including work in civic education, services for homeless persons, and programming for juvenile offenders and at-risk youth.

Lita-Marie Wills
Cleveland Commissioner of Health Equity and Social Justice
Lita Wills serves as the Commissioner of Health Equity and Social Justice at the Cleveland Department of Public Health. Ms.Wills is a twenty-plus year veteran in the fields of community health, prevention and education access. A Cleveland native, she began her professional career at The Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland, leading HIV prevention, testing and outreach. From there she served as the RSB Supervisor for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, implementing groundbreaking K-12 comprehensive prevention education.

She spent seven years as the Executive Director of the Mahoning Valley College Access Program serving first-generation college students in Warren and Youngstown. She also served as the Director of Community Impact at The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley guiding community investments to more than 40 partner organizations, leading COVID-19 Emergency Response Funding, and crafting internal and external Diversity Equity and Inclusion plans. A 2009 Robert Wood Johnson Ladder to Leadership Fellow, she holds a B.A. from Cleveland State University and an MPH from the Consortium of Eastern Ohio MPH program.

Mike Foley
Former Executive Director, Cleveland Tenants Organization
Michael Foley is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the 14th District from 2006 to 2014. Prior to his time in the House, Foley had worked as director of the Cleveland Tenants Organization, as well as a court administrator, bailiff and community organizer. He is the first Director of the Department of Sustainability for Cuyahoga County. He was appointed to lead the office in February 2015 by Executive Armond Budish after having served in the Ohio General Assembly from 2006-2014.

Josiah Quarles
Director of Organizing and Advocacy, NEOCH

Josiah Quarles is NEOCH’S Director of Organizing and Advocacy. A long-time soccer coach, he views the sport as an apex of cooperation, communication, skill building, and endurance. Nurturing these attributes while appreciating the dignity and creative sovereignty of the individual permeates the way he thinks about organizing. The interplay of freedom and structure, space and connectivity, urgency and patience animate the points of tension that create moments of brilliance in what they call the “beautiful game”, and in movement work.

Josiah has a background in grassroots organizing, public speaking, education, sport-based youth development, and multimedia arts. Social Justice and the liberation struggle have been at the heart of many of his professional and artistic endeavors. He views two-way education, community-based solutions, and decentralized power building as fundamentally essential to challenging the politics and policies that have codified the oppression and disenfranchisement of so many. Housing is foundational to creating community stability, safety and success, and he is happy to help lay that foundation.

John J Lynch
Real Estate Broker, Keller Williams CITYWIDE
REALTOR� and broker who has been helping the great Cleveland area with all of their real estate needs since 1972. He is a Member of the Elite Real Estate Network (ERN), Real Estate Broker and Certified General Appraiser covering Northeast Ohio market. Mr. Lynch’s Specialties include: REO Specialist in appraising and selling bank owned properties

Naimah ONeal
Ryan White Planning Council

Naimah ONeal is a Licensed Medical Social Worker at The Centers Uptown Location where she works with people living with HIV and the interdisciplinary medical teams that provide care and support. Prior to this she worked as an HIV Test Counselor. Naimah has served as a member of the Ryan White HIV Planning Council several times since 2003. Naimah is a founding member OHMM serving has the Co-Chair of the Education Subcommittee. She is an experienced public speaker and has focused on sexual and reproductive health, supporting mothers living with HIV, HIV disclosure, advocacy and housing issues at events and educational forums. Naimah has blogged, written articles and educated on the journey of living with HIV, how stigma impacts people who are marginalized, social work policy issues and the complexity of HIV disclosure and how to approach it. Naimah is also a Wife, Mother, Grandmother of three and lastly Naimah has been living with HIV for the past 30 years this December 2022.

Roger Sikes

Program Manager, Cuyahoga County Board of Health

Roger Sikes is a Program Manager at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and serves on the Board of the Neighborhood Leadership Institute in Cleveland. He has experience in policy development and advocacy, community organizing and coalition building for economic and racial justice. As Director of Jobs with Justice in Atlanta he coordinated campaigns that improved wages, benefits and working conditions for low-wage workers. He has worked for the establishment of three grocery stores in the Cleveland area that previously lacked access to healthy foods. Recently, Roger organized coalitions to invest in public basketball courts and youth mentoring programs as a strategy to prevent gun violence. Roger holds a Master of Public Health degree from Emory University and resides in Cleveland.

David Freno, CFP�

Vice President & Financial Planner, TransitioNext

David joined the TransitioNext Advisors team as Vice President & Financial Planner in 2021, combining his practice focused on comprehensive and customized financial planning with an established team that supports business owners and entrepreneurs. He brings creativity and passion to his work as a highly motivated connector, strategist, and problem solver. David is committed to making sophisticated financial planning and education accessible to all. His clients include hedge fund managers, physicians, lawyers, and business owners, and he has a unique focus on LGBTQIA+, artists, musicians, content creators, Esports, entrepreneurs, and educators.

David is a first-generation college graduate. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Piano Performance from Case Western Reserve University in 2013 and completed a Certificate of Financial Planning from New York University in 2020. After building a successful career in nonprofit management, he discovered his true passion in Financial Planning & Wealth Management, dedicating his career to help others achieve financial security and independence at every stage of life.