Reinvestment Fund

Affordable housing and homelessness expert who built UK and US grant-making programs at the Oak Foundation over 17 years after earlier work at the Peabody Trust; holds degrees from Lancaster University and the University of Bristol.

President and Chief Economist of AC Cutts & Associates and former chief economist at Equifax and Freddie Mac; an expert in credit markets, real estate, and securitization who has taught economics at several universities.

Gelman Professor and Chair of Epidemiology at Columbia University whose place-based research on medical care access, gun violence, and revitalizing blighted urban spaces has influenced policy and courts.

Devin Welsh is a qualitative research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania and a candidate for graduation from Penn's School of Social Policy in 2025. Based in Philadelphia, Welsh conducts mixed-methods research with a focus on social issues.

Emily Dowdall is President of Policy Solutions at Reinvestment Fund, where she leads strategic decision-making and cross-functional collaboration. Her work focuses on using data analysis to support community development strategies.

Urban policy entrepreneur launching Skylight and founder of Bennett Midland; former senior policy advisor to NYC Mayor Bloomberg and founding director of the Center for Court Innovation.

Clarence Hilberry Professor of Urban Affairs at Wayne State University and former Director of Housing Research at the Urban Institute, focused on housing markets, segregation, and neighborhood dynamics.

Jacob Rosch is a Senior Research Analyst at The Reinvestment Fund who has developed analytical tools for organizations to measure and communicate their impact. He has consulted with clients across the nonprofit, philanthropic, and government sectors.

Founding shareholder and attorney at Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller handling complex commercial and business litigation; former economist in Washington.

Assistant vice president in community and economic development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, with prior research roles at Georgia Tech and a metropolitan planning organization.

Professor of Public Policy and Planning who served as HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research in the Obama Administration; researches poverty and affordable housing.

Marci Bell is a Policy Analyst II at Reinvestment Fund, where she works as a mixed-methods researcher using tools including SQL, R, and ArcGIS to support public policy and community development. Her research spans housing and mortgage lending practices, early care and education, guaranteed income, and workforce development, and includes program evaluation and spatial and statistical analysis in collaboration with cross-sector clients.

Chief economist of Moody's Analytics and cofounder of Economy.com, a widely cited economic analyst, author, and podcast host who frequently testifies before Congress.

President and CEO of the Richmond-based Shockoe Institute, with a nearly 30-year public and private sector career focused on the historical and policy dimensions of opportunity in America.

Michelle Schmitt is a Senior Policy Analyst at Reinvestment Fund, where she concentrates on local policy matters spanning housing, early childhood education, arts and culture, and food access. With over two decades of experience, she has worked across nonprofit organizations, government agencies at state and local levels, and foundations to translate data into actionable insights. Her work emphasizes the use of mapping tools to facilitate policy dialogue among diverse stakeholders and communicate community experiences to external audiences.

Provost and law and education professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in real estate, housing law, and post-war urban policy; former Chancellor of Rutgers-Camden.

Zoe Millstein is the 2024-2026 Jeremy Nowak Fellow at the Reinvestment Fund, where she conducts quantitative and qualitative research with the Policy Solutions team. She holds a bachelor's degree in urban studies with a concentration in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania and focuses on urban equity and public policy research.

Wiedeman has more than 20 years of lending experience at Reinvestment Fund, where she structures and approves lending opportunities in line with credit policy and develops staff trainings and operating procedures. She joined in 2001 after working at Opportunity Finance Network, and holds a master's from Princeton and undergraduate degrees from Boston College.