Reinvestment Fund

An affordable housing and homelessness expert who spent 17 years building UK and US grant-making programs at the Oak Foundation and previously worked at London's Peabody Trust.

President and Chief Economist of AC Cutts & Associates, a credit and housing markets economist formerly with Equifax and Freddie Mac.

Gelman Professor and Chair of Epidemiology at Columbia University, known for research on access to medical care, gun violence, and place-based interventions to improve community health and safety.

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.

A policy entrepreneur and urban policy expert launching Skylight, founder of Bennett Midland, and former senior policy advisor to NYC Mayor Bloomberg.

Clarence Hilberry Professor of Urban Affairs at Wayne State University, an expert in housing markets, segregation, neighborhood dynamics, and community lending.

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.

A founding shareholder and attorney at Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, handling complex commercial, malpractice, construction, and business litigation.

Assistant vice president in community and economic development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, focused on economic resilience and mobility of families and places.

Professor of Public Policy and Planning and former Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at HUD, researching poverty, affordable housing, and neighborhoods.

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 prominent economic analyst and author who regularly advises policymakers.

President and CEO of the Shockoe Institute, a Richmond-based nonprofit focused on the history of the American domestic slave trade, with a career spanning public and private sectors.

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, an urban historian specializing in housing finance, discrimination, and urban policy.

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.