WAHN MISSOURI

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OUR MISSION

The Women’s Affordable Housing Network of Missouri (WAHN Missouri) is an organization committed to the empowerment and development of women who work in affordable housing through partnership, networking, advocacy, and community engagement.  It is our goal to bring women together to build a stronger affordable housing industry for Missourians.

 

OUR VISION

We envision Missouri as a place where confident women influence and foster stable communities
 through affordable housing.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Amy Broadwater

Amy is CFO at Sugar Creek Capital. Prior to joining Sugar Creek in 2020, Amy was a tax partner at the
accounting firm, RubinBrown LLP. While at RubinBrown, she provided tax and consulting services for
real estate transactions involving tax credit incentives, including low-income housing tax credits, historic
rehabilitation credits, New Markets tax credits, and renewable energy tax credits. She also helped lead
the effort to open RubinBrown’s Nashville office.  Amy received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Grove City College, and she received a Masters of
Accountancy degree from Truman State University. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in
Missouri and a member of the Missouri Society of CPAs. Amy currently serves as Treasurer of Food Outreach in St. Louis, which provides nutritional support for
those living with HIV/AIDS or cancer and fall at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Line.

Colleen Hafner

Colleen is Rise’s CDFI Director, a role she began full-time in 2021. In this capacity, she guides the CDFI’s lending and capitalization strategy and directs the growth of its operations. Colleen joined Rise in 2018 as a Project Manager, where she helped coordinate the real estate development process for Rise and its partners. Prior to joining Rise, Colleen was Asset Manager – Compliance for St. Louis Equity Fund, and Vice President of its affiliate CDFI, Gateway Community Development Fund, Inc. She has over 15 years of experience in the housing and community development finance field.

She received both her Bachelors in Business Administration and Masters in Public Policy Administration from the University of Missouri – St. Louis, along with a Graduate Certificate in Local Government Management. Colleen has received her Low-Income Housing Tax Credit compliance certification from Novogradac. Colleen is an active Board member for Tower Grove Neighborhoods CDC and a committee member for Northside Community Housing, Inc., two St. Louis area CDCs. She is also a former Director for the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis, a position she held for 8 years

Ruth Sorrell

Ruth Kelso Sorrell leads a team of 14 affordable housing professionals in the day-to-day operations of Advantage Capital’s LIHTC Syndication Team, including overseeing the Team’s business development, underwriting, financing, asset management, and investor relations functions. She has dedicated her career to the facilitation of affordable housing, beginning as an attorney with the law firm of Rosenblum Goldenhersh, where she negotiated and structured LIHTC housing developments, and continuing with Sugar Creek Capital, where she served as in-house tax counsel, negotiated state credit investments, and oversaw sales of state low-income tax credits to high-net worth taxpayers in multiple states. Ms. Sorrell received her LLM in Taxation from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and her J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law.

Eliza Simington

Eliza Simington is continuing a family legacy as the Chief Operating Officer of City Design Group, Inc.   The company is a Construction, Geotechnical and Environmental Services firm.

 Eliza’s key focus is to maintain the quality performance of City Design Group, Inc. as well as, enhance its’ capabilities to assure viability for the future. She is developing the strategic direction of the organization maintaining and enhancing all avenues of development.

Prior to her 12 years with City Design Group, Inc., she a Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Gundaker. Throughout her real estate career she gained insight in the market and assisted first time homeowners and those looking to downsize. Community involvement is also a component of Eliza’s active involvement as a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Incorporated and an active committee member of Urban Land Institute (ULI) Eliza shares and gains knowledge of the plans to develop the economic footprint. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, golfing, vacationing and decorating cakes.

Susan Bowen

Susan Bowen serves as Director of Business Development for Rosemann & Associates, P.C., connecting Rosemann’s clients, partners and project teams throughout the United States. Based in Rosemann’s St. Louis office, she also supports client relations for Rosemann’s Atlanta, Denver, and Kansas City offices.

Known in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry as a trusted advisor and client advocate, Susan provides personal attention from strategy through project completion. She is an accessible point of contact — any day, any time. Susan has been a part of the AEC industry for more than a decade. Having worked directly with architecture fi rms, engineering fi rms, and general contractors, she has an in-depth understanding of how each contributes to the success of a project. Passionate about assisting clients with projects that have an impact on communities, Susan is committed to maintaining the quality relationships &  professionalism for which Rosemann & Associates has been recognized for over 30 years.

LEA AKERT

Lea joined the affordable housing industry in 2011 as the Executive Assistant for the Fulson Housing Group. Through FHG she was able to gain invaluable experience within the development, construction, management, relocation and human resource areas of the business and became a key team member with the company very quickly. In 2012 she began to oversee all relocation processes for FHG projects and in 2015 she was awarded the MOWHA Emerging Leader Award at the annual conference. In 2019 he was responsible for the implementation of a new project management software for all FHG portfolio properties and over the years has been involved in the development expansion into 3 new states as well as continuing to oversee all active Missouri based developments.

Lea’s organizational and communication skills have cultivated important relationships with investors, lenders, state agencies, city personnel, contractors, architects, property management teams, community members, non-profit partners, fellow employees and others that provide confidence both in Lea and the company as a whole that projects will be completed well and timely, both of which are key in this industry. As the current Operations Manager for the Fulson Housing Group, Lea is responsible for: reviewing company procedures to seek out and implement improvements for all internal FHG teams; tracking existing and new business to monitor business pipelines; as well as overseeing all active developments in application, pre-development, under-construction and postdevelopment status to ensure projects are closed, constructed, and converted efficiently and professionally.

OUR COMMITTEES

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We’ll be adding new seats on our Committees coming 2023!

The SPONSORSHIP COMMITTEE’S responsibility is to coordinate the receipt of sponsors and their donations. Committee members communicate with potential and existing sponsors to answer any questions and keep track of responsibilities to those sponsors. Committee members work with the Communications Committee to get information from sponsors in order to highlight them in newsletters and on social media. Committee members are also responsible for keeping track of the amount of funds coming in from sponsors and track the events and social media posts for each Sponsor.
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The MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE’S purpose is to recruit new members who have an active role in the affordable housing industry, develop networking, volunteerism, and community engagement opportunities for members, and promote the value of membership through professional and personal development activities.  The Membership Committee takes great pleasure in helping to empower women working in all aspects of affordable housing in the State of Missouri.

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