Colvin W. Grannum has served as president of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (Restoration) since March 2001. Restoration is the nation’s first community development corporation, founded by community leaders, and United States Senators Robert Kennedy and Jacob Javits in 1967. Restoration owns and manages a 300,000 square feet commercial and cultural center in the heart of Central Brooklyn, which is home to the Billie Holiday Theatre, the Skylight Gallery, the College of New Rochelle, three banks and several major retailers. Under Mr. Grannum’s leadership, Restoration is experiencing a robust resurgence. New businesses including a state-of-the-art Super Foodtown supermarket, Duane Reade, Applebee’s, and Carver Federal Savings Bank, have joined the Commercial Center tenant roster. In addition, Restoration provides services and programs in the areas of arts and education, including Bedford Stuyvesant Head Start, the Restoration Information Technology Education (RITE) Center, the Youth Arts Academy and the Restoration Dance Theater, and economic development, including the Restoration Capital Fund. Restoration also manages the Fulton Gateway Business Improvement District consisting of more than 400 businesses, and several initiatives to bring commercial revitalization and neighborhood tourism to Central Brooklyn, particularly Fulton Street and vicinity. Restoration also owns 500 units of housing for low-income residents, and partners in the development of mixed-income housing. Prior to joining Restoration, Mr. Grannum served as a founding director and the chief executive officer of Bridge Street Development Corporation (BSDC), a faith-based not-for-profit community development corporation affiliated with Bridge Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York. Now over 15 years old, BSDC is firmly established as a leader in housing development, homeownership preservation and financial literacy. Mr. Grannum practiced law for over 17 years primarily as a litigation attorney before embarking on his career in community development. He has been employed by the United States Department of Justice, the New York State Attorney General, the NYNEX Corporation, and the New York City Corporation Counsel, respectively, where he held a variety of senior level positions and was responsible for handling and supervising litigation, including trials, appeals, and regulatory proceedings. Born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, Mr. Grannum graduated from Erasmus Hall High School. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He serves as a member of the board of directors of the New York City Workforce Investment Board, Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN), Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Bedford Stuyvesant Early Childhood Development Center, Inc., and Head Start Sponsoring Boards Council. He has served on advisory boards of JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs New Markets Fund, Fannie Mae, HSBC Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Pratt Center for Community Development, just to name a few. He also served as a trustee of the Brunswick School, Greenwich, Connecticut. Mayor Bloomberg appointed Mr. Grannum to serve on the Mayor’s Commission for Economic Opportunity, and former Governor Spitzer appointed him to the then Governor-elect’s Housing Policy Transition Team. Mr. Grannum is licensed to practice law in New York State and the District of Columbia. He has completed executive education programs at Columbia Business School; Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government; Harvard University, School of Divinity; and University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business. Mr. Grannum is married to Sandra Jefferson Grannum, an attorney, and has one son, Jordan.

Ms. Diane Lupke, CEcD, is President of Lupke & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in community economic development intervention for governments and non-profit organizations throughout the United States. Since its founding in 1990, Ms. Lupke, her Associates, and Staff have worked in more than 75 communities using its unique brand of compassion and intellect to empower residents to recognize their assets and create change in their lives and for their communities. Lupke & Associates has earned distinction for its work with distressed communities. Many of its clients are located in urban neighborhoods, struggling downtowns, and isolated rural economies that offer particular challenges. Ms. Lupke, her Associates, and Staff have transformed such challenges into a national reputation for superior knowledge, innovation, creativity, and value added in the field of community economic development. Ms. Lupke is an authority on the use of enterprise zones and other special tools for development. She is best known for her work in the design and direction of a program for the comprehensive re-development of Indiana's most distressed areas using enterprise zones. During her tenure with the Indiana Enterprise Zone Board, Indiana's program attained the highest per capita job creation of all programs nationally and remains among the more successful programs. She continued this work as a consultant to the Lilly Endowment, Inc. on community development issues. Ms Lupke designed a $4.2 million grant program for the Lilly Endowment, Inc. that strengthened the work of Indiana enterprise zones by providing a laboratory for new and creative work in community-based development in low income communities. Since the initiation of the Federal Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities program, she has worked with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development to assist local communities to improve the effectiveness of their programs. Most recently, she testified before the Congressional Committee on House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight regarding its deliberations on federal Empowerment Zones. Highly regarded nationally for her success in economic development initiatives, Ms. Lupke has helped numerous States develop policy and draft legislation for programs addressing economic needs. Faced with the loss of vital investment funds and the businesses it supports, Ms. Lupke assisted policy makers in North Dakota to draft legislation to build attract venture capital, build capital reserves, and promote investment in existing property. Among other varied requests, she provided expert testimony to the New York legislative assembly during its hearings on enterprise and economic development zones; and drafted new legislation for abandoned industrial mills and brownfields sites in Rhode Island.

Kevin McQueen is the Managing Director of the Community Development Finance Project (CDFP) and oversees and manages all aspects of this program. Mr. McQueen teaches the foundation course, the Community Development Finance Lab, which involves running workshop sessions, securing clients for the pro bono consulting clinic, managing several student teams, securing and managing teaching assistants for the remaining teams, and scheduling and hosting guest speakers. He works with Milano faculty to develop finance-related curriculum and courses. Mr. McQueen also serves as an advisor to students interested in development finance on independent study projects, course selection, internships and permanent employment opportunities, and works with Milano’s Development Department to raise funds for the CDFP. For more than 20 years, Mr. McQueen has balanced his experience as a corporate finance professional with a deep commitment to helping social ventures, nonprofits, businesses, foundations and public sector agencies maximize social impact and return on investment. He has been a partner in the strategy-consulting firm of BWB Solutions LLC (formerly Brody Weiser Burns) since in 2001. Earlier in his career, Kevin was an independent consultant, providing management and strategic planning assistance to public and private economic development organizations and financial intermediaries. He also has extensive experience in the corporate and development finance fields, through positions at Citibank, NatWest, and NCB Capital Impact. Kevin currently serves on the boards of directors for Partners for the Common Good (a certified community development financial institution) and Community Health Accreditation Project, and is also a member of the advisory boards for two real estate investment funds (City First Bank CDE, Consortium America CDE). Kevin is a graduate of Brown University (AB with honors).

Larisa Ortiz is one of the nation's leading experts in the field of neighborhood commercial revitalization. She brings to bear 15 years of experience serving downtown and neighborhood business districts, beginning as a IEDC staff person, and has since led a variety of planning efforts in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, this includes the successful effort to establish Latin America’s first Business Improvement District as well as the design and execution of the City of New York’s award winning programs, Neighborhood Retail Leasing and Coro Neighborhood Leadership Program. She is author of the City of New York Department of Small Business Services Guide to Retail Leasing (publication pending) and co-author of “Real Estate, Redevelopment & Reuse”, a training manual published by the International Economic Development Council. She serves as editor of the Commercial District Advisor (www.commercialdistrictadvisor.com) a blog and newsletter distributed to over 3,000 practitioners nationwide. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Prior to founding Larisa Ortiz Associates in 2008, Larisa served as founding Director of the Commercial Markets Advisory Service (CMAS), the in-house technical assistance program for the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), where she was charged with developing and executing technical assistance, training and capacity building programs in commercial revitalization for LISC’s network of offices and community partners around the country. While at LISC, Larisa also served as Director of LISC MetroEdge, an in-house retail market analysis service for LISC communities nationwide. MetroEdge is credited with fundamentally changing the discipline of market analysis for urban communities. Larisa continues to serve LISC MetroEdge as their lead East coast consultant. While a Senior Project Manager at the New York Economic Development Corporation, Larisa led the interagency team charged with developing a comprehensive rezoning and regulatory framework for 125th Street in Harlem to ensure the longevity of the nations’ premier destination for African-American arts, culture and entertainment. As a Watson Fellow and later Fulbright Scholar, Larisa has traveled the world investigating successful models of downtown revitalization, particularly in Spanish speaking countries, where she has conducted work in Guayama, Puerto Rico; Barcelona, Spain; Mexico City, Mexico; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Santiago, Chile. Larisa holds a B.A. with honors from Wesleyan University, and a master’s degree in City Planning with a concentration in real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).