Keynote Speakers
Join us for this exclusive event that promises to ignite inspiration, challenge perceptions, and foster meaningful dialogue on critical issues shaping our society. Join us as we proudly present two distinguished thought leaders, Lisa Rice and Darrick Hamilton, in a captivating presentation that will leave you informed, enlightened, and empowered.
Lisa Rice
President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
Ms. Rice is a published author contributing to several books and journals addressing a range of fair housing issues including – The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences, and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act; Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World; Discriminatory Effects of Credit Scoring on Communities of Color; and From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupancy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Credit.
She is one of the nation’s leading experts on fair housing, lending, and Responsible AI policies having played major roles in crafting sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, establishing the Office of Fair Lending within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and implementing other legislative and policy initiatives. She also helped lead the investigation and resolution of precedent-setting fair housing and lending cases securing remedies for millions of people as well as the elimination of systemic discriminatory practices.
Ms. Rice serves on the Board of Directors of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Center for Responsible Lending, and FinRegLab as well as various Advisory Councils. She has received numerous awards including the National Housing Conference’s Housing Visionary Award and was selected as one of TIME Magazine’s 2024 ‘Closers.’
Darrick Hamilton
Professor of Economics & Urban Policy, The New School
Darrick Hamilton is a university professor at the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and the founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Hamilton’s work examines the intersections of social stratification, power and political economy in order to advance scholarship, practice, and policy as they relate to promoting economic inclusion, social equity, and civic engagement.
In 2020, he was appointed as a member of the economic committee of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force. He has testified before several Senate and House committees, including the Joint Economic Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. Appointed by the mayor of New York City, he is currently serving as a commissioner on the NYC Racial Justice Charter Revision Commission. He is a Roosevelt Institute fellow, a Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis senior fellow, and nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro.
Hamilton was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York.
Power Panel
Get ready for insights from our powerhouse lineup of housing experts, innovators, and thought leaders who are reshaping industries, challenging norms, and driving change.
Ajamu Kitwana
Senior Vice President/Director, Community Impact, ESL Federal Credit Union
As Senior Vice President & Director, Community Impact, Ajamu supports ESL’s mission to share our financial success and reinvest in our community. Ajamu leads ESL’s Community Impact team and its commitment to collaboration to build a healthy, resilient, and equitable Greater Rochester community.
To achieve this vision, Ajamu and the Community Impact team manage key initiatives of expanding individual opportunity, building strong neighborhoods, and strengthening organizations and systems. The Foundation provides grants to many community initiatives driving meaningful and measurable change in the Great Rochester area.
Ajamu originally joined ESL Federal Credit Union in fall 2013 as the manager of the new ESL Consumer Prosperity Program, established to enhance community solutions for financial inclusion. In January 2016, Ajamu was promoted to Executive Director of the ESL Charitable Foundation (Foundation), and to Vice President in 2018.
Prior to joining ESL, Ajamu was a management consultant with FSR Social Impact Advisors and worked on a variety of collective impact, shared value and social justice initiatives.
Ajamu received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds both his Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. He presently serves on the WXXI Board of Trustees.
Tysharda Johnson-Thomas
Associate Broker at New 2 U Homes
Sandra Park
Chief of the NYS Office of Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau
Sandra Park serves as the Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General, where she leads a team of attorneys, analysts, and other staff to enforce federal, state, and local civil rights laws across New York state. The Civil Rights Bureau challenges discrimination and other violations of legal rights in education, employment, housing, law enforcement, voting, and public accommodations, among other issues.
Prior to joining the Office of the Attorney General, Sandra worked for 16 years in the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. At the national ACLU, Sandra engaged in litigation, policy advocacy, and public education to advance gender equality and the rights of women and girls. Much of her work focused on holding institutions accountable for perpetuating violence and discrimination in housing, law enforcement response, and schools. Sandra’s efforts produced key precedent and new federal and state laws and guidance promoting the civil rights of survivors, fair housing, and effective policing of domestic and sexual violence.
Sandra also developed the ACLU’s work expanding patients’ genetic privacy rights and addressing the intersection of patent regulation and civil liberties. She represented twenty medical and women’s health organizations, geneticists, and patients in a ground-breaking lawsuit challenging the U.S. Patent Office’s policy of granting patents on human genes, resulting in a unanimous 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidating patents on two human genes linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancers (Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics).
Sandra received the 2024 NYU Law Women Alumna of the Year Award as well as the 2021 Sharon L. Corbitt Award, bestowed by the American Bar Association to recognize exceptional service and leadership to improving the legal response to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking by an attorney. She began her legal career as a Skadden Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of New York in the Bronx Neighborhood Office. She clerked for U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and NYU School of Law.
Mary Leo
Executive Director, The Housing Council
Mary Leo is the Executive Director of The Housing Council at PathStone, where she leads initiatives to provide comprehensive housing counseling and intervention services for low to moderate-income residents in the Greater Rochester area. With over a decade of experience at PathStone Corporation, Mary has grown from Foreclosure Prevention Counselor to her current executive role, demonstrating a deep commitment to her community and a collaborative approach to leadership.
She oversees PathStone’s HUD Housing Counseling intermediary responsibilities, guiding Housing Counseling services in seven locations, including throughout New York State, rural Pennsylvania, Muncie, Indiana, and Ponce, Puerto Rico. Out of 246 NeighborWorks America Organizations nationally, PathStone is top 3 in creating new homeowners, overall producer of counseling and education outcomes, and number 1 in creating Hispanic homeowners. The program’s success is driven by exceptional HUD-certified housing counselors, tailored service delivery, and an Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) marketing plan.
Mary is dedicated to developing innovative, data-driven programs that address social inequalities and empower marginalized communities. She builds strategic partnerships across nonprofit, public, and private sectors to drive sustainable development. Passionate about equitable access to housing and services, Mary actively engages in community organizations and advisory councils, fostering meaningful relationships to maximize community impact. Her educational background includes a dual B.A. in Psychology and Anthropology from SUNY Albany, along with specialized training in leadership and housing counseling, underscoring her dedication to creating a more inclusive and equitable society.
Moderator
As moderator, Shane will maintain a positive and engaging environment for our event. He will oversee discussions, facilitate meaningful interactions, and address any issues that arise
Shane Wiegand, MS. Ed
Co-Director, Our Local History
Shane Wiegand is the Co-Director of Our Local History at CCSI. He has over ten years of combined experience as an elementary school teacher and educational consultant. Prior to his work at Our Local History, he was a tenured fourth-grade teacher at the Rush-Henrietta Central School District. He is also a board member at Connected Communities. For his work in the fields of education and equity, he was named to the Rochester Business Journal “Forty Under 40” list in 2021. He and his family live in the Beechwood neighborhood of Rochester.
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