I practice law at Applegate because it gives me the opportunity to make the world more like it should be. Every day, I am blessed to come to work with other like-minded professionals who are passionate about making a difference. We use our knowledge in corporate, real estate, financing, zoning, and tax law to effectively mix private enterprise, social vision, and public policy to create transformative projects.

I represent developers (both for-profit and not-for-profit) who are using a variety of financing sources to build or rehab housing, to launch new businesses, or to create schools, health centers, grocery stores, early childhood centers, manufacturing facilities, or other enterprises or institutions that are needed for healthy and competitive communities. I also represent lenders who are bringing capital to underserved communities, creating innovative loan funds, and providing financing for affordable housing and small businesses. From supportive housing for homeless veterans to affordable apartments for working-class families, our clients address the full spectrum of affordable housing needs in every kind of community and housing market.

In addition to structuring creative real estate projects, I enjoy serving as general counsel to a number of community development corporations (CDCs), housing developers, and CDFI lenders advising them on broader strategic and corporate issues. And I enjoy spending significant time advocating and building support for affordable housing and for efforts to create jobs and opportunity in urban, suburban and rural communities.

David cofounded MG Housing Strategies in early 2021 to advocate full-time on housing issues. David brings a unique set of skills and experience to our nation’s capital on behalf of affordable housing and MGHS clients. The goal of MGHS is to expand the support for our clients affordable housing legislative agenda and foster the coalitions that are necessary to move that agenda to successful outcomes. David’s responsibilities include representing MGHS’s clients housing, tax and regulatory agendas before the administration and Congress in Washington, DC. He regularly meets with administration officials, legislative leaders, and senior legislative staff. He also briefs clients on the legislative and political landscape.
David has served as the Executive Director of the Housing Advisory Group, since 1995. The Housing Advisory Group was established to educate state and federal officials on housing programs and to formulate policies leading to the expansion of affordable housing production. David is an original member of the Affordable Housing ACTION Campaign, where he sits on the steering committee. David is a member of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition and the National Leased Housing Association. He works closely with the Council of State Housing Associations on policy and national advocacy. David regularly consults with Members of Congress and congressional staff on policies affecting affordable housing. He is a sought-after speaker at national conferences, industry gatherings, state association meetings and with investor groups across the country. David began his career in Washington working for Representative Richard Gephardt (D-MO) and Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME). David serves on the Board of Directors of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation, the Community Advisory Board of WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station and as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Alliance of Business Leadership.

Beth Mullen, CPA, is the National Director of the Firm’s Affordable Housing Industry Practice and a member of the Project Finance and Consulting team. She has more than 30 years of experience providing consulting, tax, and accounting services to real estate owners, developers and investors. A significant portion of Beth’s time is devoted to helping clients to facilitate transactions by structuring public/private partnerships that are financed in part by Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the federal and state historic tax credit programs, opportunity zone equity, the federal New Markets Tax Credit Program, and energy tax credits.
Beth teaches internal and external courses on these tax programs and has published articles in numerous trade publications. Her extensive knowledge of partnership tax law has been invaluable in resolving allocation, at-risk, exit tax, residual value, and other common partnership problems.

Education
• Harvard University: Bachelor of Science, Economics, cum laude

Professional Affiliations
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants
• California Society of Certified Public Accountants

Tony Pickett is Chief Executive Officer of Grounded Solutions Network, a national nonprofit organization with over 200 members. Working together with local community leaders, Grounded Solutions advances its mission to cultivate communities — equitable, inclusive and rich in opportunity — by implementing affordable housing solutions that last for generations. Tony’s over 35 years of professional community development experience includes successful permanently affordable shared equity housing development and thought leadership; promoting inclusive housing policies and expanding the use of community land trusts for racial equity impact.

Under Tony’s leadership Grounded Solutions has launched multiple successful national programmatic initiatives, including a multi-city land bank/land trust partnership (“Catalytic Land Cohort”), an inclusive policy focused multi-city cohort (“ForEveryoneHome”) and an exciting 10-year expansion vision for “Lasting Affordability in Housing Now” to achieve 1 million homes.

Kristin Siglin serves as Vice President for Policy and Partnerships at the National Community Stabilization Trust. In this role, she leads NCST’s policy advocacy to help communities address blight and high rates of vacant, abandoned and distressed properties. She also manages the Homeownership Alliance, a policy advocacy collaborative of nonprofit developers and lenders. The mission of the Homeownership Alliance is to increase access to homeownership in order to narrow America’s racial wealth gap, improve access to long-term affordable housing, and to revitalize communities without gentrification.

Dr. Akilah Watkins is President and CEO for the Center for Community Progress (Community Progress), America’s nonprofit leader for turning “Vacant Spaces into Vibrant Places.”

As 25-year national thought leader, conference speaker, and nonprofit executive, her career’s work has focused on helping people, communities, and local/federal government drive impactful reform for key issues including land banking, property vacancy, childhood obesity, community health, and economic development. Dr. Watkins' leadership on diversity, inclusion, racial equity, and community development have helped hundreds of communities.

Today, Dr. Watkins' work as an equity advocate includes leading work in more than 300 communities in 48 states at Community Progress. Collaboratively, Community Progress works to grow strong, equitable communities where vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties are transformed into assets for neighbors and neighborhoods.

Alden Foundation is a 25-year-old non-profit housing developer and operator, specializing in affordable senior housing. Under Ms. Demes’s leadership, Alden Foundation has developed and operates more than 1000 units of affordable senior housing in 14 developments throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Ms. Demes has more than 35 years of experience in affordable housing finance, development and management. Among her previous positions, Ms. Demes directed the asset management operation of a national tax credit investment company and has consulted and advised clients on structuring the financing and management of affordable housing developments. Her experience also includes commercial real estate lending and economic development. Ms. Demes is the outgoing president of the Illinois Housing Council board of directors, an organization in which she has been very active since its early days.

In 2019, Director Kristin Faust was appointed Executive Director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), bringing more than 30 years of affordable housing industry experience to the Authority. As the state’s chief affordable housing official, Executive Director Faust provides leadership in state housing policy to advance IHDA’s mission of financing the creation and preservation of affordable housing throughout Illinois. She is also a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago Community Investment Advisory Council where she advises the FHLBC on ways in which it can better carry out its housing finance and community investment missions in Illinois. Prior to joining IHDA, Executive Director Faust served as President of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS), a community development organization committed to helping homeowners and strengthening neighborhoods. Before joining NHS, Executive Director Faust was Chief Credit Officer and Director of Lending & Network Services at Partners for the Common Good. In that role, she was responsible for the growth and oversight of the domestic and international loan portfolio. In addition, Executive Director Faust served as president of the Enterprise Community Loan Fund, one of the largest non-depository community development financial institutions in the
country.

Earlier in her career, Executive Director Faust spent fifteen years in community development banking in Chicago, primarily with LaSalle National Bank, where she started the Community Development Lending Department. Her work in Chicago earned her distinction in Crain’s Chicago Business “Forty Under 40” list. Ms. Faust is a graduate of Harvard University, where she obtained a Master in City and Regional Planning and Brown University, where she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy.

Christine Haley is the State Homelessness Chief with the Illinois Department of Human Services. As State Homelessness Chief, Christine works across Illinois State Agencies to implement a strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness for Illinois residents. Christine chairs of the Illinois Interagency Task Force on Homelessness and co-chairs the Community Advisory Council on Homelessness. Before joining IDHS, Christine was the Director of Housing for Cook County Health (CCH), one of the nation’s largest public safety-net health systems. She worked across CCH Departments, including behavioral health, correctional health, emergency medicine and CountyCare, to design and implement programming to support patients experiencing homelessness. Together with Housing Forward, she was the clinical administrator of a 19-bed medical respite center in Oak Park. Before joining CCH, Christine worked as an administrator in the housing sector with the Corporation for Supportive Housing, Housing Opportunities for Women and Heartland Alliance. She previously served in health equity positions within the Massachusetts and Cleveland Departments of Public Health. She was the founding Executive Director of the Chicago Torture Justice Center. Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Science in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University. Christine lives in Chicago with her husband Peter and three children.

Marisa Novara was appointed Commissioner of the Department of Housing (DOH) by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot in June 2019.

As DOH Commissioner, Novara directs the City's efforts to keep Chicago affordable for all income levels through projects and policies that address the needs of tenants, landlords, developers, homeowners and other community stakeholders.

DOH programs, under her direction, support affordable housing construction and rehabilitation projects, provide purchase assistance for first-time homebuyers, enable accessible repairs for seniors, provide grants for home improvement projects, and offer development incentives for the redevelopment of vacant and abandoned buildings. DOH also administers the City's affordability requirement for multi-family construction projects and monitors compliance for all City-assisted affordable housing projects and policies.

Before joining the City, Novara was vice president of the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC). During her eight-year tenure at MPC, Novara designed and managed the Cost of Segregation project, a 2017 study that concluded how decades-old patterns of racial and economic segregation cost the Chicago region an estimated $4.4 billion in additional income each year. She also led the subsequent creation of the region’s first comprehensive guide to a more racially equitable future, among other reports, studies and articles.

Prior to MPC, Novara directed affordable rental and for-sale housing development for Lawndale Christian Development Corp.

Novara has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in sociology, master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, certificate in affordable housing finance, development and management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and master’s in urban planning from the Istituto Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy.

She lives in the Little Italy neighborhood with her family.

In 2020, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) Board appointed Tracey Scott as chief executive officer of the nation’s third largest housing authority, serving 64,000 families in Chicago. Under her leadership, CHA has closed $270 million in public housing rehabilitation projects and new mixed-income developments. With a vision of neighborhood revitalization as a goal, CHA has expanded education and employment services for residents to create more pathways for families to achieve economic independence.

Ms. Scott serves on the board of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities and as President of the Moving to Work Collaborative. Before coming to CHA, Ms. Scott served in leadership positions with the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, Atlanta Housing, and AT&T. She has served in volunteer leadership roles with Partners for Home Atlanta, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ community advisory board, and Patelco Credit Union.

She holds degrees from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Emory University.

Diane M. Shelley was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Midwest Regional Administrator. Regional Administrator Shelley is based in Chicago and oversees HUD operations, seven field offices and federal housing assistance throughout the six-state region, which covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. She also is HUD's regional liaison to elected officials, congressional delegations, associations and stakeholders.

As a lifelong social justice advocate working to eliminate poverty and economic insecurity, Shelley joined HUD with a long record of public service. Prior to joining HUD, she served as an elected Illinois state court judge for 15 years, resolving complex business, construction, housing, and employment issues. She conducted more than 100 jury trials and negotiated settlement of many more. The Illinois Supreme Court also appointed Shelley to the Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security. Before serving as a judge, she practiced law for nearly 25 years, beginning her career with grassroots nonprofit organizations and going on to head litigation for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, litigating and managing complex construction disputes and environmental issues.

A Chicago native with roots in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood, Shelley earned a juris doctorate degree from University of Iowa College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a former president of the Illinois Judges Association, a former chair of the Illinois Judicial Council, and continues as a dedicated member of several bar associations, including the American Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Cook County Bar Association and Black Women Lawyers’ Association, and civic organizations.