 Lea
Kami Keal, Finance Authority of New Orleans
Lea Keal is serving as public finance law and finance manager with
the Finance Authority of New Orleans, where she provides guidance
on the legal basis for city-wide homeownership programs for home
buyers and developers. Her responsibilities include program design
and refinement for $50 million CDBG-funded second mortgage program
and developing other programs using New Markets Tax Credits, Historic
Preservation Tax Credits, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Self-Help
Homeownership Opportunity Program, HOME Investment Partnerships Program,
municipal bonds and other community development financing instruments.
Upon coming to New Orleans, Lea served as a team member of New Orleans
ACORN, where she assisted with the expansion of services and home
building in the Lower Ninth Ward as part of the organization’s
post-Katrina recovery efforts. At ACORN she assessed viability and
potential funding sources for proposals including a local grocery
store, community center and wireless café, community park
and a riverbank modular housing plant, as well as coordinating other
initiatives.
Prior to being selected by the Center for Urban Redevelopment
Excellence for the Rockefeller Redevelopment Fellowship, Ms. Keal
consulted for the City of Calabasas (Calabasas, CA) where she drafted
the Pedestrian Master Plan for the City's General Plan.
Ms. Keal completed her Law degree at Pepperdine University. While
at Pepperdine Ms. Keal provided legal assistance to the residents
of the Many Mansions affordable housing community; her services
were part of a Human Rights Advocacy initiative which included
medical assistance organized by the Westminster Presbyterian Church
under the title the Westminster Free Clinic. Ms. Keal earned her
B.S. at Penn State in Urban and Regional Development. During her
undergraduate Ms. Keal traveled aboard to research migration patterns
in Israel at the University of Tel-Aviv (Tel-Aviv, Israel). Upon
her return to the states she applied her research method to her
thesis work examining migration patters in her native Philadelphia.
Thereafter, Ms. Keal presented her research at National Conference
for Undergraduate Research.
|
