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Oscar Gonzales is a researcher and Associate Manager for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). Mr. Gonzales currently serves as the Acting Program Manager for the CDFI Fund’s Office of Financial Strategy and Research.
Previously, he worked for the United States Congress at the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) in the area of federal economic and community development programs, providing policy research support for members of Congress and Congressional Committees. His policy portfolio at CRS included federal programs such as the CDFI Fund, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Economic Development Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Community Development Block Grant program at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Prior to working at CRS, he worked in the Division of Insurance and Research at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, analyzing the financial performance of community banks and conducting research on the impact of national disasters on financial institutions and local communities. He is completing his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland.
Amber Kuchar-Bell is the CDFI Program and NACA Program Manager at the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
Prior to joining the CDFI Fund, Amber was an investment officer for the Calvert Foundation, a CDFI, where she managed a $68 million investment portfolio of CDFIs including Native CDFIs, CDEs, and social enterprise organizations. Before joining Calvert Foundation, Amber worked at NCB Capital Impact, also a CDFI, as a commercial loan underwriter where she underwrote loans for healthcare centers, affordable housing cooperatives, and charter schools. Early in her career, Amber was an Export and Marketing Associate for a coffee cooperative in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, and Sr. Consumer Lending Loan Officer at Bay Federal Credit Union. She has a Master of Public Policy from Duke University located in Durham, North Carolina and a Bachelor of Science in International Development from the University of California Los Angeles.
Recently, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced the largest number of awards ever in the history of the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The
Tackling Banking Deserts By Giving New Life to Unused Real Estate
OCTOBER 12, 2017
A BEA Program Success Story - HOPE Credit Union Receives Two Regions Bank Branches Last month, the CDFI Fund announced the selection of 102 FDIC-insured depository institutions to receive $18.6 million in fiscal year (FY) 2016 Bank Enterprise Awa (...)
Thinking Local: Native CDFIs Support Businesses, Growth in South Dakota
SEPTEMBER 25, 2017
Just a few weeks after I joined the CDFI Fund as a Senior Portfolio Manager for the Native Initiatives program, I had the honor of accompanying CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan as she traveled to the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations in So (...)
CDFI Fund Programs Reach Far and Wide, Even to the Arctic Circle
DECEMBER 13, 2017
In late October, CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan and I traveled to Alaska to participate in the Annual Conference of the Alaska Federation of Natives and to meet with several organizations that have utilized CDFI Fund programs. To say that Alaska, app (...)
Karen Miller is the Financial Manager for the CDFI Fund, having the responsibility of managing the budget execution, formulating the President's Budget, oversight of the monthly financial statements, the CDFI Fund's yearly audit, and preparing their annual financial report (AFR). Her team provides support to all areas of the CDFI Fund, ensuring proper use of appropriated funds, the availability of funds, and responding to various data calls that come out of Departmental Offices, Department of the Treasury.
Karen came to Treasury in 1997 as a secretary in the Office of the Deputy Chief Financial Officer and later received her Bachelor's degree in Accounting, transitioning into the Office of Financial Management in 2000 as an accountant responsible for the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), where she ensured that ESF consistently achieved clean audit opinions. She later became a supervisor, overseeing the reporting of various funds/accounts within Treasury, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act accounts. Prior to Karen coming to the CDFI Fund in November 2012, she also assisted in the financial reporting of Treasury's AFR and the government-wide financial statements.
Karen has a combined total of 31 years of Federal Government service, having spent 13 years with the Department of Defense prior to joining Treasury.
Just before Thanksgiving, I visited Milwaukee and Chicago and had the opportunity to witness the impact that CDFIs are making in those great cities. CDFIs nationwide are building businesses, creating jobs, and developing housing, and the CDFIs in Milwaukee and Chicago are no exception.
I hope you enjoy the new site, which was designed to better serve YOU, the CDFI Fund's applicants and awardees and members of the public, as you look for more information about our programs. There may be a whole new look and feel, but the same in-depth information you've come to expect from the CDFI Fund is still here.
Telma Holmes is the Operations Manager of the CDFI Fund and oversees the management of the Fund's infrastructure, including human resources, acquisitions, property, equipment, space logistics, safety, travel, and training. Since joining the Operations team in 2011, she has been the Fund's Small Business Specialist, providing advice to the program offices on procuring small business and informing small business owners on procurement opportunities within the CDFI Fund. She began her career at the CDFI Fund in 2009, serving as Chief Information Officer.
Prior to the CDFI Fund, Ms. Holmes was the Contracting Officer Technical Representative (COTR) of the Treasury Foreign Intelligence Network (TFIN) where she was responsible for developing and directing the successful implementation of a project management plan to stabilize the Treasury Department's only Top Secret IT system.
Ms. Holmes has over 20 years of experience within the Department of the Treasury and has previously been an IT Specialist and Program Analyst within the Office of the Chief Information Officer, a Budget Analyst for the Working Capital Fund Program Office, a Program Analyst within the Information Technology Strategy and Policy division and has served as President of the National Treasury Employee Union.
Greg Bischak manages the Office of Financial Strategies and Research at the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. He oversees research and analysis related to programmatic activity, development of performance data and strategic research to ensure effective implementation of the CDFI Fund mission.
Prior to joining the CDFI Fund, he was a senior economist for the Appalachian Regional Commission where he directed economic development research. Mr. Bischak served as executive director of the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament and was for developing public education and policy research on economic conversion, defense employment impacts, disarmament and industrial policy. He was also an economic professor at Ramapo College in New Jersey.
Mr. Bischak is a member of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Science, and Co-Chair of the Transportation and Economic Development Committee. His research has been published in a wide variety of scholarly journals and publications. He received his PhD from the New School for Social Research.