The Aspen Institute

AGENDA

WELCOME
Genevieve Melford
Director, EPIC, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program

OPENING REMARKS
Ida Rademacher
Vice President, Aspen Institute, Executive Director, Financial Security Program

THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY CRISIS: Research Presentation
Katherine Lucas McKay
Senior Program Manager, EPIC, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program

A BOLD VISION FOR RENTERS: One-on-One Conversation
Mayor Quinton Lucas
City of Kansas City, Missouri

Stacey Vanek Smith
Co-Host, The Indicator from Planet Money; Correspondent, Planet Money, NPR

TACKLING THE CHALLENGES ACROSS SECTORS: Panel Discussion
Richard Baron
Co-Founder and Chairman, McCormack Baron Salazar

Jeff Gatlin
Chief Operating Officer, Roaring Fork School District

Angela Mingo
Community Relations Director, Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Moderator: Genevieve Melford
Director, EPIC, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Mayor Quinton Lucas
Mayor, City of Kansas City, Missouri, @MayorLucasKC

Quinton Lucas, “Mayor Q,” was sworn in as the 55th mayor of Kansas City on August 1, 2019.

As mayor, Quinton has prioritized making Kansas City’s neighborhoods safer, creating more accessible and affordable housing and public transportation, fostering a healthier community and improving basic services. Quinton created and chairs the City’s Special Committee on Housing Policy.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Quinton has spent most of his life in the city’s urban core. As a child, he moved often and experienced homelessness, sometimes staying with family or friends, or residing in a motel. Despite these challenges, Quinton remained focused on his schoolwork, earning academic scholarships to high school, college and Cornell Law School before returning home to Kansas City.

Since 2012, Quinton has been a member of the University of Kansas Law School faculty, where he served as one of the youngest tenure-track law professors in the country. He is active in the Kansas City community and volunteers extensively in area schools and organizations, including providing mentorship in local prisons.

Mayor Quinton Lucas lives in the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District, which he previously represented on the City Council.

Stacey Vanek Smith
Co-Host, The Indicator from Planet Money; Correspondent, Planet Money, NPR, @svaneksmith

Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money. She’s also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she’s traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country’s dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she’s spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.

Prior to coming to NPR, Smith worked for Marketplace, where she was a correspondent and fill-in host. While there, Smith was part of a collaboration with The New York Times, where she explored the relationship between money and marriage. She was also part of Marketplace’s live shows, where she produced a series of pieces on getting her data mined.

Smith is a native of Idaho and grew up working on her parents’ cattle ranch. She is a graduate of Princeton University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and creative writing. She also
holds a master’s in broadcast journalism from Columbia University.

Richard Baron
Co-Founder and Chairman, McCormack Baron Salazar, @McCormackBaron

Richard D. Baron is co-founder and chairman of McCormack Baron Salazar, a leading urban real-estate development company focusing on revitalizing neighborhoods throughout the United States. The firm, founded in 1973, redevelops blighted areas and areas of concentrated poverty into economically-integrated communities. The firm has been closely involved in the formation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOPE VI and Choice Neighborhood Programs and, under those programs, has revitalized over 30 former public housing sites into thriving, economically-integrated, safe communities. The firm has also received allocations of New Markets Tax Credits, which have been used for economic development, provision of social services, healthy food initiatives, educational investments and job creation in revitalizing communities.

In addition to his leadership of McCormack Baron Salazar, Mr. Baron was the co-founder and co-chairman of the Vashon Education Compact, a partnership of the St. Louis Public Schools and major corporations, and he is the founder and developer of The Center of Creative Arts (COCA), in University City, Missouri. In 2003, he established the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania.

In October 2004, Richard Baron received The Urban Land Institute J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. The Nichols Prize was established by the Nichols family in 2000 to recognize individuals whose career has demonstrated a commitment to the highest standards of responsible community and real estate development.

Mr. Baron is a graduate of Oberlin College and holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of California-Berkeley, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan. He has been awarded honorary degrees from Oberlin College and St. Louis University and received the Medal of Achievement Award from the University of Pennsylvania – Penn Design.

Jeff Gatlin
Chief Operating Officer, Roaring Fork School District

Jeff is the Chief Operating Officer for Roaring Fork School District in Western Colorado. He has been in education since 2003 as a coach, educator, and administrator. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado and a Master’s of Education degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has led various technology and operational initiatives, including the efforts in developing Roaring Fork School District’s staff housing program. His main focus is to ensure that operational functions enhance the learning environment and process.

Angela Mingo
Community Relations Director, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, @nationwidekids

Angela Mingo serves as the director of community relations for Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She is responsible for developing and managing strategic partnerships with external organizations.

Angela directs the community engagement efforts of the hospital and works closely with neighborhood and civic organizations. She has been instrumental in the implementation of the Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Families initiative, a five-prong approach to neighborhood revitalization efforts on the city’s Southside, led by Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Angela served as community affairs director with Columbus City Council from 2000-2007. There, she worked with community leaders and local elected officials to support the clean indoor air ordinance and citywide affordable housing initiatives.

Angela currently serves on the United Way of Central Ohio Home Impact Council. She is a former mayoral appointed commissioner with the City of Columbus Community Relations Commission and served on the commission’s executive board.

Angela serves as a gubernatorial appointment to the Ohio Lottery Commission. She serves on the boards of the Parsons Avenue Redevelopment Corporation, Leadership Columbus, and Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing. She is a member of the Fifth Third Community Advisory Forum and the Columbus Office of Minority Health Advisory Committee. Angela is a graduate of the Leadership Columbus 2012 Class and former participant in the Big Brother, Big Sisters mentoring program.

Angela earned Bachelor’s Degrees in Portuguese and international relations as well as her master’s of city and regional planning degree from The Ohio State University. Angela’s honors include Columbus Business First Health Care Heroes Award, Greater Columbus Community Helping Hands Community Relations Ambassador Award, and recognition in Who’s Who in Black Columbus.

A native of Canton, Ohio, Angela is married to Clarence E. Mingo and is the proud mother of two lovely daughters.

Katherine Lucas McKay
Senior Program Manager, EPIC, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, @KLucasMcKay

Katherine Lucas McKay is a Senior Program Manager at the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program (FSP), currently working on the Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative’s (EPIC) initiative on housing affordability and stability. Katherine is an experienced policy researcher and advocate in the fields of economic inequality and financial inclusion, and has worked on issues including foreclosure prevention, mortgage lending, retirement savings, credit reporting, access to safe and affordable financial products and services, and safety net policies. Prior to joining FSP, Katherine was the Associate Director of Government Affairs at the Corporation for Enterprise Development, where she led the organization’s policy work on homeownership, entrepreneurship, and consumer financial protection. She has also held positions at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and Georgetown University. Katherine holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Information Systems and a BA from Wellesley College.

Genevieve Melford
Director, EPIC, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, @AspenFSP

Genevieve Melford is Director of Insights and Evidence at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (FSP) and Director of the Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), a first-of-its-kind initiative in the field of consumer finance designed to accelerate knowledge synthesis and problem solving among a wide cross section of experts from applied, academic, government, and industry settings working on critical dimensions of financial security. Prior to joining FSP, Genevieve served as the Senior Research Analyst in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s Office of Financial Education, where she led the Bureau’s work to define, measure, and study the drivers of consumer financial well-being, as well as effectiveness research on financial education and capability strategies. Before that, she served as Director of Research at Prosperity Now (formerly CFED), a national nonprofit dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities. Genevieve holds an M.P.A. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University.

Ida Rademacher
Vice President, Aspen Institute, Executive Director, Financial Security Program, @idarademacher

Ida Rademacher is a vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Aspen Financial Security Program. Since joining the Institute in 2015, Ida has combined her expertise in economic inclusion research and policy with her reputation as a collaborative and creative thinker to expand FSP’s efforts to bring to the national forefront a solutions-focused discussion of how America can actually improve economic growth by addressing growing levels of wealth inequality and household financial insecurity. Her efforts have resulted in the creation of several new cutting-edge initiatives, including the Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), the Reconnecting Work and Wealth Initiative, and the Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings. Through these projects Ida and her team are building a cross-disciplinary community of leaders and change agents who, together, are deeply probing critical financial challenges facing U.S. households and shaping market and policy innovations that can improve the financial security and financial well-being of all Americans.