Our first award of the day went to the Children’s Essay Contest winner, Zachary Dawet Hailu! This year, we received more than 400 essay contest submissions representing the youth who participate in our members’ resident services programming. Contestants were asked to share what their college experience looks like from their point of view for a cash prize of $500 and a celebratory class pizza party. 

Zachary’s winning essay focused on using his college experience at his top-pick university, Harvard, to become an astronaut. His love of math and science ignited his aspiration to travel to other worlds. 

 Zachary also received books and STEM resources from the HAND team to continue to cultivate his passions.

Marie Mann Bibbs is the principal of a specialized consulting practice, MB², serving nonprofit community development financial institutions, as well as regulated and community development banks.  The practice focuses on writing applications for federal programs, primarily the CDFI Fund. She has written successful NMTC applications totaling $551 million and won over $11 million in FA and BEA awards.  At City First Bank of DC, Ms. Bibbs originally served on the Board and joined the staff as Executive Vice President, Community Development Finance in September 2006.  She was appointed President and CEO of City First New Markets Fund II, LLC, in 2007.  Ms. Bibbs directed the New Market Tax Credit program, served as the Community Reinvestment Act Officer, had oversight of community development financing products and services, and handled communications and marketing, including the writing of the bank annual report. She was also the relationship manager to the CDFI Fund, with responsibility for the Financial Assistance and Bank Enterprise Award grant programs, and raised over $6.9 million in grants.  In 2013, Ms. Bibbs planned and executed a one-day community development conference that attracted over 450 attendees. 

Through the City First NMTC program, Ms. Bibbs financed the construction of large commercial projects ranging from $8 – $24 million in development costs.  Those projects, primarily community facilities, included the Capital Area Food Bank, Bread for the City, Central Union Mission, Mary’s Center, Unity Health Kenilworth Center, Anthony Bowen YMCA, Washington Latin Public Charter School and East Baltimore Community School.  She was responsible for sourcing, structuring, underwriting and closing deals, staffing the Investment Committee, and building the compliance and monitoring functions of the NMTC program. During her tenure at the bank, the NMTC portfolio grew to over $359 million assets under management and made over $370 million in qualified investments that leveraged $659.4 million in total development costs.

With nearly 50 years of experience in community development, Ms. Bibbs served as the Community Development executive at several banks. She previously served as a Senior Vice President/Managing Director, Cooperative and Community Development, at the National Cooperative Bank (NCB).  In that capacity, she developed products and services to promote the establishment of new cooperatively owned enterprises and managed community development services and investments in low income communities for the NCB family of companies.  Ms. Bibbs also served as the Community Reinvestment Officer.  Ms. Bibbs worked for First Union National Bank, now Wells Fargo, as a Senior Vice President and Regional Manager for the Mid-Atlantic States in the Community Development Group.  She served for 11 years as the Senior Vice President for Community Development with Crestar Bank, now Truist, in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan market, managing various aspects of community affairs including consumer compliance.  Her focus was regulatory affairs for the Community Reinvestment Act and fair lending as well as media and government affairs, public service programs, employee community service and local corporate philanthropy.

Before entering the banking industry, Ms. Bibbs was the Administrator for the Development and Modernization Administration of the District of Columbia Public Housing Authority responsible for a $200 million capital budget and total rehabilitation of 2,500 units of public housing.  Early in her career, Ms. Bibbs worked in the nonprofit housing industry having served as the Executive Director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Washington, D.C. and prior to that was Executive Director of the Eden Council for Hope and Opportunity in northern California.  She also worked for the National Council for Urban Economic Development, CUED, an economic development trade association in Washington, DC providing technical assistance to municipalities across the country.

Ms. Bibbs is well known in the banking and community development industry.  She was featured in a video developed by the national accounting firm to promote the impact of NMTC financed projects around the country, and a small business financing video jointly sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago and Boston.  She has served as the moderator and host for several Congressional tours sponsored by the CDFI Fund; presented testimony to the four banking regulators on behalf of the American Bankers Association regarding proposed CRA reform; is a frequent speaker on NMTC for local organizations such as FOCUS, Housing Association of Non Profit Developers (HAND), Coalition for Non Profit Housing and Community Development and the Community Development Bankers Association.  She has also conducted workshops for the FDIC and the OTS on community development and reinvestment and was a speaker for the annual meeting of the CDFI Fund Advisory Board.

Ms. Bibbs holds a Masters of Science in Business from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD and a Masters of City Planning from Howard University, Washington, DC. She earned her undergraduate degree at Northeastern University, Boston, MA.  Ms. Bibbs was a former Board member and is active with Women of Color in Community Development.  She has served as a judge for the HAND annual housing award competition, previously was a member of the Housing and Community Development Committee of the American Bankers Association, the Board of Directors of TruFund, Kipp DC Support Corporation and served on the Advisory Board of the Washington, DC LISC.  She served a long tenure as Chair of the Board of Mentors, Inc., was a Board member with Rebuilding Together (Christmas in April), the Community Development Support Collaborative and Community Preservation and Development Corporation, CPDC. 

Lori Glass is the Chief Lending Officer of the Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund.  She leads lending activities for affordable housing, community facility and New Markets Tax Credits projects located in Baltimore, Maryland.  She has over 20 years of experience in impact investing and program development.  Prior to joining NIIF, she was selected to build a new program at the Primary Care Development Corporation, a CDFI specializing in healthcare lending.  There she launched a program funded by New York State created to increase access to primary and behavioral health care in underserved markets.  From 2013-2016, she served as CEO for Appalachia Community Capital, a start-up loan fund established to leveraging grant capital, foundation PRIs and bank lending in order to support under-invested communities. From 2003-2011 she worked at the Reinvestment Fund, where she was a member of the management team, led key efforts to launch the healthy foods financing program, and worked as a local market director.   Lori serves as board member of the National Housing Trust Community Development Fund where she serves on the Loan Committee.

Margaret McFarland, J.D. is an Emeritus Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland and is currently directing the establishment of a real estate center for a small college in California., while teaching courses on-line at both institutions.  McFarland was the founding Director of the Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development and established the Master of Real Estate Development program at the University of Maryland.  Dr. McFarland was Editor-in-Chief of the Real Estate Review, a quarterly journal, from 2008 – 2016.

Prior to her tenure at the University of Maryland, Dr. McFarland was a practicing attorney in affordable housing finance and operations for 25 years.  During those years, McFarland served as General Counsel to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, then General Counsel to the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission and just prior to moving to academia, served as General Counsel to the District of Columbia Housing Authority. McFarland also spent a few years working with affordable housing developers at the National Association of Home Builders, which resulted in permanent modifications to federal law governing low-income housing tax credits that enhanced its use by private developers to produce public purpose affordable housing.

Dr. McFarland is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Real Estate Society and a longtime outside Director of non-profit developer/investor Neighborhood Development Collaborative with properties in California, Nevada, and Texas.  She spent several years in public service as a land use planner in Toledo, Ohio, before returning to school to complete a law degree.  On completing her law degree Dr. McFarland joined the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers in private practice in Washington, D.C. assisting clients financing hotel, office and retail properties. 

 Dr. McFarland has an A.M. degree in Urban Studies from the University of Chicago and a J.D. degree awarded by the University of Michigan.