TOPIC: The Changing Landscape of Rural America, Post-Pandemic

Date: Thursday, March 21

Time: 2pm ET

Location: Virtual Only

The Southern Municipal Finance Society will be hosting a webcast at 2pm ET on March 21, 2024, to explore the changing demographic landscape of Rural America. Please join us as we discuss how housing, healthcare, employment, and infrastructure needs have changed post-pandemic.

Panelists: 

• Joaquin Altoro has served as the Administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service since November 2021. Prior to USDA, he served as the CEO and Executive Director for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) where – among other efforts – he worked to adopt a holistic approach to leverage affordable housing to grow economic prosperity for historically marginalized communities. Altoro is a graduate of Cardinal Stritch University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. 
   
• Jim King serves as the President of Fahe – a nationally recognized membership of 50+ community-based organizations serving Appalachia. For more than 3 decades, he has worked to advance opportunity for people and communities primarily in Appalachia.  Mr. King has experience across all aspects of community development and finance.  He has served alongside executive leadership at Truist Bank, First Citizens Bank and Fannie Mae as part of advisory boards.  He has served as board chair to Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), the leading membership of Community Development Financial Institutions nationally.  He has been a contributor to numerous books and publications including “Forces for Good”, “Wealth Creation” and “Appalachia Revisited.   He is a recipient of a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, the Nation NeighborWorks Association Lifetime Achievement award and the National Housing Conference Visionary Award. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School’s three-year owner/president management (OPM) program. He holds an MBA degree from Eastern University, a BA from Bluffton University.
  
  
• Frank Mamo is a Vice President and Senior Analyst on Moody’s Local Government Team. He has served as lead credit analyst for a hundreds of localities ranging from major urban centers to small rural school districts. Frank is currently the analytical lead for city, county, and school district ratings in Georgia and has also worked extensively in South Carolina, Ohio, and Florida, among other states. Frank has led a variety of research initiatives examining regional inequality and the impact disparate demographic and labor market trends have on local government budgets. Prior to joining Moody’s in 2014, Frank was a tax policy researcher at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy as well as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, DC. Frank holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Iowa.

Register for this webinar in advance by clicking here.