Nowak Memorial Lecture | Founding Visions: A Journey of Collaboration

7th Annual Nowak Memorial Lecture

Founding Visions: A Journey of Collaboration & Impact

How can mission-driven finance drive social change? The Penn Institute for Urban Research and Reinvestment Fund invite you to the Seventh Annual Jeremy Nowak Memorial Lecture. On this, the 20th anniversary year of Penn IUR and the 40th anniversary of the origination of Reinvestment Fund, we will reflect on the mission and impact of community development financial institutions and the leadership role played by Reinvestment Fund in these efforts. Speakers will examine how visionary leadership and partnerships can reshape communities for the better.

This discussion brings together three community development leaders and founding members of Reinvestment Fund—Pat Smith, Joyce Wilkerson, and Eva Gladstein—who will share their experiences in launching what was originally the Delaware Valley Community Reinvestment Fund. They will explore the economic and social conditions that motivated their work, the challenges of building an institution dedicated to advancing equity through investment, and the decision to bring on Jeremy Nowak, a community organizer, as the organization’s first President and CEO. Jeremy would later become a member of the Penn IUR Advisory Board.

Moderated by Dr. Katherine O’Regan, Professor of Public Policy and Planning at the NYU Wagner School and Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, former HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy, Development and Research, Reinvestment Fund Board Member, and Penn IUR Fellow, this conversation will offer a rare, first-hand perspective of the origin of this Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) by its founding members and the values that continue to guide its work—collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and a steadfast commitment to expanding opportunity in disinvested communities.