Financial Stability Contacts

Seung Kim, VP Family Income and Wealth Building
Seung helps LISC offices throughout the country design and establish Financial Opportunity Centers.
She also leads her team to implement and test innovative initiatives such as Bridges to Career Opportunities, with a strong focus on outcomes measurement. Prior to joining our national staff in 2012, Seung was a consultant for LISC Chicago’s Centers for Working Families and worked with the national office on FOCs. Seung was also a VP of fixed income analytics for ANB Financial Group, an analytics associate for Performance Trust Companies and a financial coach. She has a bachelor’s from Northwestern University and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management..
Laura D’Alessandro, Director of Financial Health
Laura provides technical assistance and support to LISC’s network of over 100 Financial Opportunity Centers. Prior to coming to LISC, she worked with Helen Keller International and has a breadth of experience in program design, non-profit financing and grants management. Laura has a special interest in integrating asset building programs with workforce development initiatives and manages LISC’s Twin Accounts credit-building and savings program. She holds a B.A. from the University of Washington and a master’s in public administration from New York University. Financial capability and financial products are part of Laura’s portfolio, along with the management of several awards and general integrated services delivery.
Katrin Sirje Kärk, Director of Workforce Innovations
Katrin supports LISC’s Financial Opportunity Center and Bridges to Career Opportunities network and manages employer partnerships and workforce development strategy. After starting her career in communications at PolicyLink, she joined LISC to help grow the FOC and Bridges models, then launched a $32M financial capability grant program at NeighborWorks America, and spent time in Rural LISC collaborating with local partners to expand workforce and asset building innovations in rural America before rejoining LISC’s national team in 2019. Katrin earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a Master of Public Administration from the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College-City University of New York. She also holds Economic Development
Financial Professional and Housing Development Finance Professional certifications from National Development Council and was a 2018 Opportunity Fellow with Opportunity Finance Network.
Carolina Rendon, Program Officer
Carolina joined the national team three years ago and she brings over 11 years of experience working in nonprofit. Carolina holds a dual bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Finance and Management and is a Certified Salesforce Administrator. Carolina supports the FOC network as the System Administrator managing 550 Salesforce users, provides programmatic technical assistance, and manages the network’s data of over 100 FOCs.

Candi Blake, Assistant Program Officer
Candi supports the Family Income and Wealth Building (FIWB) team by providing a range of grants management and compliance functions. She also assists with implementation and development of the FIWB program initiatives. Candi joins LISC after serving as Program Specialist for the State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Superstorm Sandy Blue Acres Buyout Program. She also has over 5 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. Candi has a passion for community action and service. She holds both a Bachelor's of Arts and a Master's degree in Political Science from Rutgers University.Candi is the compliance officer for several grants and supports subgrantee management and billing.

Jacqueline Guzmán, Assistant Program Officer
Prior to joining the FIWB team, Jackie was both a data and research intern for the LISC Chicago office and the Adult Learners Programs and Services (ALPS) specialist at Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC, a Chicago FOC). Before that she served as a LISC AmeriCorps member facilitating digital literacy and employment services workshops for adult job seekers in Chicago. She received a B.A. in Sociology from Southern CT State University and a master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from University of Illinois at Chicago. Jackie supports the data efforts of the team as well as grant management and compliance.

Julia Brown, Program Officer
Julia supports LISC’s Financial Opportunity Centers and Bridges to Career Opportunities networks. Julia joins LISC from the Corporate Social Responsibility team at Prudential Financial where she led pro bono capacity building programs that connected employee talent to nonprofit organizations and small businesses. She also supported the company‘s strategy on expanding inclusive employment pathways by building partnerships with nonprofit workforce development programs and internal business leaders. Prior to Prudential, Julia worked at two different nonprofit organizations that focused on financial literacy training and career development programming. She recently completed her Masters in Public Administration with a focus on Public and Nonprofit Performance Measurement from Rutgers University.

Laine Rolong, Program Officer
Laine supports grant management, program development, and technical assistance to LISC Financial Opportunity Centers. She has over ten years of experience working in the nonprofit sector, focusing primarily on financial empowerment and microfinance. Laine is a bilingual project manager that enjoys creating collaboration between the public and private sectors to benefit underinvested communities. Before joining LISC, Laine worked at Food Bank for New York City, managing its financial empowerment program planning and execution, expanding programming from a direct service model to a train-the-trainers model in public schools and food banks. Previously, Laine worked at ACCION USA, responsible for its outreach strategy, supporting the lending team, developing partnerships with financial institutions and government agencies to assist entrepreneurs with capital. Laine has interests in the connection between asset-building and microenterprise. She is an alumna from the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, and Robert F. Wagner New York University.
Local LISC Office Contacts
Office Location | Contact Person |
Atlanta | Amit Khanduri, Program Officer |
Boston | Emily Jones, Senior Program Officer |
Charlotte | Hiba Asalih, Program Officer Harold Lloyd, Program Officer |
Chicago | Jennifer McClain, Financial Opportunities Director Sarai Garza, Program Officer |
Cincinnati | Valerie Daley, Senior Program officer |
Connecticut | Farhana Arif, Program Officer Debi Martin, Assistant Program Officer |
Detroit | Jackie Burau, Program Officer Karista Gallick, Assistant Program Officer |
Duluth | Lars Kuehnow, Program Officer |
Flint | Connie Brauer, Assistant Program officer |
Houston | VanNhi Nguyen, Senior Program Officer Madeleine Chaisson, Program Officer |
Indianapolis | Robert Harris, Senior Program Officer Natalia Rodriguez Hilt, Assistant Program Officer |
Jacksonville | Recheal Ikwuagwu, Program Officer Kathie Silvia, Administrative Assistant |
Kansas City | Trese Booze, Program Officer Kelli Hearn , Assistant Program Officer |
Los Angeles | Shona Sen, Program Officer |
Michigan- Statewide | Sonja Dean, Program Officer |
Milwaukee | Patricia Goeman, Deputy Director Sakuri Fears, Consultant |
New York | Ibrahima Souare, Program Officer Emily Blank, Senior Program Officer |
Newark | Senia Cuevas, Program Officer |
Peoria | Fred Stewart, Program Officer |
Philadelphia | Jessica Collazo, Program Officer |
Phoenix | Mariana Torres, Assistant Program Officer |
Pittsburgh | Sarah Dieleman-Perry, Program Officer |
Rhode Island | Claudia Staniszewski, Program Officer Sue Leonardi, Program Assistant |
Rural | Emily Avery, Senior Program Officer Julia Malinowski, Program Director |
San Diego | Avital Aboody, Program Officer |
San Francisco (Bay Area) | Max Lelu, Assistant Program Officer |
Tacoma | Kiara Daniels, Program Officer Mandy Lee, Program Officer |
Toledo | Valerie Moffitt, Director of Financial Opportunities Shaulonda Jones, Program Assistant |
Twin Cities | Jouapag Lee, Program Officer Rachel Speck, Consultant |
Virginia | Tracy Leary, Program Officer |
Western New York | Kate Rehban, Program Officer |