Michou Kokodoko is a project director in the Minneapolis Fed’s Community Development and Engagement department, where his portfolio is dedicated in part to CICD. He leads the Bank’s efforts to promote effective community-bank partnerships by increasing awareness of community development trends and investment opportunities, especially those related to the Community Reinvestment Act.

Adrienne Smith joined Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) in 2022 and leads the organization’s research strategy and agenda. In addition to leading OFN’s research team, she partners with external researchers and serves on the Research Advisory Board and executive committee of the CDFI Research Consortium. Since joining OFN, she has worked to convene, collaborate with, and build the field of researchers at OFN-member CDFIs.

Prior to OFN, Smith was a senior associate in Abt Associates’ Social and Economic Policy division, where she directed and contributed to large, multi-year research projects and program evaluations for funders in the U.S. government and foundations. These projects spanned diverse policy areas and issues such as community development, housing, workforce training, and other policies and programs aimed at advancing economic mobility. She also co-led Abt’s Housing, Communities, and Asset-Building market center.

Before Abt, Smith was an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee. She conducted research and taught courses on U.S. politics and policymaking; public policy processes; urban, local, and state politics; and race, ethnicity, and politics.

Smith holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Emory University and a B.A. in government in politics and a B.A. in art history from the University of Maryland College Park. She was the 2012 recipient of the Urban Affairs Association’s emerging scholar award.

Pete Upton (Ponca Tribe of Nebraska) currently serves as the CEO and chairman of the Native CDFI Network. Upton is the executive director of Native360 Loan Fund, a certified Native CDFI that focuses on entrepreneurship and financial literacy development for Native Americans. Serving as executive director since 2011, Upton has built the organization from its start-up phase into a successful lending organization that continues to experience growth while ever-increasing its community impact.

Upton has been involved with the Native CDFI Network since it was a grassroots movement. From 2011–2012, he served on the steering committee that was instrumental in the Native CDFI Network’s initial organizational development steps. In 2012, Upton became a founding board member and served as the chairperson for the Peer Learning Committee.

As Native360 serves Native communities in three states, Upton understands the challenges of serving both rural and urban areas in various jurisdictions. He values strong networks and cultivates partnerships to deliver technical assistance throughout a vast service area. Upton is a powerful advocate for equal access to capital.

Lakota Vogel is the executive director at Four Bands Community Fund, an organization that serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and the greater state of South Dakota in the areas of small business development, business lending, financial literacy, and youth entrepreneurship.

Prior to her promotion to executive director, Vogel held the position of assistant director for five years. Her previous experience includes serving as a co-chair for the annual pow wow for the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies; completing a fellowship with the National Congress of American Indians; and teaching special education on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, South Dakota, through Teach for America.

Vogel earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Social Work, focusing on economic security and social development, from Washington University in St. Louis.

Vogel currently serves as board treasurer for Akiptan Inc. She is a member of the board of directors of Dakota Resources, serving on their finance and audit committee; a member of the board of the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition; chair of the board of Timber Lake Community Daycare; and an Investment Committee member at the Better Way Foundation. Her past affiliations include service on the Native American Alumni Board of Directors at the University of Notre Dame. She is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Laurel Wheeler is an economist and CICD research fellow. She previously served as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Alberta, where she taught classes on Indigenous economics, Indigenous economic development, and urban economics.

Wheeler holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in economics from Duke University, an M.Sc. in economics for development from the University of Oxford, and a B.A. in political science from the University of Florida. Her research includes a range of topics related to economic development challenges and opportunities Native nations face, including land and financial institutions, tribal gaming, and natural-resource-based industries.