Speaker Biographies
Meet the leaders across policy, research, finance, development, and community advocacy shaping the conversation on the future of housing, wealth, and opportunity.
Joel Kotkin
Joel Kotkin is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and a senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes a regular column for The National Post (Canada) and Spiked but contributes regularly to Unherd, LA Times, The Spectator, National Review, The Telegraph and City Journal. His last book was The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class (Encounter: 2021)
Richard Green
Richard K. Green is Director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, where he holds the Lusk Chair in Real Estate and serves as Professor in the Sol Price School of Public Policy and the Marshall School of Business. His research spans housing markets and policy, tax policy, transportation, mortgage finance, and urban growth. Before USC, he held the Oliver T. Carr Chair at George Washington University and taught real estate economics for twelve years at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; he also served as principal economist at Freddie Mac. A recipient of AREUEA's George Bloom and Edwin Mills awards, he earned his Ph.D. in economics from Wisconsin and his A.B. from Harvard.
Lisa Ansell
Lisa Ansell serves as the Director of Academic Programming at the USC Casden Institute. Lisa received her B.A. in French Literature and Near East Studies from UCLA and her M.A. in International Relations and Middle East Studies from Harvard University. Prior to coming to USC, Lisa was the Chair of the World Language Department of New Community Jewish High School. In addition to her work at the USC Casden Institute, Lisa Ansell currently teaches Hebrew Language at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and is a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal where she frequently writes on issues of housing affordability, the pernicious effects of predatory student loan debt on borrowers across four generations and the breakdown of the proverbial village with regard to childcare and eldercare.
Marshall Toplansky
Marshall Toplansky is an award-winning Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Science at Chapman University's Argyros College of Business and Economics and a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Demographics and Policy, where he directs the Analytics Accelerator program. An entrepreneur and analytics leader, he began his career in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather, served as VP of Marketing for U.S. Robotics, and co-founded the sentiment-analysis firm Wise Window, later acquired by KPMG—where he co-founded the firm's Center of Excellence for Data & Analytics. With Joel Kotkin he has co-authored studies including "Restoring the California Dream." He co-hosts The Feudal Future podcast and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Karla López del Río
Karla López del Río is a Senior Fellow at Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, where she studies how demographic change and public policy shape conditions for economic strength and shared prosperity. A leader translating research into practice, she has held executive posts across the private, nonprofit, academic, and government sectors, including service to the U.S. Census Bureau and Riverside County, stewarding multimillion-dollar initiatives that broaden access to financial opportunity. Her work has earned honors from NeighborWorks America, the California Community Action Partnership Association, and the BigIdeas@Berkeley Competition. A first-generation immigrant from Mexico City, she holds a B.A. in Development Studies and Political Economy from UC Berkeley.
Judson Brown
Judson Brown currently serves as the Housing Manager for the City of Santa Ana and has nearly 20 years of experience in affordable housing and community development. The City of Santa Ana was one of only 18 jurisdictions statewide to provide units for all income levels for the 5th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), and the City has already issued 86% of the building permits for new housing units required of it for the 6th Cycle RHNA. As one of only two Prohousing cities in Orange County, the City has reduced homelessness by 25% from 2019 to 2026 based upon Point-in-Time Count data. Judson served as the previous Chair of the Orange County Continuum of Care (CoC) and currently serves as the Chair of the CoC Housing Opportunities Committee. Judson also currently serves as the Chair of the Orange County Ethics Commission. Judson is an AICP-certified planner with a Master's in Public Administration from Texas A&M University and a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning from Cal Poly Pomona.
David Cisneros
David Romulo Cisneros is a Texas-based real estate developer specializing in ground-up infill development and urban revitalization. He serves as the Managing Partner at Romulus, where he oversees a development pipeline and portfolio of neighborhood-serving retail and innovative urban housing. Romulus is currently building a community of 400 SF standalone homes, offered for-sale as a unique pathway to homeownership in a supply-constrained and gentrifying submarket.
Prior to founding Romulus, David was part of the Development & Investment team at Trammell Crow Company in Houston. His civic leadership includes work at Downtown Houston+, where he created a new Strategic Retail Plan and a Grocery Feasibility Study that attracted the area's first new grocery store in 15 years. As an economic development professional, he has placed over $2 million in small business grants.
David holds an MBA in Real Estate Finance from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor's in Political Science from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Anders Engnell
Anders Engnell is the Chief of Staff for California Forever. With the CEO Jan Sramek, he's committed to building America's next great city in the heart of Northern California, with the Solano Foundry, the Solano Shipyard, and the Suisun Expansion's over 170,000 new homes of all types in vibrant walkable neighborhoods.
Prior to joining California Forever, Anders led the planning and construction of Culdesac Tempe in Arizona, a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood housing hundreds of residents with an onsite grocery store and next door light rail station.
Joel Farkas
Joel Farkas is the founder of Fruition Communities, a vertically integrated real estate, energy, infrastructure, and resource-development company. With more than 38 years across real estate, energy, and water, he has sponsored, entitled, and invested in land for over 48,500 residential home sites in master-planned communities, along with more than a million square feet of retail and extensive water infrastructure across the southwestern United States. His work spans oil and gas exploration, mixed-use and master-planned development, regional retail centers, and water-rights acquisition. Today, Fruition is expanding renewable water delivery to fast-growing Denver suburbs, partnering with cities such as Brighton and Lochbuie. Farkas has served on more than 25 metropolitan-district boards.
Nora Guerra
Nora Guerra is an award-winning housing executive and nationally recognized expert in affordable housing and financial education, with more than 25 years of experience in residential lending. She currently serves as Senior Vice President of Community Lending Solutions at Guild Mortgage, one of the nation’s leading independent mortgage lenders, where she leads national strategies to expand access to sustainable homeownership and financial literacy.
Prior to Guild, Nora served as Senior Manager of National Affordable Lending at Freddie Mac, where she led nationwide initiatives to expand access to credit for low- to moderate-income borrowers and partnered with lenders across the country to advance responsible lending practices.
A sought-after keynote speaker, Nora has been featured across major media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Telemundo, Mortgage Professional America, and the Associated Press. She has spoken at national conferences including HousingWire, the MBA Annual Convention, and NAHREP, and regularly collaborates with mayors, U.S. senators, and policymakers to advance homeownership solutions nationwide. Her work and initiatives have also been shared with federal leaders at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
Her leadership has earned national recognition, including the Freddie Mac CEO Award, the organization’s highest honor, the Diversity Journal Latino Leadership Award, and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers Leadership and Partner of the Year Award, along with additional recognition for her contributions to financial education and community impact.
Nora holds a Bachelor of Science in Professional Studies from Purdue University and is a graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business Multicultural Women Executive Leadership Program.
Elizabeth Hansburg
Elizabeth Hansburg co-founded "People for Housing OC" after attending the 2016 SCAG California Housing Summit where she learned about the Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement. Since January 2017, she has led the grassroots YIMBY effort to build public support for new affordable and attainable housing opportunities in Orange County.
Prior to her work in the YIMBY movement, Elizabeth worked as a communications consultant, translating transportation plans, air quality, and environmental impact reports into common language for use in public outreach for SCAG, LA Metro, Gateway Cities transportation projects.
Elizabeth has lived in Fullerton for nearly 20 years and has volunteered for ten of those on multiple city commissions, pushing to approve housing development and allocating CDBG funding to vulnerable neighborhoods within the city. At the center of her work is a deeply held belief that we can craft a future better than our past, one that provides paths to stable housing and opportunity.
Elizabeth holds a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design in Philadelphia and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from the College of Wooster in Ohio.
Noerena Limón
Noerena Limón is CEO of the Casita Coalition, an organization advancing innovative middle housing solutions to address the housing supply crisis. In 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed her to the Board of Directors of the California Housing Finance Agency, and she currently serves as a Housing Fellow at the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation.
Before joining Casita Coalition, Noerena was Executive Vice President of Public Policy and Industry Relations at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), where she established the organization’s first national policy department and grassroots advocacy network focused on expanding Latino homeownership opportunities. She also authored NAHREP’s annual State of Hispanic Homeownership and State of Hispanic Wealth reports.
Her previous experience includes roles at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Obama-Biden administration, and the office of former U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra.
Noerena holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She also serves as Treasurer of MAAC Project and serves on the boards of Up For Growth Action and the National Housing Conference, helping advance housing affordability, economic opportunity, and community development efforts across the country.
Chad Lonski
Chad Lonski currently serves Storm Properties on the development team as a land acquisition manager. He leads sourcing efforts, market analysis, financial underwriting, regulatory due diligence, and negotiations for new sites in firm’s development pipeline.
Prior to joining Storm, he previously held positions with Melia Homes, Recupero & Associates, The Olson Company, and County of Orange Planning. Lonski is a graduate of the University of Southern California holding a B.S. in Real Estate Development and a minor in Architecture.
Nora Mendez
Nora Mendez is Executive Director of Orange County Community Housing Corporation (OCCHC), which she has led since 2014 after more than two decades with the organization. Her connection runs deep: introduced to OCCHC as a child living in its housing, she became the first in her family to graduate from college and own a home—an arc that grounds her commitment to low-income and disadvantaged families across Orange County. Before stepping into leadership, she held roles at The Kennedy Commission, Thomas House Family Shelter, and National Community Renaissance, and served on the board of Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services. Today she champions the affordable housing, mentoring, and educational services that help families build lasting stability.
Ryan Sears
Ryan Sears is a housing policy researcher and advocate focused on expanding affordable homeownership and preserving community stability in California. At Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services, Ryan serves his community as Head of Policy and Research, where he oversees NPHS' research partnerships and policy development across local, state, and federal levels. In his role, Ryan works to advance innovative approaches to financing, land use, and permanent affordability. His work emphasizes community ownership models, disaster resilience, and equitable access to housing for all families. Ryan has authored proposals on insurance policy, factory-built housing, and housing preservation. He collaborates with researchers, lawmakers, and community partners to translate policy into practice, with a focus on scalable, equitable, and inclusive solutions to the housing affordability crisis.
Claudia Zaker
Claudia Zaker is a visionary real estate broker, entrepreneur, and industry leader whose impact spans California and the national real estate landscape. Licensed since 2004, she oversees a network of more than 800 real estate professionals and co-owns a portfolio of companies—Team California, The HUB at Eastlake, Marina Vista Escrow, Clear 2 Close Processing, and All In Lending—generating over $1 billion in annual gross revenue. A Co-Founding Partner of Realty of America, which surpassed $3.8 billion in sales volume in 2025, she serves on its Executive Board and as National President of Women of ROA. Claudia is President of the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, a Director for the California Association of Realtors, and was named Realtor of the Year in 2016.
Sponsorship received does not constitute an endorsement. The Summit’s host, Chapman University, does not endorse any candidate, campaign, or political party.