Click each photo to learn more about our Board members.
Akasha Lawrence Spence
CEO, Fifth Element Community Development + Consulting
she/her/hers
Akasha Lawrence Spence is an innovator, change agent, and intuitive strategist who puts community first. Akasha proudly serves NW and SW Portland and The City of Tigard as Oregon State Senator for District 18. She is also the Founder & Principal Designer of Fifth Element—a conscientious community development firm fortifying historically undercapitalized communities through decision making power and real property ownership. Everything Akasha does, whether as an entrepreneur, advocate, designer, writer, artist, policy maker, civic activist, or embodied being is an act of liberation rooted in economic justice that is reparative, intersectional, and generative.
Adam Stein
Director of Community Reinvestment Act Compliance, Umpqua Bank
he/him/his
Adam is the Director of Community Reinvestment Act Compliance at Umpqua Bank, overseeing regulations that ensure financial institutions do their share in the communities they are part of. Adam has been in banking for over 17 years, working previously at Columbia Bank and West Coast Bank. Before beginning his career in banking, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia from 2004 to 2006 as a community and economic development adviser, supporting Mercy Corps Gobi Initiative program. Adam is a big supporter of the Bank On initiative and asset building networks, serving in an advisory role for a number of coalitions throughout the Pacific Northwest. In his free time, Adam is learning how to be a hazelnut farmer and likes to study up on investing strategies.
Matthew Kirkpatrick
Trial Lawyer, Oregon Consumer Justice
he/him/his
Matt (he/him) has worked as a bartender, VISTA volunteer, non-profit housing developer, union carpenter, and trial attorney. He holds a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School and a BA in English from Pomona College. Over the past 15 years, Matt has prosecuted civil lawsuits for consumers against insurance companies, car makers, lenders, contractors, repair shops, moving companies, and others who cheat or harm Oregon consumers. He strives to treat people fairly, keep his word, and enrich his and others’ lives. Matt loves hiking, hanging out with family and friends, throwing plastic lines with metal hooks on them into rivers and lakes, and occasionally catching fish.
Lynne McConnell
Housing Director, City of Bend
she/her/hers
Lynne currently serves as Affordable Housing Manager for the City of Bend. Previously, she was NeighborImpact’s Deputy Director of Community Services, overseeing 5 major programs that serve 50,000 individuals annually. She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Oregon and a JD from Lewis and Clark. Lynne has accrued a wide spectrum of experience including working for Outward Bound as a wilderness guide, to lawyering with a pro bono emphasis in Portland, to operations manager (i.e. cowgirl) for a remote ranch in Northern California, and believes in jumping in to each opportunity wholeheartedly. She has an extensive volunteer history, formerly serving on the Residential Advisory Committee to the Bend urban growth boundary expansion and on the Central Oregon City Club programs committee, among others. She can often be found digging in her garden, cooking for a crowd, or exploring the wilds near her home in Bend, Oregon, with her family in tow.
Sonya Judd
SJS Executive Coaching
Sonya is a business strategic executive in the tech industry, an executive life coach, an author, and a speaker who empowers people to make permanent effective changes in their lives to reach their greatest potential everywhere she goes. She has a passion for helping people create a mission statement for their lives and making iterative changes towards their divine purpose. As a strategy leader, she creates dynamic action plans that optimize a company’s efficiency and effectiveness. Her expertise in finance and strategy for new technologies and devices have been in the financial, chemical, and technology industries worldwide at
JPMorganChase, Merrill Lynch, Intel, and Amazon.
Sonya is a silent private equity investor and has investments in hotel syndications, venture capital, and international real estate. Sonya is also the first and only Áfrican American (female or male) member of the City of Beaverton BURA Finance Committee. She was also appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of Women First Transition Center, an organization that helps women in incarceration return to society, family and work life.
As one of ten children from Raleigh, she expresses her passion for youth entrepreneurship and academic excellence through her foundation, the Young Entrepreneur Center, and her private coaching practice, SJS Executive Coaching. She’s the author of bestseller ‘Rest in the Nest’, documenting personal experiences and strategies to obtain rest and sleep in our post pandemic normal. Her work experience and education is in Finance undergrad at New York University and graduate school at Columbia University.
