2025 Housing & Economic Summit

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Presenters

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Lavon Morris-Grant (she/her)
international public speaker, entrepreneur, consultant, and digital marketing strategist
Lavon Morris-Grant LLC
Lavon Morris-Grant is a proud graduate of Full Sail University with a master’s degree in Digital Marketing, where she was honored to graduate as valedictorian and Summa Cum Laude, with a 3.97 GPA. As a seasoned entrepreneur, international speaker, consultant, and digital marketing strategist, she creates innovative and impactful solutions across diverse fields, including social justice, political activism, and holistic healing, with a special focus on helping organizations and individuals achieve meaningful transformation.
Many years ago, she survived a life-threatening domestic violence tragedy from her husband of 10 years. From that emotional trauma, she discovered her gift as a writer, leading her to author her first memoir, Whom Shall I Fear: A Spiritual Journey of a Battered Woman.
Following the release of her memoir, opportunities arose for her to speak at prestigious Historical Black Universities and institutions such as Spelman and Morehouse Colleges, and Miami School of Law, along with numerous domestic violence coalitions and organizations and faith-based institutions. Internationally, she had the honor of speaking in Canada, Australia, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. By invitation, she had the privilege of speaking alongside Democratic Party Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton at a press conference sponsored by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation at the White House to appeal to local, state, and federal legislators to strictly enforce the restrictions on domestic violence protective orders. 
In 2014, she released her second book, Who Will Speak for My Children: Healing Through the Trauma, where she describes the powerful, debilitating and lingering effects that trauma and homelessness leave behind and how her and her three children personally survived, recovered and thrived through multiple, devastating traumas. Her third book is slated for release in September 2025.
Today, her mission extends beyond her personal story. She educates others on the insidious nature of the intersectionality of the painful dynamic on the crippling trauma that ensues. She aims to inspire and instill hope in others, advocating for holistic healing approaches and living with dignity.
In addition to her digital marketing expertise, she’s an international speaker, storyteller, racial equity trainer, personal and professional Life Coach, and author. She’s here to collaborate, offering solutions to help individuals, communities and organizations thrive.

CLOSING KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Edgar Villanueva
Award-winning author, activist, and expert on issues of race, wealth, and philanthropy. Founder and CEO of Decolonizing Wealth Project and its fund, Liberated Capital. 
Decolonizing Wealth

Edgar Villanueva, is an award-winning author, activist, and expert on issues of race, wealth, and philanthropy, and the Founder and CEO of Decolonizing Wealth Project and its fund, Liberated Capital. His bestselling book, Decolonizing Wealth (2018, 2021), has been called a ‘wake-up call’ to philanthropy. Edgar advises a range of organizations, including national and global philanthropies, Fortune 500 companies, and entertainment on social impact strategies to advance racial equity from within and through their investment strategies.

In 2018, Edgar released his first book, Decolonizing Wealth, which offers hopeful and compelling alternatives to the dynamics of colonization in the philanthropic and social finance sectors. Due to the success of Decolonizing Wealth and the request for programs and education about decolonization,  Edgar launched the Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) in late 2018. 

In 2019, he founded Liberated Capital, a participatory grantmaking fund directed by DWP that invites individuals and organizations to give through a reparations model that trusts and supports the leadership of those most impacted by historical and systemic racism. The fund welcomes support from all who are committed to collectively healing the wounds of colonialism and white supremacy by using money as medicine to shape an equitable future. 

He holds two degrees from the Gillings Global School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Edgar is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and resides in New York City.

Natalie N. Maxwell (she/her)
Managing Attorney
National Housing Law Project (NHLP)

Natalie N. Maxwell is the Managing Attorney at the National Housing Law Project. Natalie’s work at NHLP focuses on preserving rural housing (with a focus on USDA’s Multifamily Housing programs), preserving housing for low-income tenants impacted by disasters, and protecting the fair housing rights of low-income tenants and communities. She provides training and technical assistance to legal aid attorneys and advocates working with low-income tenants, and engages in federal advocacy for program improvements to better serve tenants. 

Prior to joining NHLP, Natalie worked in the Florida legal aid delivery system, focused on housing programs and in particular rural housing, fair housing law, and subsidized housing programs. Her work included staffing the Statewide Domestic Violence Hotline, providing advice, brief services, and representation for survivors of domestic violence or other crimes on housing matters and conducting trainings on the housing rights of survivors of gender based violence for attorneys and DV and sexual assault service providers across the state. She is a graduate of the University of Florida and earned her law degree from the American University, Washington College of Law.

Debbie Fox (Dfox)
Senior Technical Assistance Provider Housing and
Community Development
The Cloudburst Group

Debbie Fox is a national leader in the survivor services violence field with over thirty years in the movement. Their areas of expertise include fundraising, organizational development, nonprofit administration, and survivor centered population-specific housing and homelessness technical assistance and training. They were an instrumental part of national efforts to expand federal housing protections and options for survivors and additional federal resources with federal appropriations and were instrumental in the passage of the HUD DV/SA Bonus Funds in 2018 and the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 2022. Since 2017, DFox provided leadership to the Safe Housing Partnership Technical Assistance Consortium, a multi-agency technical assistance consortium designed to improve survivors’ access to safe, affordable housing that centers survivors with lived expertise. She is considered a national expert at the intersection of domestic and sexual violence, data and confidentiality (Comparable Databases) homelessness, and housing. They have a BA from Indiana University and an MSW from the University of Texas both in Social Work.

Charlotte Granison, Esq
Housing Attorney
Colorado Poverty Law Project
Charlotte Granison, Esq. works with the Colorado Poverty Law Project representing tenants who face eviction, and other housing related legal issues. Prior to joining CPLP in 2023, she worked in a number of areas of public interest law, specifically, immigration, education, work with unaccompanied young people, and family law, specifically representing children who have experienced domestic violence. Charlotte is passionate about person centered and trauma informed advocacy, access to justice, and promoting policies that address systemic inequalities more acutely experienced by her clients.
Ariane Frosh (she/her)
Housing Attorney & Gender Advocacy in Housing Initiative Lead 
Colorado Poverty Law Project
Ariane Frosh, with a background in gender and reproductive justice, Ariane brings a client-centric and intersectional approach to her housing justice work at CPLP. Born and raised in Denver, Ariane is passionate about amplifying access to justice for the state’s most marginalized groups and believes that safe and secure housing is a foundational right of all Coloradans. Ariane leads CPLP’s Gender Advocacy in Housing Initiative, which provides trauma-informed and holistic advocacy for tenants who experience gender-based violence. Before law school, Ariane worked for Senator Michael Bennet and in the Obama Administration and clerked at the Colorado Court of Appeals prior to joining CPLP. Ariane earned her J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School and her bachelor’s degree from Beloit College.
 
Kim Pentico (she/her)
Senior Director of Economic Justice Program 
National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) 
Kim Pentico has been working with and on behalf of survivors of sexual and domestic violence since 1990. She first spent over seven years working for a local domestic violence program in Kansas and another seven years at the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. She has also worked for the STOP Technical Assistance Project in Washington, DC. Today, Kim works to ensure and enhance survivor access to economic justice and long-term safety.

Schedule

Day 1: Monday May 19th, 2025 

Day 2: Tuesday May 20th, 2025 

Day 3: Wednesday May 21st, 2025 

Download schedule Here!
Register Here!

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