About Us
Proudly Black Owned
we proudly identify as a Black-owned company, and we celebrate the power of diversity, equity, and inclusion within our organization and throughout our network of partners.
Meet Our Team
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EK Douglass
Founder and Managing Partner
EK Douglass
EK (Elisse) Douglass is passionate about reimagining what Black economic opportunity can be, and she believes strongly in the connection between real estate, solidarity economies, and racial justice. She specializes in leveraging strategic investments, partnerships, and bold visions to create the neighborhood economic hubs of the future, making sure they are equitable, innovative, and reflective of the community they serve. Prior to launching BBF Co. she held several senior roles at regional developers in California focusing on institutional scale development projects totaling over 3M square feet and $2.5B in asset value for private equity, asset managers, and owner users. She also built a strong track record of designing and implementing creative financing for job-creating small, medium, and large Black-owned businesses through her development projects as well as impact investing roles in Oakland and New York. Ms. Douglass is a member of the Oakland SPUR Board of Directors and the ICA Fund Good Jobs Advisory Board. She was a 2020 advisor to Smart City X with Scrum Ventures. She was awarded the 2020 Community Advocate Award by the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce for her COVID relief efforts in service of the Black community in Oakland and was awarded the 2022 Bisnow Bay Area Power Women in Real Estate. Ms. Douglass holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business, where she was a Goldman Sachs Fellow, Robert M. Toigo Fellow, an MLT Fellow, a Haas Fellow, and a Consortium Graduate Fellow. Elisse holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from Columbia University in the City of New York.
Todd Hestand
Partner
Todd Hestand
Todd Hestand has over fifteen years’ experience in economic development, specializing in program design for maximum engagement of business support services. He designs equitable access programs that help minority audiences achieve upward personal and financial mobility utilizing a holistic framework of evidence-based intervention. Todd has developed and managed workshops, courses, one-on-one advising, accelerators, incubators, and various levels of grant and funding programs as well as community partnership development. He is adept at change management and building process structure from uncertainty in fast-paced environments. Recent program design has focused on business support programs for minority-owned development, construction, and retail cohorts. Prior work includes leading a ten-year research study on the efficacy and development of business support programs targeting minorities in urban environments. Prior to his work in economic development, Todd served as an operations and marketing consulting partner for a consulting agency and senior project director for an international market research firm.
Kim Carter
Program Director
Kim Carter
Kim Carter is a solutions-oriented and resourceful strategist who employs a creative approach to transforming visions into results. As the former Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Director of the Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Agency, which is a federal center operated by The Enterprise Center, Kim’s leadership guided the vision, policies, and programming with passion, purpose, and poise. Kim reached her goals of providing $50 million in procurement opportunities for minority owned businesses. She facilitated the launch of programs to increase and provide direct access to capital, developed a unique mentorship program, and leveraged corporate partnerships for the success of the Enterprise Center. Kim has worked on-the-ground to strengthen small businesses and commercial corridors, by providing access to capital, program management and contracts. Highlights of Kim’s work include serving as a critical member of a Philadelphia region ecosystem, where she advised corporate and government stakeholders on economic development strategies for small businesses, mobilized community resources, facilitated synergistic local partnerships, and tracked deliverables. She created opportunities to connect local entrepreneurs to procurement opportunities with the educational and medical institutions in the Philadelphia region. Kim is most proud of her work during the COVID-19 pandemic by helping small businesses access the Cares Act Funding and Public Assistance Dollars to help small and small diverse businesses recover from the has had catastrophic effects of COVID-19. A natural connector, Kim skillfully identified opportunities that has helped to increase urban neighborhood vitality, scale small businesses and managing strategic partnerships with a broad cross-section of stakeholders. Kim has an undergraduate degree from Temple University, an MBA from Drexel University and graduate of the Leading for Change Fellowship at Drexel University. Kim proudly serves on the following boards:
CHOP Community Cares Advisory Board -Member – 2020-2021
Haverford School Parents Association – Vice Chair – 2020-2021
Haverford School Parents Association – Chair – 2020-2022
Ronald McDonald House Board – Member 2021-2022, 2022-2023
CHOP Community Cares Advisory Board -Member – 2020-2021
Haverford School Parents Association – Vice Chair – 2020-2021
Haverford School Parents Association – Chair – 2020-2022
Ronald McDonald House Board – Member 2021-2022, 2022-2023
Russell Hicks
Business Coach
Russell Hicks
Russell A. Hicks is a passionate business leader, committed educator and visionary for sustainable impact in local communities around the world. Mr. Hicks is a social entrepreneur that teaches social entrepreneurship to youth, delivering 21st Century skill-sets, business planning and the triple bottom –line business model (People, Place and Profit). He serves as owner and C.E.O. of Ebony Suns Enterprises, LLC, a sustainable consulting business that provides program development for schools and non-profit organizations and project management for emerging private-sector companies in the green economy. Russell A. Hicks was born and raised in Chicago, IL. He has traveled to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Atlanta, Georgia, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin to train youth entrepreneurs, and established his business career in Philadelphia, PA.
Ebony Suns
Ebony Suns
TiYanna Long
Business Coach
TiYanna Long
TiYanna is a Business Strategist and Impact Coach focused on the sustainable development of livable cities. Armed with experience in finance, tech, and community development, she founded Medisi Ventures– a Business Development and Impact firm. She is also a licensed Realtor, and sit as Vice Chair of Oakland’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission. Her unique background, as well as her passion for community has enabled her to discover a niche that is vital to helping emerging markets avoid the trap that has befallen most industries in existence to date—being disadvantageous to the nation’s most vulnerable. TiYanna holds a Bachelor’s in Finance from San Francisco State and a Master’s Degree from NYU focused on Public Policy, Urban Development, and Social Entrepreneurship. She is locked in on innovation through cross-sector partnerships so every one can thrive where they reside.
Musu
Project Manager
Musu
Before joining BBF Co., Musu earned a Master of Science in Social Policy and Data Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania. Musu’s research has focused on the intersection of community development, juvenile justice, and education. Prior to attending Penn, Musu received a BBA in Legal Studies and a minor in Africana and African American Studies at Temple University. During her time in between Temple and Penn, Musu spent three years working in education, first as a teacher and then as a Business Operations Specialist for PHLpreK where she built tools and curriculum to supply technical assistance and back-office support for PHLpreK site directors and owners. During her time at Penn, Musu spent two semesters researching twelve mid to large med, eds, arts and culture organizations, regionally and nationally for the Inclusion Project to advance its mission of promoting Black philanthropy by increasing the number of African Americans (AA’s) serving on the Boards of Directors of non-profit organizations. Musu also spent summer 2021 researching racialized fear in the City of Philadelphia and its relationship to students coming to Penn. In her final semester at Penn, Musu served as the PHLpreK Evaluation Intern for the City of Philadelphia conducting data analysis to evaluate the PHLpreK program. In her off time, Musu enjoys hiking, baking, and trying new restaurants. Musu also enjoys true crime and psychology podcasts.
Daniel Fireside
Impact Capital Fundraising
Daniel Fireside
Daniel focuses on raising mission-aligned and reparative capital. As founder of Uncommon Capital Solutions, Daniel has raised tens of millions of dollars for a variety of community-based initiatives, including major real estate projects in Los Angeles and Baltimore.Daniel has spent most of his career raising non-extractive, mission-aligned financing in both the non-profit and impact business worlds, including over a decade as the Capital Coordinator for Equal Exchange, and more recently as the director of fundraising for Downtown Crenshaw Rising in Los Angeles. He speaks and writes frequently on cooperatives and alternative financing
BA, University of California at Santa Cruz, Master of Regional Planning, Cornell University
Board service: Namaste Solar, Equal Exchange,Cooperative Fund of New England
https://ownershipmatters.net/newsletter-item/daniel-fireside-funding-the-revolution-cooperative-capital-ecosystem-part-one/
https://ownershipmatters.net/newsletter-item/daniel-fireside-on-funding-the-revolution-mission-aligned-capital-part-two/
BA, University of California at Santa Cruz, Master of Regional Planning, Cornell University
Board service: Namaste Solar, Equal Exchange,Cooperative Fund of New England
https://ownershipmatters.net/newsletter-item/daniel-fireside-funding-the-revolution-cooperative-capital-ecosystem-part-one/
https://ownershipmatters.net/newsletter-item/daniel-fireside-on-funding-the-revolution-mission-aligned-capital-part-two/
Elizabeth Moriarty
Fundraising and Strategic Partnerships
Elizabeth Moriarty
Elizabeth Moriarty is a chaplain, entrepreneur, organizer, strategic advisor, storyteller and fundraiser for congregations and community institutions who want to build power and take action on systemic injustice in their local communities, with a particular focus on economic justice and reparations. Currently, she works as an advisor for the Lawndale Christian Development Corporation in Chicago, IL, in support of their audacious Campaign for Reclaiming North Lawndale. Based in Greenfield, NH, she is serving as the “Organizer-in-Residence” at the Bishop Barbara C. Harris Episcopal Camp and Conference Center, a ministry of the dioceses in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
She has held a variety of grassroots direct service and ministry jobs including as a Catholic Worker, jail chaplain, hospice chaplain, addiction recovery resident manager, as well as leadership roles in large institutions, including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago (246 parishes; 191 schools; 700+clergy; ~10,000 employees; ~$4 billion in assets), where she served as the Operations Manager for the Chief Operating Officer and Vicar General, and later as the Cardinal’s Director of Leadership Gifts.
Trained as an organizer by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in broad-based, interfaith institutional organizing,, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, as well as Master’s degrees in Divinity and Business from the University of Notre Dame. She is discerning a call to ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church and in May 2023 will receive a Certificate in Anglican Studies from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
She has held a variety of grassroots direct service and ministry jobs including as a Catholic Worker, jail chaplain, hospice chaplain, addiction recovery resident manager, as well as leadership roles in large institutions, including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago (246 parishes; 191 schools; 700+clergy; ~10,000 employees; ~$4 billion in assets), where she served as the Operations Manager for the Chief Operating Officer and Vicar General, and later as the Cardinal’s Director of Leadership Gifts.
Trained as an organizer by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in broad-based, interfaith institutional organizing,, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, as well as Master’s degrees in Divinity and Business from the University of Notre Dame. She is discerning a call to ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church and in May 2023 will receive a Certificate in Anglican Studies from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
J’ean Eason
Partner
J’ean Eason
Founder, Main Source Real Estate Broker, CCIM Candidate, SRES, Investment Analysis Expert
20 years of experience in the real estate industry, specializing in the Oakland market as an Investor, Project Manager, Developer, and Owner for in Multi Family, Single Family Residence (SFR) with deferred maintenance, Commercial, and Mixed use properties
20 years of experience in the real estate industry, specializing in the Oakland market as an Investor, Project Manager, Developer, and Owner for in Multi Family, Single Family Residence (SFR) with deferred maintenance, Commercial, and Mixed use properties
Robert Ogilve
Partner
Robert Ogilve
OgilvieLabs helps people create places, institutions and communities in which they can learn, grow and work together to lead more prosperous lives and create a more fair, thriving and equitable society.
Ogilve Labs
Ogilve Labs
“THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE”
Alisha B. Wormsley
An interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer based in Pittsburgh, PA.
Our Vision
Our vision for BBF Co. is to establish a national infrastructure that replicates the mission of Black church building funds [link to history of black building funds section] through real estate, entrepreneurship, and solidarity economy principles. By serving the full religious, economic, and cultural diversity of Black people in America today, we aim to build the tools, strategies, and capital that support a new future for Black growth, resilience, and joy.