Staff Bios

About Damon Burns

Damon Burns is an executive leader and entrepreneur with experience spanning investment banking, affordable housing, economic development, climate sustainability, and financial technology. His professional career began in 2004 and includes time as a banker serving public agencies, launching a financial technology startup, and public-sector leadership.

Since July 2016, he has served as Chief Executive Officer of Finance New Orleans, a quasi-governmental green financial institution with a mission to invest in climate-resilient affordable housing and economic development projects that physically transform New Orleans.

About Blake Stanfill

Blake J. Stanfill, Sr. serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Finance New Orleans, where he leads the organization’s housing and climate finance programs, operations, and strategic initiatives. His work focuses on developing and deploying innovative financial tools that expand access to affordable housing, strengthen communities, and build a more resilient New Orleans.

Blake brings nearly two decades of experience spanning finance, investment, strategy consulting, entrepreneurship, government, and education. Throughout his career, he has worked across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to develop strategies, build organizations, deploy capital, and advance initiatives focused on economic and community development.

A fifth-generation New Orleanian, Blake has a longstanding commitment to the city and its institutions. He currently serves as Vice Chair of BioDistrict New Orleans and has previously served on boards supporting education, public policy, philanthropy, and community development. He also regularly participates in civic, career, and youth engagement initiatives.

Blake earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Finance from Tulane University, and a BA in Psychology from Duke University.

About Byron Badger

Byron Badger serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial & Technology Officer (CFTO) at Finance New Orleans, where he leads the agency’s finance, accounting, and technology functions. He oversees financial strategy, capital planning, and enterprise risk management, along with the technology initiatives including enterprise systems, business intelligence, and digital transformation — that support FNO’s mission of improving quality of life for New Orleanians through investment in affordable housing, economic development, and climate resilience.

Badger brings nearly two decades of experience in banking, public finance, and higher education. Prior to joining Finance New Orleans, he held leadership roles at Hancock Whitney and IberiaBank in investment portfolio management, asset-liability management, corporate treasury, and financial reporting, and later served in deputy CFO leadership within higher education. His expertise spans capital markets, fixed-income securities, credit analysis, and financial systems design across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Badger holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting, providing a strong foundation in financial analysis and institutional risk management. A native of New Orleans, Badger enjoys golf, traveling, cycling, exploring the city’s live music scene, and spending time with family.

About Annie Clark

Annie Clark is Chief Strategy and Partnership Officer at Finance New Orleans (FNO), where she leads organizational strategy, capitalization, and strategic partnerships. As a member of the leadership team, she helps expand Louisiana’s first green bank and mobilize investment in affordable housing, clean energy, and resilience projects. Her work focuses on leveraging innovative finance to advance equitable economic growth and climate adaptation across New Orleans.

With more than 20 years of experience in community development finance, public-sector infrastructure, and affordable housing, Annie specializes in capital formation, public-private partnerships, and complex project financing. Prior to joining FNO, she served as Chief Operating Officer for Educational Facilities Development within Louisiana’s Recovery School District, where she led implementation of a $2 billion School Facilities Master Plan that rebuilt and modernized 80 schools serving 55,000 students. She structured and closed more than $450 million in New Markets and Historic Tax Credits transactions and helped advance over $300 million in contracting opportunities for local BIPOC- and women-owned businesses.

Annie holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute. She serves on the boards of St. Augustine High School and the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission.

Originally from Washington, D.C., Annie has called New Orleans home for nearly 20 years and lives in Mid-City with her two sons. The city’s culture, resilience, and capacity for reinvention continue to shape both her professional leadership and civic engagement.

About Sydney Shivers

Sydney Shivers is a collaborative and creative urban planner with expertise in affordable housing policy and program design. Her experience spans over six years in leadership roles across various local governments and agencies. She has led zoning reforms, cross-sector and inter-agency coordination, and policy, program, and grant implementation.

In Summer 2024, Shivers joined the Finance New Orleans team to develop their growing suite of housing programs. In her prior position, she served as Director of Housing Policy for the City of Chattanooga, where she helped establish the City’s first housing policy team, working closely with the office managing HUD grants and program compliance. During this time, she led reforms to the City’s affordable housing tax incentive program and wrote seminal zoning incentives policy in the state of Tennessee. As Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Assets and Investment in New Orleans, Shivers led several initiatives aimed at creating equitable, inclusive, amenity rich neighborhoods, including stewardship of the Redevelopment Framework, a process for creating new housing opportunities on City-owned properties.

Shivers earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia and a Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

In her free time, she enjoys potlucks, cycling, catching live music, and walking her dog Toast on the Bayou!

About Shelia Mason Bailey

Shelia Mason Bailey serves as Program Specialist at Finance New Orleans, providing program and administrative support across all departments. She coordinates multifamily housing developments from project intake through closing, manages project documentation, tracks workflow, and collaborates with developers, public agencies, and internal stakeholders to facilitate financing transactions and ensure regulatory compliance. Through effective communication, organization, and problem-solving, she supports Finance New Orleans’ mission to expand, preserve, and strengthen affordable housing opportunities throughout the City of New Orleans.

Before joining Finance New Orleans, Ms. Bailey built a distinguished career spanning more than 40 years in banking and financial services, serving in management roles with responsibilities in banking operations, loan administration, document management, and regulatory compliance. She led enterprise-wide process improvements, implemented document imaging initiatives, developed policies and procedures, and managed operational departments to improve efficiency and strengthen internal controls. She also assisted with the management of loan portfolio documentation following a bank closure and later coordinated office operations and client services in the tax preparation industry.

Ms. Bailey earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola University New Orleans and completed the Graduate School of Banking and the Management Leadership Certification Program at Louisiana State University.

A lifelong New Orleans resident, Ms. Bailey is passionate about serving her community through affordable housing initiatives that create opportunities for individuals, families, and seniors. She values family and public service and belongs to several service organizations that reflect her commitment to community engagement and improving the quality of life for residents across the community.

About Brent Godfrey

Brent Godfrey is the Staff Attorney at Finance New Orleans, where he provides legal guidance on FNO’s policies, programs, and transactions. He also manages relationships with outside legal counsel and provides legal support to FNO’s executive team and board. His work advances FNO’s mission of climate-resilient affordable housing, clean energy, and community wealth building across New Orleans.

Brent has spent his career developing people and institutions capable of meeting hard problems, in settings ranging from public safety to legal education. He served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy, worked as a firefighter with the New Orleans Fire Department, and instructed for the National Outdoor Leadership School. He later taught first-year law students at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law as a Westerfield Fellow, where he also built new courses on the solidarity economy and on law and social change.

Brent holds a BA in History and a JD from Yale. He founded Crescent City Corps, a nonprofit that trained first responders in leadership and systems change. He serves on the board of Community Academies of New Orleans and is active with Cooperation New Orleans in efforts to grow the local solidarity economy.

Brent lives in Midcity with his wife, Rachel. He loves gathering people, losing himself in a good book, and trusting that time in nature will fix whatever needs fixing.

About Christopher Windon

Christopher Windon serves as Controller at Finance New Orleans, where he leads the organization’s accounting operations, financial reporting, budgeting, cash management, audit coordination, and internal control initiatives. He partners with executive leadership to strengthen financial strategy, enhance operational excellence, and ensure the responsible stewardship of resources that expand access to capital, foster neighborhood investment, and create lasting economic opportunity across New Orleans.

Christopher is a finance executive with more than 17 years of leadership experience spanning Big Four consulting, nonprofit finance, and executive operations. Before joining Finance New Orleans, he served as Chief Financial & Operational Officer at Sophie B. Wright Charter High School, where he managed a $9 million operating budget, led six consecutive successful financial audits, secured significant grant funding, and directed multiple operational departments. Earlier in his career, he held finance leadership roles with Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans and Collegiate Academies and spent six years with Deloitte advising organizations on internal controls, financial reporting, and operational effectiveness. His expertise includes financial strategy, budgeting and forecasting, governance, compliance, process improvement, and organizational leadership.

Christopher earned an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Louisiana State University and a Certificate in Education Finance from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He serves on the Board of the Special Education Leader Fellowship and is an active member of Education Leaders of Color.

A proud life-long New Orleanian, Christopher is passionate about strengthening communities through sound financial leadership. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son, exploring New Orleans’ renowned food scene, and mentoring young people as they prepare for college and future careers.

About Krista Lois Colson

Krista Lois Colson is a Compliance Manager at the Finance Authority of New Orleans, where she brings over 15 years of public, nonprofit, and private sector experience to the agency’s compliance and program oversight work.

Krista has spent her career at the intersection of community development, disaster recovery, and federal compliance.At the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, she administered a $29 million HUD Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant that helped create more than 450 affordable housing units across the city, in partnership with 14 developers. She went on to serve as a Senior Planner at Civix, where she led a housing study and supported program development and technical assistance for public sector clients on disaster recovery programs and projects including a market analysis and resilient infrastructure implementation for a major metropolitan area.

She holds a Master of Arts in Urban Planning from UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Washington, and she’s a Certified Planner (AICP) of the American Planning Association’s New Orleans chapter. Krista’s sweet spot is turning dense federal regulations into compliance systems that actually make sense to the people who have to use them day to day.

Outside the office, Krista has stayed just as engaged in her community. She’s volunteered as a classroom parent coordinator at a New Orleans public charter school and served on the board of Bike Easy. Today, she’s a Stewardship Committee Member at Rayne Memorial Methodist Church and co-leads her daughters’ Girl Scout troop.

About Danielle Meltz

Danielle Meltz serves as Resilience Program Manager at Finance New Orleans, where she is building out FNO’s infrastructure programs and supporting key operational efforts. With a decade in the solar industry spanning policy, business, and now finance, she’s drawn to how FNO sits at the intersection of resilience and housing.

Program management is Danielle’s zone of genius, and she’s practiced it across a wide range of sectors: solar, health care in West Africa, an entrepreneurship accelerator, and now community development finance. That breadth has given her a hands-on, adaptable approach to standing up new programs, no matter where the work sits. After 6 years in New Orleans, you can catch Danielle costuming, woodworking, or playing tennis around the city.

About Jacques Hawkins

Jacques Hawkins serves as the Single Family Program Manager at Finance New Orleans, where he leads the implementation of the agency’s resilient homeownership lending programs, borrower and contractor support, public outreach, and marketing. His work helps New Orleans residents access down payment assistance and affordable financing for energy-efficient and storm-ready home improvements.

With more than seven years of experience in neighborhood revitalization, land use, climate resilience, and community engagement, Jacques previously worked with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, and Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. His experience includes helping administer HUD-funded housing programs, processing homeowner applications, managing land bank and green infrastructure projects, providing technical assistance, and developing graphic content.

Jacques earned a Bachelor of Science in Urban Studies and Planning from the University of New Orleans, where he developed a deeper appreciation for the city’s distinctive architecture, rich culture, and neighborhood character. He continues to draw inspiration from the people and traditions that make New Orleans a special place to call home.

About Alfred Ripoll, IV

Alfred Ripoll serves as Financial and Risk Analyst at Finance New Orleans, where he works across the finance and program teams to support underwriting, financial modeling, portfolio analysis, and risk assessment. He helps connect the financial and programmatic teams in the organization, ensuring projects are evaluated effectively and aligned with Finance New Orleans’ mission of expanding access to capital and strengthening communities throughout New Orleans.

Alfred brings experience in financial services, research, and data analysis. Prior to joining Finance New Orleans, he worked as a Research Analyst and Registered Representative for a broker-dealer, where he evaluated investments and supported client decision-making through financial analysis and risk assessment. Drawing on his background in both finance and technology, Alfred specializes in financial modeling, underwriting, quantitative analysis, and translating complex data into actionable insights.

Alfred earned a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science with a minor in Finance from Princeton University. He holds the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) certification and FINRA Series 7 license. As an early-career professional, he is committed to applying analytical and financial expertise to support economic development and community investment initiatives.

A New Orleanian who’s roots trace back to the 1800s, Alfred has deep connections throughout Louisiana. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring the region’s parks and green spaces, including City Park, Lafreniere Park, the Mississippi River levee, and the Lake Pontchartrain waterfront.

About Sean Paul Martin

Sean Paul Martin serves as a Financial Analyst at Finance New Orleans, supporting underwriting, program development, risk analysis, capital markets advisory, and strategic projects across the organization. His work helps strengthen FNO’s financial sustainability and supports its mission to expand affordable housing opportunities and build a more resilient New Orleans for generations to come.

Sean Paul’s experience spans fixed income, public finance, and real estate capital markets. His work has included financial modeling, market research, investment analysis, and evaluating capital structures to support sound financing and investment decisions.

Sean Paul holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. He has also been involved in financial education and youth engagement, reflecting his interest in helping others build greater financial knowledge and opportunity.

A New Orleans East native, Sean Paul is deeply invested in the long-term sustainability and prosperity of his hometown. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling, spending time with family and friends, and experiencing live theater.