People

NC3’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Chris Miller

Special Projects Consultant, PlaneWave Instruments Chief Executive Officer, NC3
Location: Michigan

A founding board member of NC3, Chris led the establishment of Michigan's investment crowdfunding law in 2013. Today, as founder and principal of StreetSense Consultants and NC3 Chief Executive Officer, Chris is focused on new community capital projects and is working with the Michigan legislature on a first-in-the-nation state law that would provide an income tax credit to every Michigan citizen who invests in any Michigan business.

Chris is also the Special Projects Consultant for PlaneWave instruments in Adrian, MI. PlaneWave is the global leader in the design and manufacture of high-tech observatory class telescopes and is also a committed and energized community partner, investing in and hosting community organizations, businesses and events. PlaneWave is committed to creating a strong and equitable local economy and a vibrant place to live.

Michaela (Mica) Fisher

Project and Operations Manager, Start.coop
Location: New York

Mica is an organizer and advocate for economic democracy. At Start.coop she leads our fiscal sponsorship program and oversees the processes and systems that allow Start.coop to grow beyond the startup phase.

Mica has deep experience with cooperative development, having previously been the Managing Director for NC3 and having managed NYC’s Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative.

Based in NYC, Mica originally hails from Southern California and is learning to love seasons on the East Coast. Outside of work, you can find her gardening, reading, going to see a movie at a local theater, or listening to one of her favorite podcasts.

Brian Beckon

Managing Attorney, PathLight Law
Secretary, NC3
Location: California

Brian is an attorney with thirty years of experience working for nonprofits, start-ups, and publicly-traded companies. As a principal of PathLight Law, based in Oakland, California, Brian’s work is focused on direct public offerings, corporate structuring, and strategies for community capital to help build a more equitable economy. Brian has served as General Counsel for RSF Social Finance and Clean Power Finance; and before that as Corporate Counsel for Sybase and Catellus Development Corporation. He earned his J.D. from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law and started his legal career with the North Bay law firm of Gaw Van Male. Brian is a member of the California Bar and also serves on the boards of Neto Community Network and Cowell Homeowners Association.

Judith Benkert

Active Retired
Location: Michigan

As an Adrian Dominican Sister, Judith has ministered in the health care field in Nursing and as a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) and Nurse Practitioner (NP). Her ministry has taken her to Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and Oakland California. Judith became a member of the clinical faculty with the University of California San Francisco, Midwifery Education Program.

Judith has also lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil and later, on sabbatical, ministered in rural Guatemala in the cultural home of the refugees she was seeing in Clinical midwifery in San Francisco.

Judith retired from clinical work to accept a position in leadership for our Congregation. Later, she remained in San Francisco volunteering with seniors and homeless men and women. Judith returned to Adrian, MI in April of 2022.

Eric Davis

Chief Investment Officer, Revalue
Chief Operating Officer - Project DIAMOnD, Automation Alley
Treasurer, NC3
Location: Michigan

Eric is a licensed Investment Advisor and the Chief Investment Officer and Principal at Revalue, a B Corp values-based investment advisory firm and leader in the community capital movement. Eric studied at Eastern Michigan University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and an MBA with a specialty in Finance. During his time in college, Mr. Davis played on the Eagles’ football team, eventually earning a scholarship and becoming a captain by his senior year. He blends his curiosity about how companies execute their strategy with how analysts determine their actual value, not just their stock price, in his analyst work at Revalue. He is also grateful to be with a company that can align his skills in finance towards impacting local communities. In addition to providing investment research at Revalue, Eric is an assistant facilitator at PCS Insight, the Technology Investment Analyst at Automation Alley, Systems and Support Analyst at MVS Alliance, and the Offensive Coordinator for Southgate Anderson High School Football team. Mr. Davis has passed Level II of the CFA Program.

Topiltzin Gomez

Honeycomb Credit
Location: New York

Topiltzin Gomez has professional experience in technology, entrepreneurship, and community developments Topiltzin's professional passion is to create new markets that align financial success with social progress.

Topiltzin sits on the board of the Lake County Community Foundation, the Adelante Center for Entrepreneurship, and the National Coalition for Community Capital. Topiltzin is a graduate of Yale College where he studied Ethics, Politics, and Economics.

Jenan Jondy

REI Coordinator, Michigan State University's Center for Community and Economic Development
Location: Michigan

Jenan Jondy is the REI Coordinator at Michigan State University's Center for Community and Economic Development. A Flint native, Jenan has dedicated herself to promoting systemic equity in local communities. Her career spans over two decades in outreach, resource development, and program development, with contributions at both national and international levels. Jenan co-founded the Sylvester Broome Empowerment Village (SBEV) and played a role in its response to the Flint water crisis, including establishing health clinics for residents. Jenan continues to work with students from underserved communities in pursuing higher education. Her experience with low-income populations, including refugees and immigrants, has shaped her approach to economic and social issues.

Outside of her professional life, Jenan enjoys outdoor activities and traveling.

Angela Barbash

Chief Operating Officer, Revalue
Location: Michigan

Angela is a mom, anthropologist, entrepreneur, and an unabashed challenger of the status quo. She has dedicated over 20 years in service as an investment advisor in the Metro Detroit region, including founding Revalue as a values-driven investment firm in 2013. Angela has contributed countless hours to field building, public education, and infrastructure development to help build a more compassionate industry centered on solidarity economy principles. You will often find her educating on the topics of financial resiliency, community capital, and conscious business management. When she’s not
sleeping and breathing regenerative finance, she can be found
playing with her husband and two kids, enjoying the fresh air of the outdoors, or playing D&D with her family.

Pablo Bravo Vial

Retired
Location: San Francisco

A trusted ‘action-producer’ of more than 30 years, Pablo has assembled countless local and regional networks to build health and prosperity frameworks for the disadvantaged while serving as a beacon for capital flow. As System Vice President of CommonSpirit Health, Pablo created and implemented a strategic roadmap, creating one community health department while advising the successful merger of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiative. Simultaneously, he shepherded more than $500M in investments to 89 organizations nationwide. He co-founded Health Anchor Network and Religious Communities Impact Fund and is currently on the Board Loan Committee at Primary Care Development Corporation.

Pablo is fluent in Spanish and earned his BS in Economics, MPA, and Masters in Humanities from the University of San Francisco, Financial Analysis Certificate from Harvard University, an Endowments Management Certificate from the Yale School of Management, and Nonprofit Lending Certificate from the National Community Lending School. Pablo was born in Chile and lives in San Francisco with his partner of 28 years. He has a true love for travel (20+ countries to date) and spends his spare time bike riding, fishing, skiing, reading, watching old movies, and spending time with the other joy of his life, (dog species) named x.

NC3’S STAFF:

Katharine Gilman

Director of Operations
Location: Durham, NC

Katharine comes to the world of community capital with a passion for rebuilding connections with what sustains us. Writing her thesis on effective practices for community organizing, Katharine worked to start a public charter high school in rural Maine following college. This experience exposed her to the intersection of local organizing, educating young people, and creating an ecologically-grounded institution. This allowed her to explore one outlet of her interest in community-level sustainability and governance. From this, Katharine became more interested in the economic systems that dictate the infrastructure through which communities make decisions, bringing her to the work of community capital and NC3. With community-rooted leadership and systems thinking, Katharine looks to support communities with clear access points to NC3 and the tools of community capital.

NC3's Economic Recovery Corps Fellow

Sydney Davis

ERC Fellow
Location: Kalamazoo, MI

Sydney is a Western University Michigan grad, mom of 2 and Kansas City Chiefs fan (her hometown). She is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs and with her technical expertise and commitment to innovation, she is a dynamic force for economic development transformation. When she moved to Michigan, she fell in love with the community and has dedicated her work around it through non-profit leadership in Kalamazoo, being a main street business owner in Downtown Jackson and running a tech startup out of Detroit. She has raised community and VC capital, had 2 exits and now manages investment funds to accelerate tech startup growth in Michigan. The work of NC3 is very much aligned with her area of expertise and passion.

Sydney is excited to work with NC3 to develop a community capital curriculum that can serve as a roadmap for Entrepreneurship Support Organizations (ESOs) across Michigan, and promote community capital investment success stories to help others embrace this vision. Sydney is excited to work with NC3 through 2027.

NC3's Student Intern

Jenna Salhab

NC3's Student Intern
Location: Lansing, MI

Jenna Salhab is NC3's Intern as well as a Research Assistant for MSU’s Center for Community and Economic Development for Regional and Economic Innovation (REI). She is also a third-year Information Science major at Michigan State University with minors in Computer Science and Information Technology. She is primarily interested in the intersection of technology and social innovation, aiming to use her skills to drive positive change in community welfare and sustainable development. Outside her academic pursuits, Jenna is actively involved in student organizations, serving as Assistant Director on the UX team for VIM Fashion Magazine and as Director of Design for CULTR Magazine at MSU. Jenna is eager to deepen her knowledge in the field of technology-driven social change.