Staff

Steve Hall brings more than 20 years of small business lending, banking, and community development experience to LISC where he coordinates the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund’s work with small- and mid-sized businesses, government agencies, and community development organizations. He directs efforts that help the fund channel capital to small business owners. Additionally, he works to recruit financial industry, local banking, philanthropic, and CDFI partners, and provide technical assistance to help entrepreneurs and lenders succeed in the effort to grow, build wealth, and fortify communities.

Steve has executive-level lending experience in both the private and nonprofit sectors guiding small businesses in research, strategy, and maximizing social impact. Prior to joining LISC, Steve headed efforts at Accion Chicago to support micro-, small-, and medium-sized businesses by providing greater access to lending. At Charter One Bank, he worked as a regional manager.

Steve has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida A&M University and has completed an executive education program in financial inclusion at the Harvard Business School.

Jessica Hanmer supervises commercial and small business portfolios, while keeping the LISC’s local offices, CDFI partners, and other stakeholders informed of the organization’s programs. She raises grant funding for credit enhancement and directs quarterly and annual compliance reporting for LISC small business grant funds.

Jessica has a MA in public administration from George Washington University, an MS in real estate development and finance from George Mason University in addition to a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Boston University.

Vanessa Rodriguez Aguirre joined LISC in August 2020 as Small Business Program Officer and Underwriter. Vanessa has over 15 years of business banking experience ranging in roles from sales, underwriting, and administration. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from DeVry University and an MBA with a focus in Finance from Keller Graduate School. She utilizes her experience to help support small business lending and programing. Vanessa lives in the west suburbs of Chicago. She is an active volunteer in her community. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, taking care of her plants and crocheting.  

Alyssa Alfonso supports the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund’s (EOCF) work on reporting and training opportunities. In addition, she supports marketing efforts to highlight the work of EOCF CDFIs and borrowers across the country. 

Before joining LISC and the EOCF program, Alyssa was a Fulbright Fellow in Can Tho, Vietnam, where she taught English at a high school on the Mekong Delta. Her work prior focused on expanding access to financing for ADUs as a missing-middle housing option in Washington, DC. Alyssa holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Economics from Georgetown University. 

In her role, Michelle supports the team’s contract and grant compliance, credit enhancement tracking, monitoring small business inquiries to smallbusiness@lisc.org, and pulling credit and CLEAR reports. Michelle comes to LISC with experience in banks, cost planning, and quoting. Most recently, she worked at a furniture company where she worked with vendors and clients to provide cost estimates. She is excited to bring my background in administrative work and planning to support small businesses. She is originally from Chicago and recently moved to Fort Worth, TX. She loves all things film/television/books, including in depth interviews with creators and writers. At the beginning of the pandemic, her family watched all the movies in the MCU and now go see the latest films and tv shows together. As a side hustle, she builds IKEA furniture and help people with packing for moves.  

Mina will serves as a liason between EOCF CDFI partners, our IT team and program staff to continually improve our EOCF Salesforce system and data entry process. As a part of the Lending team, Mina facilitates communication between various lending functions and staff to understand the business needs of the Lending process. By conducting business process meetings, reviewing / researching process-related information and observing how lending is done, she clarifies business needs using data insight and a deep understanding of business processes and areas for improved efficiency. She further documents requirements shared with IT and participates in testing various modules with IT and Lending to identify improvements and changes. 

David supports LISC program offices in their small business lending and outreach efforts. With that, he brings a dedication to carrying out LISC’s mission of inclusion, a belief in the power of opportunity provided by supporting entrepreneurship, and the interest of witnessing small businesses' role in community development. David’s previous experience also centered on entrepreneurship and community resource connection, through microlending and technical assistance opportunities for small businesses.  David loves exploring through travel and music, and daily adventures with his wife, kids, and dog.

Jay Bennett is an experienced leader with a demonstrated ability to develop strategic relationships with minority business owners and local/regional stakeholders, all while striving to make a positive social impact within traditionally underserved communities. As senior business development officer at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), he is responsible for sourcing and structuring small business loans transactions. Prior to LISC, Jay spent eight years at Advantage Capital where he originated New Market Tax Credit business loans. During that time, he had the opportunity to travel across the country sourcing new business deals. That experience taught him that minority entrepreneurs in both urban and rural communities suffered from a lack of access to flexible capital necessary to take advantage of business growth opportunities. Jay’s main priority as a social impact focused lender is to help minority business owners source “smart” capital to drive their business in creating wealth and opportunity for their families, their employees, and their communities. When not talking to business owners, Jay enjoys spending time with his wife and two kids.

Tamara Underwood joined LISC in May 2022 as a Small Business Underwriter on the LISC Economic Development Lending Team. Prior to LISC, Tamara was a market manager at Pursuit, a non-bank SBA 504, 7a & CDFI lender operating in NY, NJ and PA. She was responsible for loan underwriting and business development. She also launched and directed a microloan and technical assistance program at NY based CDFI, Community Capital and worked in research for the European Microfinance Network based in Paris, France. Before discovering the world of small business lending, Tamara pursued a career in international development at NGO’s focused on health, agro/pastoral and community development in Africa. Tamara has a BA in Political Economy and a minor in French from UC Berkeley and an MA in International Economics & African Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Karen Bennett is our Small Business & Commercial Underwriter covering the Southeast and Southwest and working out of Phoenix, Arizona. Prior to joining LISC, Karen spent eight years as Vice President, Small Business Underwriting Manager at Mutual of Omaha Bank. Karen created the enterprise-wide, centralized Small Business, SBA and Consumer Underwriting Unit at Mutual of Omaha Bank supporting the branch network throughout the United States. Prior to working at Mutual of Omaha Bank, Karen was a Relationship Manager in Business Banking at Wells Fargo and Arizona Business Bank. Karen has 25 years of business lending experience and graduated from Pacific Coast Banking School.

Lily holds an MBA from Boston University with a concentration in Non-Profit Management, and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois. Lily’s previous work experience includes jobs at Byline Bank and Accion Chicago, where she worked in SBA lending and microfinance. Lily lives in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago and spends her time playing with her two young sons, reading, and playing board games with her husband and friends.