Serves as Lead Developer managing the development process. With residential portfolio management exceeding $5M+. Her role as a community developer identifies opportunity gaps and uses construction work(s) to generate employment access for varied contractors in the housing industry to increase quality, housing options.

Since 2000, her work with public and private sectors leveraged capital to benefit small businesses, commercial developers, and diverse neighborhood capacity building organizations. Kimberly works for Renasant Bank as the Louisiana Community Development Officer, and previously worked for Woodforest National Bank, the U.S. Peace Corps in Lesotho, Southern Africa, Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans, HRI Properties, the City of New Orleans Office of Community Development & Recovery Management, Orleans Parish Public Schools, and Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council. The latter organization won an International Economic Development Council Honorable Mention Award for data analysis and application. Kimberly’s works have coordinated $100M+ in public-private, program and project management.

Palesa COO & CDC Secretary, providing business development and operational guidance.

Marcus is also co-owner of Calvin Braxton FORD in Lockport, Louisiana. With 20+ years of management experience in the Sales and Finance Departments. He was a Finance Director for 10 years and has been a General Manager for 4+ years. At peak performance, his skills guided 120+ employees with an annual sales goal of $30M+. His leveraged finance and management experience strengthens Palesa’s service delivery.

Owner of Successful Endeavors, a five-plex retail center in New Orleans, LA. with annual lease and sales revenue of $1.3M+.

Ronn not only employs 20+ people in the food/beverage industry, which at a peak height operated 3 Chicken-n-Watermelon Restaurants and Jazz Daiquiris, his firm leases retail space to two organizations with cultural significance: Operation Restoration “The Closet,” which provides services to formerly incarcerated women and The Beautiful Creole Apache, a masking Indian store.

Since 2016, through a true partnership in leadership with his management team, the company’s non-profit arm, Help Me Help You, has mentored countless neighborhood youth and donated $70K+ to youth and supportive service non-profit organizations through book sack and toy drives, and essay writing monetary award contests.

Help Me Help You Partners

• YWCA
• Eleanor McMain Secondary School
• Esperanza Academy Charter School
• Frederick Douglas Highschool
• Broadmoor Improvement Association Night Out Against Crime

Charmaine is an arts advocate whose career includes work as a past performing artist, professional dancer; dancing with the Kris Cangelosi Dance Company. She views the arts as a contributing factors to Community Development and Education.

Charmaine has an eclectic and diverse teaching background, beginning as an Ameri-Corp volunteer teacher and subsequently teaching in various schools throughout New Orleans for 15+ years. She is a former Parent Educator with the Louisiana Department of Health and former New Orleans charter school board member.

Charmaine serves as the Girl Scouts Louisiana East (Region 4) Membership Recruiting Specialist where she continues to advance the mission of “helping to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.”

Charmaine hopes to utilize the rich, diverse culture of New Orleans to create innovative solutions to community problems. She also continues to serve in multiple roles at Mt. Herman Baptist Church.

Trapolin-Peer Architects is the Deer Park Housing Development Architect.

As principal of Trapolin-Peer Architects, Paula Peer, applies her 33 years of practice to many of the firm’s new construction and renovation projects. Her experience with large, complex projects has allowed the firm’s work to expand regionally and solidify the firm’s reputation as a leader in sustainable, adaptive, re-use and new urban in-fill development.

Paula emerged as a leader among her peers in the architecture community, as well as a trusted advisor to city and business leaders. She is active in numerous committees and organizations with a focus on historic preservation, urban land use practices, and sustainable design.

A few notable projects of the firm’s portfolio include:

• 1100 Annunciation
• Dillard University Student Housing
• Four Seasons Hotel & Residences New Orleans
• James Ms. Singleton Head Start Center
• Sazerac House
• Emeril’s Delmonico
• Son of a Saint

Evans + Lighter Landscape Architecture is the Deer Park Housing Landscape Architect.

Joe specializes in ecological systems design and contributes technical and management expertise to sustainable development, renewable energy technologies, and regenerative landscape design. As a Horticulturist, LEED AP BD+C, and a Certified Perma culturalist, he is a designer and project manager to projects with a focus on sustainability. Joe's interdisciplinary background in fine arts provides a unique contribution to teams that are exploring opportunities to advance and innovate standard practice.

Joe creates large scale ecological installation art, some of which has been featured recently in New Orleans at the Contemporary Arts Center, Art for Art's Sake, DesCours, Colton Studios and Prospect 1. He has been funded by a grant from the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation for his work in developing innovative stormwater strategies and was a Creative Alliance of New Orleans resident artist at the Colton Studios. He was recently honored as one of Gambit Weekly's 40 under 40 and is a Fellow of Loyola University's Institute of Environmental Communications.

Joe has served as the Board President of Groundwork New Orleans, a regional branch of Groundwork USA supported by the Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Program and the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program. Is a member of the Horizon Initiative Water Committee, the New Orleans Water Collaborative, and has served on the board of the New Orleans Healing Center. In addition, Joe has served as an expert for the AIA's Center for Communities by Design, Sustainable Design Assessment Teams, and serves as a consultant to many local urban farming initiatives.

“Sandi” Stroud serves as the Project Manager for the Deer Park Housing Development.

With over thirty years of experience as a real estate professional specializing in community engagement, project feasibility, financial analysis, project management and development, Ms. Stroud has worked on project feasibility, financial analysis, and project and development management for commercial, mixed use development and multi-family housing in Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Georgia, Florida, New York, Michigan, New Orleans, Louisiana and other cities in the Gulf Coast Region.

Alexandra Stroud has successfully supported the creation of over 30,000 units of housing and mixed-use development. Ms. Stroud has managed the acquisition and entitlement process for complex acquisitions that have included federal and state agencies including FEMA, VDOT, HUD, various City Planning Divisions (Leesburg, VA; Arlington, VA; Washington DC; New Orleans, LA; Alexandria, VA; Rockville, MD; Montgomery County, MD), Orleans Parish Sewerage and Water Board, various city utility agencies and other municipal agencies as needed. She has closed $300 million in loans and financing and sought both public and private pre-development and equity financing.

As an experienced architect as well as real estate professional, Ms. Stroud is uniquely qualified to meld the spatial and financial criteria to a range of project types in the public and the private sector. She specializes in taking the project from acquisition, team development and financial feasibility through to completion. In addition, her understanding of the differing priorities between the public and the private sector allows her to leverage partnerships and assist public sector agencies with strategically leveraging their assets and making sound financial deals.

Serves as Palesa Development Consultant for the Deer Park Housing Development with a focus on public policy and financial analysis.

As owner of REO, LLC, Steven provides real estate advisory, research, cash flow projections, development pro formas, civic engagement, deal structuring, and advisory in housing financial programs His legislative advocacy, policy and data analysis have assisted women and minority communities statewide in garnering increased access to government contract opportunities.

Steven provides charitable, Board of Director services with the following:

• City of New Orleans Industrial Development Board Member
• City of New Orleans Business Alliance Board Member
• Broadmoor Community Connections Board Member
• French Market Corporation Finance Committee Board Member