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17th Annual Spring Symposium

May 24, 2023 @ 2:00 pm - 7:30 pm PDT

Free

It’s that time of year again! HAC’s 17th Annual Spring Symposium, presented by Suffolk, is taking place on Wednesday, May 24 where we’ll be streaming live from the Verizon Innovation Lab in downtown San Francisco.

With the theme of Innovation in Housing, Spring Symposium will feature conversations with housing experts from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors exploring new solutions to our region and state’s longstanding housing shortage and affordability challenges.

Following our virtual program, join us at SPARK Social SF to network and share ideas with pro-housing community leaders and advocates!

Interested in becoming a Spring Symposium sponsor? Learn about our event sponsorship benefits here

David Pai | Supervising Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice

David Pai is a Supervising Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice. He represents state agencies and officials on land use disputes arising from laws designed to boost housing production, ensure public access to California’s coastline, and protect natural habitats and waterways. He also litigated employment and public safety matters for over a decade. His practice mirrors the breadth of the State’s interests—from defending a state agency’s right to recover emergency response costs from DUI arrestees, to removing local constraints against housing developments, to defending the Coastal Act from regulatory takings challenges.

Erin Baldassari | Housing Affordability Reporter, KQED

Erin Baldassari covers housing for KQED. She’s a former print journalist and most recently worked as the transportation reporter for the Mercury News and East Bay Times. There, she focused on how the Bay Area’s housing shortage has changed the way people move around the region. She also served on the East Bay Times’ 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning team for coverage of the Ghost Ship Fire in Oakland. Prior to that, Erin worked as a breaking news and general assignment reporter for a variety of outlets in the Bay Area and the greater Boston area.

Jacob Adiarte | Director of Organizing, Nor Cal Carpenters Union

Jacob is the Director of Organizing for the Nor Cal Carpenters Union (NCCU) where he has spent 14+ years creating work opportunities for more than 37,000 carpenters, while building successful partnerships within the development & construction community. Jacob started as a Carpenter apprentice in 2002 and worked his way to Journeyman status as a member of Carpenters Union Local 713 in Hayward. In 2008, he was given the opportunity to fulfill an Organizer role for the NCCU Organizing Department where he now serves in his current capacity.

Xiomara Cisneros | Housing Affordability Manager, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Xiomara is manager of housing affordability for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where she supports CZI’s commitment to ensure everyone has access to safe, stable and affordable housing. Her experience includes various roles in community outreach and project management in the land use and commercial real estate industry, both in the nonprofit and private sector. Prior to joining the CZI, she was director of Bay Area Council’s housing policy initiative. Her experience also includes overseeing the public affairs program and entitlement strategy for some of the largest mixed-use developments in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a graduate of Lorry I. Lokey School of Business at Mills College and of University of California, Los Angeles. She is also on the board of the Housing Action Coalition, San Mateo County’s Housing Leadership Council, ULI’s Housing the Bay Steering Committee, San Francisco’s Community Investment Fund Advisory Board, and City of Alameda’s Planning Board.

Monte Wilson | Co-Founder/Program Director, Construction industry Workforce Initiative (CIWI)

Monte Wilson is the Co-Founder/Program Director of Construction Industry Workforce Initiative (CIWI). CIWI is a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives (a 501c(3)) and a privately funded initiative targeted to young urban adults (18 to 21 years old and enrolled in a two- to four-year college) from lower-income households, many that are first generation Bay Area college students. The program is committed to providing career development opportunities for students with an interest in Construction, Real Estate Development, Architecture and Engineering, Civic Engagement and Urban Design. To date, CIWI has delivered approximately 150 internships for BIPOC/First Generation college students, including placements for Richmond young adult residents.

Matt Smith | Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Factory_OS

Washington, D.C. born and raised, Matt relocated to California in 2020 to join the Factory_OS team. At Factory_OS, he currently serves as Vice President of Sales and Business Development. During his time at Factory_OS the team has grown immensely, having now completed 24 projects, 2,300+ units of housing for many of California’s largest private and non-profit developers. Matt takes pride in his responsiveness and relentlessly works for his clients.

Graciela Castillo-Krings | Partner, Sacramento Advocates

Graciela is a lobbyist with Sacramento Advocates, who brings more than 15 years of public service in California government, most recently as Deputy Legislative Affairs Secretary to Governor Jerry Brown.

During her time serving the Brown Administration, Graciela negotiated, directly briefed and advised the Governor on over 800 bills, and oversaw the regulatory implementation of legislation he chose to sign, including decriminalization of medicinal and adult-use cannabis, streamlining of forestry and landscape management practices to prevent future wildfires, and reforms catalyzing the development and construction of affordable and market-rate housing.

Graciela holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California, is a graduate of Hispanas Organized for Political Equality’s (HOPE) Leadership Institute, and is fluent in Spanish.

Ben Metcalf | Managing Director, Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley

Ben Metcalf is the Managing Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley where he leads the expansion and deepening of Terner Center’s work addressing housing affordability challenges through rigorous research and policy analysis. In addition, he holds an appointment as adjunct professor with UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning. And he serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Terner Housing Innovation Labs, Inc., a nonprofit organization formed to advance the applied innovation work of the Terner Center.