Speakers and Panelists

Andreanecia Morris: KEYNOTE speaker

Andreanecia M. Morris serves as Executive Director for HousingNOLA, a 10-year public private partnership working to end New Orleans’ affordable housing crisis. The 10-year Strategy and Implementation Plan is a comprehensive and radical strategy guided by data and community input to address systemic inequity issues in housing. Morris has spent her career working in various parts of the housing system since graduating from Loyola University New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, she implemented programs that created over 500 first time homebuyers, secured $104.5 million soft second subsidy for Metro New Orleans, and provided supportive services for approximately 5,000 households. Morris also holds a MA in Community Development Policy and Practice from the University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy.

Morris was lead organizer for the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (GNOHA) when it started in 2007 and now serves as its President. GNOHA’s advocacy supported members and partners in developing approximately 88,000 housing opportunities between 2006 and 2015 in New Orleans. Now, GNOHA supports efforts to preserve and create affordable housing — placing a special emphasis on the needs of the most vulnerable in society.

Gambit Weekly named Morris New Orleanian of the Year for her role in HousingNOLA’s innovative strategy in 2017. In 2021, Consumer Federation of America (CFA) named her one of its five Consumer Champions. Most recently, the University of New Hampshire chose to celebrate and spotlight Morris’ work through its 2023 Sustainability Awards program. Morris was one of five alumni honored by the program which recognizes significant multi-year body of work in the professional or civic lives of alumni. Morris also chairs the HousingLOUISIANA Alliance Network; serves on the boards of Finance Authority of New Orleans (FANO), Energy Wise and Grounded Solutions Network and serves Prosperity Now Policy Advisory Committee and the community advisory committees for Capital One and Cadence Bank.

Jackson Smith

Jackson M. Smith is proud to join Bastion as its new Executive Director. After growing up in Washington, D.C., Jackson moved to New Orleans in 2003 and has called the city his home ever since. A graduate of Tulane University, Jackson was commissioned into the U.S. Marine Corps in 2008. He served on active duty for the next eight years as an infantry officer, completing two deployments to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011 followed by additional deployments around the world. In 2011 he was recognized as the Second Marine Division’s Platoon Commander of the Year.

In 2015, fed up with missing every Mardi Gras and Saints season, Jackson returned home to New Orleans to attend Tulane Law School on the GI Bill. While in law school he met his future wife Leigh, and the two were married in 2020. Earlier this year they welcomed their first child, Adele, who has been the center of their universe ever since. Coming to Bastion after several years as an attorney, Jackson is overjoyed at the opportunity to take part in America’s first intentional community for recovering veterans and their family members.

It is his honor and privilege to serve those who have given so much in service of this country and to do so as part of an organization that is, from humble beginnings here on Mirabeau Avenue, blazing a bold new trail in the world of veterans’ care.

Cashauna Hill

Cashauna joins the Redress Movement after serving as Executive Director of one of the most active fair housing advocacy groups in the country, the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center (formerly known as the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center). At LaFHAC, she led a team working holistically to end discriminatory housing policies and practices through litigation, policy advocacy, community-based educational offerings, and other direct services to community members.

As an advocate, leader, and litigator with personal connections to the impacts of residential segregation and exclusionary housing policy, her work as Executive Director included leading the community engagement process for the City of New Orleans’ 2016 Assessment of Fair Housing plan – the first in the nation submitted under a 2015 rule requiring state and local governments to identify and address barriers to fair housing choice.

Additionally, her background includes successful resolution of fair housing and lending claims through administrative and court processes. Cashauna has written extensively about housing segregation and civil rights and has testified before the United States Congress as a fair housing expert. Most importantly, for the Redress Movement, Cashauna brings her commitment to racial justice and a deep understanding of racial segregation and fair housing innovation. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Tulane University’s Law School.

Jonathan Leit

Jonathan is a real estate developer and urban planner focused on implementing redevelopment projects in partnership with community-based organizations. Since joining Alembic in 2006, Jonathan has worked in low-income communities to build joint venture partnerships with nonprofit organizations and to leverage public and private investment for affordable housing, nonprofit facilities and commercial spaces. In particular, he has financed the adaptive reuse of vacant historic buildings and brownfield sites into mixed-use developments, utilizing New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, Low Income Housing Tax Credits and other local, state and federal programs.

Jonathan holds a master's in city Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Rockefeller Fellow through the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence. He also serves on nonprofit boards in New Orleans and was an Adjunct Lecturer in Tulane University’s Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development program.

Oji Alexander

Prior to assuming the leadership role at People’s Housing+, Oji served as the Executive Director of Home By Hand (one of three organizations that merged to form PH+). In his role at Home By Hand, Oji led the development and sale of over 200 new, energy-efficient, storm-resistant homes and has facilitated the return of over 300 vacant and blighted properties to tax commerce in the neighborhoods throughout New Orleans. Home by Hand re-defined the method of design and delivery of affordable housing to low-and moderate-income homebuyers and is at the forefront of implementing stormwater management and green infrastructure into residential homes.

Oji is a resident of the Oak Park neighborhood in Gentilly and is an active community member. He is a Propeller Incubator Alumnus and currently serves on the board of CASA New Orleans, a non-profit organization that fights for the rights of abused and neglected children. He also currently serves on the Enterprise Community Partners Community Leadership Council, the Advisory Board of AMCREF Community Capital Center, and the National Community Stabilization Trust – Homeownership Alliance and is a member of the Center for Community Investment – Fulcrum Fellowship Class of 2023.

Julia jack

Julia Jack, a native of New Orleans, graduated from Loyola Law School in 2014. After working in private practice for a short time, she began working at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) in 2015, in the Employment and Public Benefits Unit. In 2019, she left SLLS to become an Administrative Law Judge for the Louisiana Workforce Commission, where she remained until the Covid 19 Pandemic began, and she returned to SLLS to assist clients when obtaining pandemic benefits and illegal evictions during the pandemic.

In late 2020, she became the Managing Attorney of the Homeownership Preservation Unit. In this role, she assists clients with preserving ownership rights in property by preventing wrongful foreclosures, tax sales, defending wrongful code enforcement violations, and the preventing the loss of property via property scams.

Amy Stelly

Amy Stelly is an artist, designer, planner and teacher. Her body of work includes architectural and urban design, along with abstract painting, drawing, mask-making, photography, poetry, mixed-media and three-dimensional construction. As a designer and planner, her scope of work includes building and open space design, historic restoration, downtown and neighborhood revitalization, environmental planning, zoning, entitlements, site planning, streetscape and landscape design.

Her advocacy work with the Claiborne Avenue Alliance includes spearheading a recent study of community health outcomes for all living or working near urban highways. Amy has studied and worked with acclaimed masters, including Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Douglas Farr and the late Charles Moore. She has lectured on urban gardens and the history of planning and open space in Treme; and she’s written about the value of community engagement and public accountability for The Lens, an online investigative publication.

Amy is a licensed tour guide, specializing in tours that look at the changing urban fabric. She is a native of New Orleans and lives in Treme where her family has resided for four generations.

ronald r. marshall

Ronald Marshall, Chief Policy Analyst at VOTE dedicated to impactful policy changes for

currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. During his 25 years in prison, he earned a

paralegal degree and became a skilled jailhouse lawyer. Now pursuing a master’s in public

Policy and Administration at Phoenix University, Ronald continues to lead change.

He serves on three Louisiana Governor Task Forces: improving mental health care and ending

solitary confinement in prisons, advancing juvenile rehabilitation policies, and enhancing prison

education programs. In 2023, Ronald drafted the Mental Healing Justice Act, now a state law.

Nationally, he is part of LEAP (Lived Experience Advisory Panel) at C4 Innovations, advising

on policies to address mental illness and substance use disorders in the justice system. He also

runs a mental health LLC, collaborating with jails and prisons on trauma-informed care.

As co-founder and co-executive director of the Protected Class Network, Ronald fights for

justice, equity, and inclusion, advocating for systemic change and the reintegration of formerly

incarcerated individuals.

Angela Owczarek

Angela (she/they) holds deep interests in both housing and disability justice, a combination largely born from their family experiences.

Currently, Angela supports and directs advocacy and programs at Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative. Previously, Angela worked for over ten years with unhoused individuals. In that work, Angela is most proud to have conducted research about the gaps between policing and serving unhoused individuals in New Orleans, which they leveraged to more than triple street outreach funding in the city.

Angela is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and, so informed by that lens, is concerned with how we can best support the needs and agency of all individuals, especially psychiatrically vulnerable adults.

matthew willard

Matthew Willard is the Louisiana State Representative for District 97 in New Orleans. He serves on the Ways and Means, Insurance, and Municipal, Parochial, and Cultural Affairs committees in the House of Representatives.

Rep. Willard, a graduate of the University of New Orleans, is also the Founder and Chairperson of the STEM Innovation Caucus and the Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

In addition to his legislative role, Matthew is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Yokogawa Fluence Analytics, a former technology startup that provides continuous analytics and process control solutions for the polymer and biopharmaceutical industries. The company was acquired by Yokogawa Electric Corporation in 2023.

Rep. Willard leveraged his technology background to create the STEM Innovation Caucus, a bipartisan effort focused on economic diversification, K-12 STEM education, new job creation, and workforce development training.

During his first term in the Louisiana Legislature, Rep. Willard passed more than 20 bills. He has been recognized as a 40 Under 40 leader by Gambit New Orleans and has received multiple awards for his social advocacy and economic development initiatives in the Louisiana Legislature.

y. frank southhall

Y. Frank Southhall is the Lead Organizer and Community Engagement Coordinator for the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability initiative (Jane Place), a community land trust and housing rights organization. At Jane Place, Frank coordinates the organization’s renter justice work, workshops and community outreach to various individuals, communities and groups in Orleans Parish. Frank has been involved in various forms of student, political and environmental organizing work for about twenty years.

davante lewis

Davante Lewis is the Louisiana Public Service Commissioner of District 3 and was born and raised in Lake Charles, LA. Davante is a dedicated social justice activist and advocate for civic participation. His journey in civic engagement began in high school, serving on the Louisiana Legislative Youth Advisory Council and as Louisiana High School Coordinator for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. At 18, he ran for the Calcasieu Parish School Board, igniting his passion for community service.

A graduate of McNeese State University with a B.A. in Political Science, Davante served as Student Body President and chaired the Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents. Post-graduation, he taught in public schools, promoting positive student-teacher relationships, before joining the Louisiana Budget Project as Director of Public Affairs and Outreach, where he focuses on policies benefitting low- and moderate-income residents.

Davante is a national leader in economic and racial justice, serving as Chair of the State Priorities Partnership Steering Committee and consulting on policy advocacy and community engagement. He has volunteered with organizations such as the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition and LIFT Louisiana and currently serves on several boards, including the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault.

Elected in 2022 as Public Service Commissioner for Louisiana's Third District, Davante represents 10 parishes, including Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He resides in Baton Rouge with his dog, Sera Harper.

alice riener

As Chief Executive Officer, Alice Riener partners with the Board and leadership team to develop CrescentCare’s strategic goals in pursuit of its mission while building a more sustainable future for the organization and community.

Prior to her leadership position, she spent over a decade with CrescentCare as Director of Housing, Chief Legal and Policy Officer, and most recently as Chief of Staff. During that time, she led transformative work in response to the COVID pandemic, helmed the development and opening of our flagship St. Roch clinic, and championed numerous internal strategic initiatives.

Originally from Washington, DC, she has lived in New Orleans since 2007 when she joined the staff at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services as a housing attorney.

She graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and holds a Juris Doctor from American University’s Washington College of Law.

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SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS: 2025