Meet The Team
Jesse Van Tol
Jesse Van Tol is NCRC’s President and CEO. He has been with NCRC since 2006 and has held a variety of leadership positions, eventually becoming chief executive in 2018. His work championing fair and responsible banking has resulted in $580 billion in new investments in low- and moderate-income communities through Community Benefits Agreements with banking institutions. Through his leadership, NCRC has grown today to an organization with assets of $176 million and an annual budget of $35 million.
Jesse is a popular speaker and lecturer, and has testified before Congress, and appeared on NPR, in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, POLITICO and many other outlets. He also sits on a variety of advisory boards, including the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Affordable Housing Advisory Councils. He is a member of the consumer advisory councils of Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, TRUIST, Fifth Third, Huntington National Bank, First Horizon, KeyBank, Quicken Loans, Santander and numerous others. Jesse co-leads Project REACH Place Based Initiatives Working Group, and he was also a Senior Fellow with Humanity in Action, an international human rights group, and a communications institute Fellow with Opportunity Agenda.
Jesse received his bachelor’s degree in History and International Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and received an executive education certificate from the Harvard Kennedy School as part of NeighborWorks’ Achieving Excellence.
Alan Pyke
Alan Pyke is the Director of Communications. Alan has worked in non-profit media and communications since 2010. He wrote about the media’s coverage of the 2008 Wall Street crisis at Media Matters and reported on homelessness, racial justice and policing at ThinkProgress from 2010 through 2019, before leaving journalism to join Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign team in Iowa. His communications consulting clients since then include the American Economic Liberties Project and Social Security Works. Alan’s freelance writing on politics, sports, and movies has appeared in The New Republic, Defector, RogerEbert.com, and elsewhere.
Andrew Nachison
Andrew Nachison joined NCRC in 2017. He’s a media, tech, arts, civic and social venture founder, funder, advisor, executive and creative catalyst. He’s also a writer, journalist and futurist. After a decade of work as a journalist and pioneer in online news, he co-founded iFOCOS, the Institute for the Connected Society, and We Media, an innovation agency, to help people create, share and understand networked knowledge and culture. Earlier in his career he led research, executive education and futures programs for the American Press Institute; and reported and edited for The Associated Press, New York Times, Audubon and other magazines. His work, events and ideas have been covered by The New York Times, BBC, CNN, Fortune, PBS Newshour, PBS Mediashift, Publisher’s Weekly, Mediabistro, the Pew Internet & American Life Project and others. He has been a board member of the World Editor’s Forum and advised a variety of publishing, social and civic media and technology startups and the International Women’s Media Foundation. He’s also a photographer, musician, artist, husband and dad, has published two short fiction stories, written many others and swears there’s more to come. He studied philosophy at Dartmouth College. He shares links and other things at nach.com and is on Instagram @anachison.
Alejandra Pringle
Esthefany Alejandra Pringle is NCRC’s Communications & Marketing Associate. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a bachelor’s in Marketing. During her undergraduate journey, Alejandra offered to be a volunteer as a Digital Marketing Manager for Lindaben foundation, where she learned and was passionate about helping her community. Alejandra helps the foundation to be accessible for every Spanish speaker and to gain a higher audience in their social media accounts, the relationships and experiences at the foundation have encouraged Alejandra to focus more on social justice. When not working or volunteering, Alejandra spends her free time with her family and friends, she also likes traveling and cooking.
Alyssa Wiltse
Alyssa Wiltse is the Director of Marketing for NCRC. She has previously been NCRC’s ??senior marketing manager and, before that, NCRC’s media manager. While she has always been passionate about social justice issues, Alyssa previously focused this passion on the international environmental sector, working for seven years as a journalist and editor covering the global freshwater and sanitation crisis, and more recently working as a media relations and publications officer for an international rainforest and species conservation organization.
She has a B.A. in political science, with a focus on environmental policy, from West Virginia University and an M.A. in Environmental and Natural Resource Policy from George Washington University.
When not working towards a more fair, just and healthy world, Alyssa enjoys spending time with her family, reading mystery novels and gallivanting in the great outdoors.
Bakari Levy
Bakari Levy serves as a Government Affairs Associate for NCRC’s Policy and Government Affairs Team, specializing in policy issues related to AI, Technology, and Financial Services. Prior to working for NCRC, Bakari received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Central State University and pursued a career in the technology sector after graduating. Bakari also has experience in international development, focusing primarily on the Caribbean and Latin America region on issues related to workforce development, small business, and the use of blockchain technologies to facilitate cross border payments through the Institute of Caribbean Studies. Originally a New York native, he enjoys a variety of outdoor activities, creative writing, and traveling in his spare time.
Barb Jones
Position: Director of Finance, Community Development Fund
Phone: 202.768.8783
Email: contractor.bjones@ncrc.org
Braelyn Spitler
Braelyn Spitler is the Senior Development Associate for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Braelyn received her bachelor of science from Emerson College in Boston, with a focus on political communications, pre-law and peace & social justice. Her background lies between the intersection of nonprofit grassroots fundraising, political advocacy and campaign communication through her work in Ohio and Massachusetts. During Braelyn’s undergrad, she interned for NCRC’s communications and development teams, before being brought on full-time.
Bruce C. Mitchell, PhD
Bruce is NCRC Principal Researcher. As an urban geographer, he recognizes the crucial role of place in determining the range of economic opportunities available to people. He specializes in the application of quantitative methods, including conventional and spatial statistics, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze patterns of inequity in U.S. cities. He is deeply interested in the historical and structural factors which have shaped the present demographic and socioeconomic patterns of neighborhoods. These factors include segregation, redlining, suburbanization, urban renewal and gentrification. He has published works on environmental justice and disparities in access to financial services for minorities and people of lower socioeconomic status in U.S. cities. Bruce holds a PhD in Geography and Environmental Science and Policy from the University of South Florida, School of Geosciences.
Catherine “Katy” Crosby
Position: Chief of Community Engagement and Institutional Accountability
Phone: 202-383-7706
Email: ccrosby@ncrc.org
Catherine “Katy” Crosby is NCRC’s Chief of Community Engagement and Institutional Accountability.
Before joining the NCRC staff in 2023, Katy was Town Manager for the Town of Apex, North Carolina where she led a staff of approximately 600 employees and a budget that exceeded $200 million, and served as the NCRC board chairperson.
Prior to that, she served as the Chief of Staff to Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and the City of Toledo, providing leadership to approximately 2,700 employees and overseeing day to day operations which included administering a budget of more than $800 million.
Katy’s expertise includes enforcing local civil rights ordinances in the areas of housing, employment, public accommodation, and credit; overseeing contract compliance and capacity building programs for socially and economically disadvantaged businesses; and community relations programs that focus on immigrant integration, reducing violence, and improving the relationship between the community and police.
She is a member of the Higher Learning Commission board, one of six institutional accreditors in the United States and The Root Cause Coalition, a national coalition of organizations addressing health inequities through cross-sector partnerships.
Caitlin Rountree
Caitie Rountree is NCRC’s Director of Membership and Events. She joined NCRC in 2011 after doing faith-based community organizing in Toledo, Ohio, with the DART Center. Caitie is responsible for growing NCRC’s membership and ensuring that NCRC members are equipped in their efforts to build wealth in their communities. She also oversees NCRC’s Just Economy Conference and statewide summits. Caitie lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she chairs the board of Urban Hope, an affordable housing organization serving the rapidly-gentrifying East End of Richmond. She is a graduate of the College of William and Mary.
Carolina Rodrigues
Position: Special Assistant, Executive Director & CDFI Operations
Phone: 202-925-5320
Email: crodrigues@ncrc.org
Carolina Rodrigues is NCRC’s Lending Program Manager. She was born in Washington, DC, and has lived in the DMV area forever. Her family is originally from Brazil, and speak Portuguese. She went to high school in Forestville, Maryland, and completed her bachelor’s degree online while working full time. She started her career as a bank teller for Capital One when she was eighteen. She worked for several financial institutions, and in 2019, she learned how to underwrite consumer loans. This is where she discovered a passion for lending and being able to not only help but educate consumers on their finances. From there she navigated into the lending field, with her most recent past position being a Consumer Lending Manager for FedChoice FCU.
Professionally, Carolina wishes to learn and grow as much as possible. She enjoys learning and education has always been one of her top priorities. She also has a passion for helping people and believes that this new role will help expand on those skills.
Some of Carolina’s hobbies include reading, working out and spending time with family and friends. She also has three cats that she loves dearly.