Team Bios
Ira Goldstein, Ph.D., Director, Policy Solutions
As Director of Policy Solutions at TRF, Dr. Ira Goldstein leads all research on economic development issues related to TRF’s organizational goals and mission.
A nationally recognized expert on housing-related policy issues with a specialty in the predatory lending crisis, Dr. Goldstein has conducted detailed analyses of foreclosures for each state in the mid-Atlantic and for the Federal Reserve and Pennsylvania Department of Banking, supporting protections and benefits for thousands of homeowners. Known for his expertise in these complex issues, Dr. Goldstein has testified on a number of occasions before Congress on FHA reform, predatory lending and related housing topics. He also provided research and testimony to support discrimination cases brought by the PA Human Relations Commission, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and legal service attorneys.
Prior to joining TRF, Dr. Goldstein was the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He currently serves on the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board, the Research Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Lending and the Governor of Pennsylvania's Housing Advisory Committee.
He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Goldstein’s work has often been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has lectured extensively on housing policy, including at the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and St. Louis, Harvard University, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and NeighborWorks America.
In addition, Dr. Goldstein co-authored a recently released book entitled Restructuring the Philadelphia Region: Metropolitan Divisions and Inequality.
Catherine Califano, Associate Director, Policy Solutions
Catherine Califano is Associate Director of Policy Solutions at TRF, where she manages client relations and serves as project manager for complex team projects.
Building on more than fifteen years of experience working in the nonprofit and public sectors on community and neighborhood development issues, Ms. Califano helps clients develop implementation strategies using TRF’s analytical solutions. Most recently, she led TRF’s work on commercial corridor investment strategies in Philadelphia and evaluated the effectiveness of TRF’s supermarket lending activity. As a result, TRF and the City were able to work together to move program administration from the monitoring of numeric outputs to identifying quantitative measures to assess program effectiveness.
Prior to joining TRF, Ms. Califano spent ten years working for the City of Philadelphia where she operated in a number of capacities in the City’s Commerce Department, including her most recent position as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Housing and Community Development. In addition to her management responsibilities, she worked to expand private sector investment in low-income neighborhoods and restructured the delivery of the City’s housing services. She continues to work in developing the private and nonprofit sectors of employment training services, as well as in community and neighborhood development.
Ms. Califano holds a Master’s Degree in Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s Degree from St. John’s University in political science and rhetoric.
Lance Loethen, Research Associate, Policy Solutions
As a Research Associate of Policy Solutions at TRF, Lance Loethen works in the area of data gathering and analysis, with a strong expertise in visually compelling geospatial displays. Since joining TRF in 2003, Mr. Loethen has been instrumental in tracking and assessing the social and economic impacts of TRF investments. As part of this work, he is responsible for the architecture and maintenance of an extensive database of transactional outcomes that includes geospatial data analysis. Among Mr. Loethen’s more recent research projects was a study funded by the CDFI Fund to better understand the lack of supermarkets in distressed urban areas and to evaluate the role of smart subsidies in developing supermarkets in underserved places. In order to assist economic policymakers and improve economic development planning strategies, Mr. Loethen has developed automated methods for assessing regional employment impacts and industry location quotients.
Prior to joining TRF, Mr. Loethen was an underwriter of financial products for General Electric Capital.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Kansas.
Al Parker, Research Associate, Policy Solutions
As a Research Associate in Policy Solutions, Al Parker specializes in database construction and GIS spatial analysis. Since joining TRF in 2003, Mr. Parker has developed several essential analysis tools, including a comprehensive data collection tool for the American Street Empowerment Zone and an interactive online mapping tool for the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Mr. Parker’s research work has contributed towards extensive knowledge of foreclosure trends and indicators, compiling and analyzing data for foreclosure studies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Recently, he has contributed to TRF’s work with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to analyze trends in mortgage originations, delinquencies and foreclosures in three counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Mr. Parker is also the primary staff person assigned to the Saving Homes, Saving Neighborhoods program in Philadelphia, a nationally recognized initiative that connects data collection in the field with neighborhood housing service organizations.
For several years, Mr. Parker also worked to support the Wachovia Regional Foundation’s evaluations of proposals, recommending ways to strengthen the planning process to ensure quality housing plans are produced at the community level. Providing GIS analysis support, he was closely involved with compiling TRF’s Market Value Analysis for both Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. With a strong background in real estate development and spatial analysis, Mr. Parker has helped TRF build one of the most comprehensive historic databases of Philadelphia real estate transactions currently available.
Prior to joining TRF, Mr. Parker taught extensively as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design from 2004 to 2006.
Mr. Parker holds a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania with a Certificate in Real Estate Development and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Maryland.
Questions? Contact PolicySolutions@trfund.com or call 215-574-5800.