City of Atlanta Advisory Roundtable with Frank Fernandez, President & CEO, and Sarah Kirsch, Managing Director, Housing Funds, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Name:
City of Atlanta Advisory Roundtable with Frank Fernandez, President & CEO, and Sarah Kirsch, Managing Director, Housing Funds, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Date:
August 6, 2025
Time:
8:15 AM - 9:15 AM EDT
Registration:
Register Now
Event Description:
Join the Council for Quality Growth's City of Atlanta Advisory Roundtable on August 6, 2025 at 8:15 AM at Selig Enterprises.
Managing Director, Housing Funds
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Sarah Kirsch manages the affordable housing investment portfolios for the Foundation, both social impact and philanthropic funds, as a key pillar for advancing equitable growth in our region. In support of TogetherATL’s neighborhood and housing goals, the funds are designed to provide gap funding and support deeper and longer-term affordability for rental and ownership homes. Prior to joining the Foundation, Sarah spent ten years with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and served as Executive Director of the Atlanta District Council. Her work at ULI focused on advancing inclusive walkable urban places with a specific focus on housing affordability and the connections between transportation and land use. Prior to ULI, she spend 12 years with Robert Charles Lesser & Co. (RCLCO), the nation’s leading independent real estate advisory firm.
Frank Fernandez
President and CEO
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Frank Fernandez joined the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta in August 2020, where he leads one of America’s top 20 largest community foundations. The united power of his prior experience and the anchor institution’s 70 plus years of regional leadership combine as a force for good, championing equity and shared prosperity for all who call the Atlanta region home.
Frank builds upon the Foundation’s exceptional resources, leveraging a full range of assets – human, reputational and financial – to pursue equity of opportunity through servant leadership, sustainable change making in both systems and place-based work as well as through inspired giving that ultimately fulfills the Foundation’s mission to lead our region toward equity and shared prosperity for all. To that end, during the pandemic and in partnership with the United Way of Greater Atlanta, he led programming to raise and deploy $30M in grants to the nonprofit front lines.
Prior to joining the Foundation, he served for six years as the Senior Vice President for The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, where he led transformational revitalization of Atlanta’s Westside while simultaneously directing Blank’s community development, global giving, health access and social justice initiatives.
A recognized leader on affordable housing, transportation and economic development, Fernandez’ 15 years in management positions in Texas prior to joining the Blank Foundation included eight years leading Green Doors, an Austin nonprofit devoted to transforming lives and neighborhoods and five years as Deputy Director of PeopleFund, a community development financial institution. His work has been honored with the 2005 Austin Livable City Vision Award, the 2008 Austin Under 40 Nonprofit Leadership Award and the 2012 Ernst and Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He currently serves as a member of the Mission Investors Exchange Board of Directors. Frank is an ADL and The Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellow.
A son of Cuban immigrants, Frank is a Florida native and holds a B.A. in philosophy from Harvard University and an M.P.A. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. After graduation, he worked on Wall Street as a public sector financial analyst for Salomon Smith Barney, structuring over $1 billion in financial transactions, before pursuing his graduate degree.
Sarah Kirsch
Managing Director, Housing Funds
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Sarah Kirsch manages the affordable housing investment portfolios for the Foundation, both social impact and philanthropic funds, as a key pillar for advancing equitable growth in our region. In support of TogetherATL’s neighborhood and housing goals, the funds are designed to provide gap funding and support deeper and longer-term affordability for rental and ownership homes. Prior to joining the Foundation, Sarah spent ten years with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and served as Executive Director of the Atlanta District Council. Her work at ULI focused on advancing inclusive walkable urban places with a specific focus on housing affordability and the connections between transportation and land use. Prior to ULI, she spend 12 years with Robert Charles Lesser & Co. (RCLCO), the nation’s leading independent real estate advisory firm.
Sarah’s civic leadership is deeply rooted in housing affordability and community development, serving on the HouseATL board, as vice-chair of the Board of Commissioners for Atlanta Housing, on the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation board, and Neighborhood Empowerment subcommittee chair for Mayor Dickens’ transition team. Kirsch is a native of Atlanta and continues to live in the city where she and her husband are raising their three sons. Most weekends you will find her at track meets and cross-country events supporting her boys. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Duke University’s Terry Sanford School of Public Policy.
