Priscilla Phelps

Ms. Phelps has been helping local governments and other institutions plan and finance their priority local investment projects for 25 years, and never loses her enthusiasm for a new financing challenge.  Her experience covers various sectors that depend on local investment, including affordable housing; local economic development; environmental management; water, sanitation and solid waste; transportation; and mixed use development projects.  As well as structuring specific projects, she is skilled at identifying the policy and institutional changes necessary to facilitate local finance and at improving financial management systems.

Like others at TCGI, her experience has been gained both in the U.S. and overseas.  She has worked directly with state and local governments in the U.S. and with local and national governments in developing countries worldwide, including 9 years lending to local governments in Latin America for the Interamerican Development Bank.  She began her public sector career at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, initially helping to draft the “Inner Ring Revitalization Strategy” and later serving as Financial Manager at Newark International Airport.  At KPMG Peat Marwick Government Services, she developed complex financial models for local governments and assisted them with the preparation of municipal bond issues.

Priscilla understands the key role of non-governmental organizations in local development and finance, having worked as a Loan Officer for the Low Income Investment Fund, a CDFI in San Francisco, and serving on the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity in Oakland.  She also participated in the founding the Center for Local Food and Agriculture in Ithaca, New York and served in the early years of the Alternatives Federal Credit Union, another CDFI, as a Member of the Board of Directors.  She has an MBA in Finance from Cornell University.