Speaker Bios

Noel Andrés Poyo
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Economic Development at US Treasury Department

Noel Andrés Poyo is the U.S. Department of Treasury's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Economic Development. He most recently served for 14 years as Executive Director of the National Association for Latino Community Assets Builders (NALCAB), a nonprofit membership organization serving as the hub of a network of more than 120 community and economic development organizations that serve geographically and ethnically diverse Latino communities. Beginning in 2015, he also served as chief executive officer of Escalera Community Investments, NALCAB’s subsidiary asset management company that controls social investment funds designed to capitalize affordable housing projects and small businesses. Poyo’s 22-year career has focused on integrating immigrants and people with low incomes into the mainstream financial services and real estate sectors of our economy and on improving the livability and economic resilience of low-income neighborhoods and affordable housing communities. He has played diverse roles in the implementation of community development projects valued at more than $1 billion. From 2015 to 2017, Poyo served as 1 of 15 members of the Community Advisory Council for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He has extensive experience advising the executive leadership of some of the nation’s largest banks and numerous nonprofit lenders and social investors. Poyo is a graduate of Yale University.

Tara Roche
Manager, Consumer and Home Financing
PEW Charitable Trusts

Tara Roche manages research with Pew’s consumer finance project, conducting original analyses of the safety, affordability, and availability of small mortgages and alternative financial arrangements used to purchase manufactured and other low-cost forms of housing. Roche’s previous work at Pew includes research on everyday financial products, including small-dollar loans, mobile payments, and student loans to inform policy recommendations that protect consumers from harmful practices and promote safe, transparent credit.

Roche holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of New Jersey and a master’s in public policy from Rutgers University.

Erika Rickard
Project Director, Civil Legal System Modernization
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Erika Rickard leads Pew’s work to modernize the nation’s civil legal system, a project to pilot and evaluate the most promising technologies and tools to assist people without access to a lawyer. These include online dispute resolution, which brings the entire court process online, so people can resolve their cases without going to a courthouse; and legal information and assistance portals, which use interactive technology to identify legal problems and direct users to information and resources tailored to their needs.

Before joining Pew, Rickard directed field research at Harvard Law School’s Access to Justice Lab, which conducts rigorous studies on access to justice and court administration. She is also a commissioner on the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission. Rickard was the first Access to Justice coordinator for Massachusetts, where she developed and implemented new policies and programs in the areas of language access, technology, and resources for people navigating the court system without a lawyer.

Rickard holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Mills College and a juris doctor from Harvard L