Our Team

Notoriously bad with names, but curiously good with remembering funding sources, Dale loves connecting community-serving projects and businesses with investments to move forward.  As Executive Director of the LISC Atlanta office, Dale is responsible for directing all of LISC’s community development investments and partnerships in the Metro Atlanta area. He brings over 30 years of experience and has facilitated over $1 billion in transactions to develop transit, affordable housing, commercial buildings and small businesses. Dale holds degrees from Duke University and University of California at Irvine.

A native of Los Angeles, Dale has called Atlanta home for over 12 years. Prior to joining LISC in 2019, he served for ten years at Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development agency, to oversee the agency’s New Markets Tax Credit program and other public-private partnerships. Dale financed major transformative projects in Atlanta such as the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Pittsburgh Yards, and Fort McPherson Tyler Perry Studios. He also launched a venture fund, a green building fund and several small business loan programs. Be warned though, if you do a deal with Dale, be ready to pose for pictures. He is an avid photographer and loves to snap his projects and partners.  Thankfully, he uses those images to remind us all of the importance and impact of community investments.

Outside of work, Dale takes pictures while traveling, playing volleyball and spending time with his wife and three children.  

With a heart of service, Dominique Ellis is invested in serving the underinvested and building inclusive communities. As Senior Program Officer of the LISC Atlanta office,  Dominique is responsible for managing Wealth Building programs and expanding two new initiatives: State and Local Policy Engagement and Place-Based Community Development. The Wealth Building program includes managing Atlanta’s network of Financial Opportunity Centers, employer partnerships and other tools to help people build credit, savings, and assets. The new initiative for State and Local Policy engagement involves working with key local issues, stakeholders, and legislation to advance racial equity and community development. Lastly, the new Place Based Community Development initiative will require leading meaningful engagement of residents and stakeholders in setting a vision for their neighborhood and implementing that vision through aligned programs, lending, and investments.

Prior to joining LISC, Dominique was a part of the leadership team at HOPE Atlanta, a nonprofit organization fighting homelessness.  She served as Director of Emergency Services to oversee housing and workforce development programs.  Dominique also brings an extensive background in workforce development through experience with Goodwill of North Georgia and Tommy Nobis Center.

Dominique is a graduate of Harris-Stowe State University in Saint Louis with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice.  She also holds certificates in Nonprofit Organizational Management, Nonprofit Human Resources, and Change Management.  

Dominique is originally from Baton Rouge, LA.  She has called the Atlanta Metro area home for the past 8 years. Outside of work, Dominique enjoys spending time with her two daughters and is also known as the Gumbo Lady!

Small Businesses are the core of American business.  Yet, underserved small businesses that are operated by people of color, women and veterans are daily denied access to capital and resources to sustain or expand their businesses.  It has become Jewel’s purpose with over 20 years as a business owner, entrepreneur and now Program Officer with LISC Atlanta to help underserved small businesses with mitigating strategies and preparation on how to capture and implement capital and resources for purposes beyond sustainability and expansion.  But to grow legacy for future generations of small business owners and change the narrative from underserved to empowered and equipped small businesses owned and operated by people of color, women, and veterans.

Jewel also uses her passion and eight years’ experience as an educator by teaching at Georgia State University in the Andrew Young Public Policy Department.  In her role as an Adjunct-Instructor with the Andrew Young Public Policy Department.  She is instilling future policy makers/public administrators with the knowledge needed to inform them when creating, writing, and implementing policy that their roles are critical to closing wealth gaps, bringing equality where inequality has reigned too long and that systematic racism through policy in the US must be countered with fairness through impartial, and equal policy to all.

When she is not championing the small business, Jewel loves weekend travels with her husband, reading mystery and fiction based on history novels-or hanging out with her gran-sugars (grandchildren are so sweet because now she can send them home to their parents) and playing with our loving labor-doodle Zsa-Zsa.