FOUNDER AND TEAM
Bring a problem. We’ll bring the people who’ve solved it before.
Every person on our team has run the programs, closed the deals, and worked with partners to achieve a community’s goals.
Leadership
Who runs the firm
Raquel has spent three decades in housing, economic development, and community finance, working from both sides of the table. She has run large public portfolios for two major U.S. cities, and she has advised cities, public agencies, and mission-driven investors across the country. She founded Rock Advisory Partners to help those clients turn sound strategy into lasting results.
She was Chief of Economic Development and Neighborhood Services for a major U.S. city, and she spent nearly a decade leading community development strategy, real estate financial modeling, and program design for another. Most recently, she was an executive managing director at a national nonprofit, where she led housing and economic development advisory work. She serves as a corporate director of The Community Development Trust and on the board of Reinvestment Fund. She works fluently in English and Spanish.
- Developed and launched the city's first comprehensive housing policy.
- Negotiated resolution of high-profile legal and audit issues, bringing city operations into compliance with federal housing regulations and the ADA.
- In a second major city, created the Community Development Unit and the city's first three-year rolling Community Development Strategic Plan, which gave nonprofit developers a voice in setting priorities.
- Serves on the boards of two national CDFIs: The Community Development Trust, a mission-driven REIT, and Reinvestment Fund, where she sits on the audit and finance committees.
- Led national housing and economic development advisory work, bringing capital, policy, and people together around measurable outcomes for client communities.
- Built a regional technical advisory team into the premier advisory group in its markets. Rayo Planning gave her its Guiding Light Award for mentorship.
Mandy has spent twenty years in public service, fifteen of them in local government. For the last seven years, she has led organizations and departments that help people in poverty get food, income support, health care, and housing. She oversaw the homeless solutions department for a Denver-area city. Before that, she was Interim Chief Executive Officer of a social-service nonprofit in a major U.S. city, and she served that city as Assistant Director of Code Compliance and as a Third Tier Executive in its police department.
Her approach draws on what she has seen families give up to stay housed. Many work more than one job, and finding affordable child care is often one of the hardest barriers to overcome.
- During her tenure, the organization housed nearly 400 residents, distributed 2.7 million pounds of food, and connected neighbors to health care.
- Built working partnerships with community leaders and city officials to extend the organization's reach.
- Oversaw grant-funded permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and outreach. Her senior managers focused on keeping people stably housed.
- Worked with community partners to build the city's data-driven Homeless Response System, which shows local providers where the service gaps are and where limited dollars do the most good.
Advisors
Who rounds out our team
Stephanie brings more than forty years of affordable housing and community development finance experience as a banker, a city economic development official, and a national technical advisor. She structures complex housing deals and teaches others how to do it.
She began in loan administration at a regional bank, then became Assistant Director of Economic Development for a mid-sized Texas city. She then spent three decades advising communities nationwide on affordable housing development, small-business lending, and historic, New Markets, and low-income housing tax credits. She also led a regional advisory team and taught economic development and housing finance courses to public and nonprofit staff. She joined Rock Advisory Partners as a Senior Advisor in 2026.
- Administered a $6M-a-year small-business loan program funded by CDBG and a local half-cent sales tax.
- Ran the city's small-business incubator and negotiated incentive packages with prospects and lenders on behalf of the city and its boards.
- Structured the financing from LIHTC equity, HOME funds, public housing funds, and private debt.
- Managed development of a 108-unit workforce housing community on the Texas Gulf Coast, financed with CDBG Disaster Recovery funds.
- Project manager for the historic rehabilitation of a North Texas hotel: a $7M project, including $1.2M in historic tax credit equity.
Tom has spent 42 years helping underserved communities get development projects done. He spent twenty years in municipal service with a major U.S. city, then nearly two decades as a technical advisor and trainer for cities, counties, and nonprofits nationwide. He specializes in real estate, community facility, and small-business finance. That means underwriting projects and building financing packages that close the gap between development costs and what private investors will fund.
In city government, he was a Senior Economic Development Officer and, before that, an internal auditor and budget analyst. In his national work, he directed technical assistance and advisory services and led a professional training program for development finance practitioners. He began his career directing a nonprofit program that helps men break the cycle of domestic violence.
- Raised $5.5M in federal and state grants, plus $500K from foundations and individuals.
- Re-established the urban farmers' market and added microenterprise lending, youth employment in the arts and agriculture, and asset-based community planning in the city's most economically distressed neighborhood.
- Advised HUD grantees, from large urban counties and major cities to a state government, on compliance and gap financing.
- Combined New Markets Tax Credits, LIHTC, historic tax credits, and HUD Section 108 loans to move critical housing and economic development projects to completion.
- Before and during COVID-19, moved a national development finance curriculum to live-remote instruction so public and nonprofit staff could keep learning.