Sal Smyth serves as a community development underwriter at LISC Bay Area. In this role, they are responsible for structuring, underwriting, and closing loans. Sal also provides technical assistance to borrowers. Sal believes deeply in LISC’s mission to work with residents and partners to forge resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity. Prior to joining LISC, Sal was a senior loan officer with Community Vision Capital & Consulting, where they underwrote deals in Northern California ranging from large New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) allocations for community facilities to small working capital loans for fishermen and farmers. Sal’s additional professional experience includes four years with the Center for Effective Philanthropy providing rigorous, comparative stakeholder feedback to grantmaking foundations and two years as a presidential management fellow with the US Department of Agriculture and the National Economic Council. In addition, Sal helped to found and structure two nonprofits focused on policy and systems change: The Berkeley Food Institute at UC Berkeley and Opportunity@Work based in Washington, DC. Sal’s academic training includes a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley.