By Michele Ambadiang
October 13, 2025
Public Knowledge has the pleasure of inviting you to a multifaceted program focused on training and developing the next generation of tech policy experts and public interest advocates who reflect the diversity of voices and experiences in our society.
Please join us for our monthly Career Breakfast Series. This event is designed for students & recent graduates to learn about tech policy and public interest work, careers, and its community. This month, you will have the opportunity to engage in a great conversation with Nikitra Bailey.
Nikitra Bailey serves as the executive vice president of the National Fair Housing Alliance® (NFHA™). She leads NFHA’s Public Policy division and provides oversight of the Communications and Resource Development divisions. Ms. Bailey develops and spearheads visionary, transformational policies and communications strategies to implement NFHA’s mission of eliminating all forms of housing discrimination and ensuring everyone has safe, decent, affordable housing in well-resourced, opportunity-rich communities free from bias.
She also provides thought leadership that supports NFHA’s 200-member organizations; liaises with policymakers and other stakeholders; and assists NFHA’s President and CEO with Board engagement.
Prior to joining NFHA, she served as an executive vice president at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a research and policy advocacy organization that seeks to build a fairer and more inclusive financial services marketplace. CRL is an affiliate of one of the nation’s largest community development financial institutions (CDFIs), Self-Help. At CRL, Ms. Bailey advanced national and state public policy reforms, creating access to safe and responsible credit on affordable terms for individuals and communities traditionally underserved by the banking system, especially people of color and women. She directed CRL’s mortgage policy advocacy, managed resource development, and served as the principal strategist for coalition partnerships that span civil rights, faith, women, labor, and community advocates throughout the nation. She played a key role in helping to secure passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; reforming the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program to provide $10 billion for CDFIs with a strong history of serving small businesses owned by people of color; and securing $10 billion in the American Rescue Plan Act’s Homeowner Assistance Fund to provide relief for homeowners hardest-hit by COVID-19, including support for socially disadvantage individuals and fair housing initiatives.
Ms. Bailey co-leads the Black Homeownership Collaborative’s work stream on fair housing and consumer protection. She co-chairs the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Fair Housing and Lending Task Force. She currently serves on the board of directors of the National Institute of Minority Economic Development. Recently, Ms. Bailey was appointed as an inaugural member of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Federal Advisory Committee on Affordable, Equitable, and Sustainable Housing. In 2024 and 2025, the Washingtonian Magazine recognized her as one of the 500 Most Influential People shaping policy in Washington, DC. She served on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Community Advisory Board from 2018 to 2021. Ms. Bailey is an author of numerous reports and articles on predatory lending and fair housing and a frequent media contributor. She has provided expert testimony to the U.S. Congress on a range of fair and affordable housing issues and the reform of the Government-Sponsored Enterprises.
Ms. Bailey holds a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University.
Join us on Friday, Oct. 17, @ 07:30 A.M. ET at the Durham Convention Center
Room M4
301 West Morgan Street
Durham, NC 27701
This is a private event. However, if you know someone who would be interested in attending, please email michele@publicknowledge.org
