Co-Founder and Vice President
Iris is the architect of Emerald’s trademarked High Performing Communities Framework (HPC). She has a degree in political science from California State University East Bay and a law degree from John F. Kennedy College of Law.
Iris has enjoyed a 30-year career in marketing, community and project development, and strategic planning. As a recognized leader in the areas of community reinvestment and collaboration, she has been called upon to consult, teach, and speak about the economic condition of California’s inner city, urban, and suburban communities and how community development is accomplished.
She has spoken before an extensive range of audiences and venues, such as the California State Legislature; the California Base Closure Hearings; the Alameda County Board of Supervisors; Leadership San Francisco; Kathleen Brown’s Economic Summit; the Southern California Urban League, the US Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods Conference; the Northern California Senior Law Enforcement Symposium; the California 13 Cities Project; Officials of Craigavon Borough in Northern Ireland; and the Oikosnet Conference in the Netherlands, to name a few.
She has also met with and discussed community economic development and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) strategies with notable leaders such as past chairman Greenspan of the Federal Reserve Bank; Eugene Ludwig, former Comptroller of the Currency; Senator Ted Kennedy; Congresswoman Maxine Waters; and high-ranking officials abroad.