Myeisha Wright, Project Leader

Myeisha Wright's real estate career is driven by the important need for quality affordable housing and improving communities. She is a real estate sales professional in both residential and commercial. She is an entrepreneur, investor and sales professional in the Real Estate industry both domestically and internationally.

Myeisha has served in leadership roles relating to Property Management, Broker services and Real Estate Development. She is the managing Broker at The Real Estate House of Kansas City overseeing 15 agents. She also co-owns TREH KC Property Management Group while during the pandemic was able to disburse over $50,000 in rental assistance to help tenants avoid eviction. She received her Housing Credit Certified Professional (HCCP) in 2020. She served as President of the KC Chapter of the National Association of Residential Property Management in 2021.  She was one of the first graduating class of the REAP KC program in 2017 slated to enhance diversity in commercial real estate and development.

Myeisha is originally from Kansas City, MO and is a fourth generation neighborhood resident of Key Coalition. The family home on 30th & Olive has been part of the family for 100 years. Myeisha is a wife and mother of two.

E.F. Chip Walsh, Development Advisor

As a Development Advisor to the LCKC leadership team, Chip provides insight and technical assistance on tax credit financing, senior debt structuring and general development activities, in addition to focusing on project management duties for LCKC projects.

Chip has over 20 years of real estate years experience, is a founding partner and the managing member of Sustainable Development Partners of Kansas City, an adaptive reuse CRE development company, and is the founder of Mercier Street CRE Consulting. Chip and his partners efforts with SDPKC has been highlighted locally by The Kansas City Business Journal which noted that one their primary goal is “fight blight and flight by rehabilitating and repurposing historic buildings to turn around declining Kansas City neighborhoods and business districts.” Chip oversaw the day-to-day redevelopment of the former Westport Junior High School project, a $30 million redevelopment that converted the 160,000 SF building to a coworking facility utilizing New Market and Historic Tax Credit financing. Currently, Chip is co-developing the $52 million mixed-use redevelopment of the former Westport High School project. Chip is a third-generation Kansas Citian and passionate supporter of the city, particularly its professional sports teams.

BA Political Science, University of Redlands (CA),

J.D., University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of Law

Law License: Missouri and Kansas

2018 Cornerstone Award, Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City

2017 Historic Preservation Award, Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits

Jeff Mendelsohn, Founder, LocalCode

As founder of LocalCode (the national nonprofit), Jeff is responsible for delivering on the mission of the organization, “to provide the tools, resources, mentorship, and financing necessary for authentic local leaders to become the leading developers in their communities. LocalCode helps these leaders take on  significant and impactful real estate projects, with an emphasis on mixed use, main street locations. Successful projects will have catalytic effects on the communities. Building wealth through local ownership will positively impact every aspect of wellbeing, from health, to education, to civic participation, to the ability to weather crises, and to invest in the future and pursue meaningful and higher paid work. Successful projects strengthen partnerships and interactions among community residents, and build local economic resiliency.  Jeff focuses on strategy, finance, governance and ownership structure, strategic partnerships, human resources, and investor relationships.

Jeff’s personal mission is to create institutions that bring out the best in human nature. He focuses on governance and ownership, integrating social justice and aligning incentives for the wellbeing of all humanity and the natural environment. 

Previously, he co-founded Green Valley Farm + Mill, a land stewardship project with an innovative ownership model, enabling farming families with limited assets to be equal partners and own their homes. From 1998 through 2010, Jeff founded and built New Leaf Paper into the leading environmentally responsible paper company in the United States. New Leaf created the market for 100% recycled papers and was awarded Best in the World for Environment by B Corporation.  Along with 15 other social enterprise leaders, Mendelsohn spent three days in the Anza Borrego desert with the B Corporation founders at the beginning of the movement, helping bring B Corporation into being. Mendelsohn signed the B Corporation Declaration of Interdependence and New Leaf Paper became a Founding B Corporation in 2007. 

BA Political Science, Cornell University

Universidad de Buenos Aires, Courses in Argentine History, Politics and Literature

Forbes Impact 30 Top Social Entrepreneur

2011 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute

Fast Company Social Enterprise Award

Elisse Douglass, Development Advisor

​​Elisse Douglass works to reimagine what Black economic opportunity means in today’s world, and focuses on the connection between real estate, Black-owned businesses, and racial justice. She leverages strategic investing, partnerships, and bold visions to create the neighborhood economic hubs of the future: equitable, innovative, and reflective of the community they serve. 

Ms. Douglass’ accomplishments have spanned architecture, real estate development, and impact investing. After receiving her BA in Architecture from Columbia University, she began her career in architecture and development in New York City, focused on historic renovation and adaptive reuse projects. She then joined IMB Development Corporation, a PE impact investing firm focused on building minority-owned businesses and economic growth in urban communities. She developed strategic plans for investments and new ventures on behalf of Fortune 500 companies to honor their minority spend goals.

In 2014, Ms. Douglass enrolled in the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business for her MBA, and was awarded a Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Fellowship in Real Estate. In 2016 she joined SARES Regis Group of Northern California, where she managed innovative large-scale developments including an 8-acre mixed use site in Mountain View, CA, a 350 key employee hotel for Google, a 40k-sf food hall in Los Altos, and the 800k-sf corporate headquarters for Adobe in San Jose. In 2018, she joined Signature Development Group as Vice President of Development where she led entitlements, community engagement, acquisitions, and asset management for various mixed-use projects in the Bay area. She expanded SDG’s retail strategy, which involved recruiting and investing equity and debt products in small business tenants, with a focus on local women and minority entrepreneurs. During her tenure, minority owned entrepreneurs accounted for 83% of total tenants across the district.

In 2020, Ms. Douglass founded BBF Co., an advisory firm focused on place-based minority entrepreneurship ecosystem development in cities nationally. Her first project was the creation of the Oakland Black Business Fund, a nonprofit platform providing capital, technical assistance, and strategic resources to Oakland’s Black entrepreneurs in response to COVID-19. Featured in Black Enterprise, Tech Crunch and Crunchbase, the OBBF supported over 150 businesses with grants and technical assistance to prevent closures and position them for post pandemic growth. BBF Co. has since expanded to advising real estate and business ecosystem development across the nation. 

Ms. Douglass serves on the SPUR Board of Directors and the ICA Fund Good Jobs Advisory Board. She was a 2020 advisor to Smart City X with Scrum Ventures. She received the 2020 Community Advocate Award from the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce for her COVID relief efforts.

Bob Berkebile, Strategic  Advisor

With his extensive experience as an architect, developer, and leader in Kansas City, Bob provides critical insights, relationships, and feedback to the LCKC leadership team on all aspects of real estate development. Bob focuses on improving the quality of life in our society with the integrity and spirit of his work.

Bob is a founding principal of BNIM, one of Kansas City’s leading architecture firms, which received the 2011 AIA Firm Award. Bob brings more than four decades of experience to the architectural profession, and over ten years as a developer. He is the founding chairman of the American Institute of Architects’ National Committee on the Environment (AIA / COTE) and was also instrumental in the formation of the US Green Building Council and its LEED rating system. Bob is currently focused on the redevelopment of the Blue River watershed and surrounding neighborhoods to transform a collection of abandoned industrial, military, and other sites into a regenerative economy for the community and a national model for Opportunity Zone funding.

BA Architecture, University of Kansas

Registered Architect: AK, KS, MI, MO, MT, NC, SC & Canada

Fellow of the American Institute of Architects

Founding Chair, AIA National Committee on the Environment

Board Member Emeritus: US Green Building Council

Board Member Emeritus: The Nature Conservancy

Honorary degrees from University of Missouri and Chatham University

15th Annual Heinz Award

2014 Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainability