Our Team

Rebecca Foster

Rebecca (she/her) is the founding CEO of the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, a public private partnership that provides powerful new tools to improve the delivery of affordable housing. Since 2017, the Fund has invested over $275 million in housing preservation and development projects throughout San Francisco, supporting over 1,270 permanently affordable homes for more than 2,100 residents vulnerable to displacement and homelessness. Previously, Rebecca served as Director of Social Impact Investment under the late Mayor of San Francisco Ed Lee, and before that was a Vice President in Public Sector & Infrastructure investment banking at Goldman Sachs, where she raised capital for local governments, universities, non-profits, and utilities around the country. She received her BA. from Brown University and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Rebecca was appointed to the Board of Directors of the California Housing Partnership Corporation by Governor Newsom, and also serves on the boards of the San Francisco Friends School and ARTA, a whitewater rafting organization. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and three boys.

Tamar Dorfman

Tamar (she/her) joined the Housing Accelerator Fund as Chief Financial Officer. Most recently, she served as CFO of the Public Health Institute, one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, where she oversaw the finance & accounting, grants & contracts, and audit & compliance teams. Tamar brings more than two decades of experience at non-profit and public sector organizations that promote equitable and just communities through economic development, public health, and affordable housing. Her career has focused on developing strong financial strategies and efficient operations so that organizations can maximize impact while ensuring compliance with funder and regulatory requirements. Prior to PHI & HAF, Dorfman was the Chief Financial Officer for PolicyLink, and the Mayor’s Offices of Community Investment and Housing in San Francisco (a precursor to the current Mayor’s Office of Housing & Community Development). She also served as the Fiscal Manager for the Corporation for Supportive Housing and was a Principal Budget Analyst for the City of Chicago. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University. Tamar lives in Oakland, where she was raised.

Kate Hartley

Kate (she/her) is the Housing Accelerator Fund’s Chief Lending and Investment Officer. She brings a wealth of diverse experience to the role. Most recently, she served as the Director of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, where she oversaw the development of over 8,000 affordable homes between 2014 and 2019, managing an annual budget of $200-300 million. Prior to her Mayor’s Office service, she worked as a senior development specialist for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, where she managed the public financing, interdepartmental project approvals, and community relations on multiple affordable developments in San Francisco. Kate also spent four years as a financial consultant with the California Housing Partnership Corporation, specializing in low-income housing tax credit syndications, tax-exempt bond issuances, state funding programs, and portfolio analyses for affordable housing developers. Kate began her work in the field as both a market-rate and nonprofit housing developer, working on family, senior, and special needs housing. She graduated with honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received an M.A. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California’s Berkeley Law School. She lives with her family in Oakland.

Justin Chen

Justin (he/him) serves as Senior Vice President of Lending and Capital at the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund. Prior to joining SFHAF, he was Senior Loan Officer at Enterprise Community Loan Fund, where he closed on over $150 million in loans for affordable housing developments and community facilities in the Bay Area and nationally. Previously, Justin directed Nonprofit Finance Fund’s California lending program and was a Social Investments Analyst for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. At the start of his career, Justin served in various lending and credit roles at Barclays Capital in New York and City First Bank of D.C. He has a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and received his BA from Northwestern University. Justin lives in San Francisco with his family, and is a proud parent of two students in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Ji-Ho Park

Ji-Ho (they / them) joined the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund to support the Fund’s lending, pipeline, and fiscal operations. Prior to joining the SFHAF, Ji-Ho was an engagement manager at The Concord Group, a San Francisco-based real estate consulting firm, where they completed engagements in a variety of product types and asset classes, with a focus on multifamily development and urban infill projects. Ji-Ho is a graduate of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs and earned their B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University. While at Duke, Ji-Ho interned with Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco and worked closely with Durham-based community development nonprofit Community Empowerment Fund, providing job training, educational development, and financial coaching services. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by way of Springfield, Illinois, they now live in San Francisco.

Becca Hutman

Becca (she/her) joined SFHAF in 2018 to support construction management, internal financial monitoring, and press and communications. In 2018, she graduated from the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs. In 2017, she received her BA with High Honors from Wesleyan University where she also served as Student Body President. While in college, she interned at the Office of the Vice President in the White House, in the U.S. Senate, and at the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities project. Prior, she worked on the 2013 campaign and in the subsequent administration of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, on President Obama’s 2012 campaign, and as a dance and film production teacher. She is originally from Los Angeles and now lives in San Francisco.

Kati Vastola

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Kati (she/her) is proud to be preserving its vibrancy and livability through her work at the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund. She joined in January 2020 to support operations, communications, and special projects. Before coming on board at SFHAF, Kati served as the Regional Affairs Manager at KIPP Bay Area Public Schools, a high-performing public charter school network. She holds a BA with Honors from Brown University and an MA from UC Berkeley, both in U.S. History. When she’s not in the office, she enjoys biking and running around Oakland in search of new fruit trees.