About Our Pitch at Leadership Conference Speakers

Join us for our reimagined Pitch Nashville event from 5:30-8 p.m. on Thursday, March 21 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The evening will begin with a networking cocktail hour with young professionals dedicated to making Nashville the best it can be, followed by a seated dinner and presentations from our Pitch presenters, which include — Metro Council Member Burkley Allen, Alisha Haddock from the Housing Fund, Housing NOW Nashville, and more. Attendees will leave the event with a more well-rounded understanding of why affordable housing is essential for our city to address and how they can get involved as young professionals and future community leaders.

Meet our speakers below:

Burkley Allen
Council Member At Large

Burkley Allen moved to Nashville in 1982. She’s been active in local matters since receiving her first neighborhood newsletter, and after four decades here she has a deep knowledge and understanding of the city she now represents as Metro Councilmember At-Large.

Since her election to Metro Council in 2011, Burkley has focused on both district and city-wide issues. She worked successfully with neighborhood organizations to expand their historic overlays and to influence proposed developments to ensure that new projects were appropriate for the neighborhood. She has sponsored and passed legislation to allow and regulate outdoor music in commercial areas, require stormwater mitigation for urban infill, regulate short term rental, provide on-going funds to the Barnes Affordable Housing Fund, and provide tax incentives for affordably priced housing. She has invited constituents to join her on WeGo’s Bus Ride 101 on a regular basis, introducing many Nashvillians to the bus service for the first time. She was awarded Walk Bike Nashville’s Kibby Clayton Award in 2018 for her legislative work on sidewalks, greenways, and bikeways, and was listed in the Nashville Post’s 2022 In Charge List for Government and Politics. Burkley is an alum of Leadership Nashville’s Class of 2022.

Burkley has served on the Council’s Public Works, Budget, Planning, Health, Parks, and Convention Committees and Metro Homelessness Commission, the Metro Planning Commission, the Metro Board of Ethics, the Chamber of Commerce’s Education Report Committee, the Solid Waste Master Plan Task Force, the Vision Zero Task Force, the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Task Force, and the Greenways Commission. She served as Chair of the Budget, Planning, Charter Revision, and Affordable Housing Committees, Acting Vice-Mayor, and as Speaker Pro Tem of the Council.

Full bio here: https://www.burkley.org/burkleys-bio/

Hannah Davis
Metro Planning

Hannah Davis leads Nashville’s housing innovation and policy work at the Housing Division of Metro Planning. Davis worked at the Mayor’s Office for three years, under two administrations, growing the Barnes Housing Trust Fund from $26M to $100M+ over 3 years to create and preserve over 4,000 affordable units throughout Davidson County. Davis led the creation of the Housing Catalyst Fund, the Mixed-Income Housing PILOT and the Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program. Davis also assisted in launching a new Division of Housing where she proudly works to increase Nashville’s affordable housing tools.

Davis has spent her career at the intersection of impact, innovation, and markets. She was the Director of Community at the Social Enterprise Alliance, where she worked with over 1,000 startups, nonprofits and companies to increase their impact and drive innovation. Prior to that role, Davis worked in tax preparation, climate science, and East African microfinance. She serves as chair of the Margaret Maddox YMCA board. In her free time, Davis enjoys rollerblading, reading near her 3 year old son and pursuing her goal of visiting every country. 36 down, 159 to go!

Alisha Haddock
The Housing Fund

Alisha S. Haddock is Senior Vice President and Director of Community and Economic Development at The Housing Fund. Her overall work focuses on providing resources and creative leadership to help individuals and communities create and maintain affordable and healthy places in which low-to-moderate income people live. 

Alisha began at The Housing in March 2021, directing community impact efforts around preserving and maintaining homeownership for existing homeowners and the preservation of rental units in Nashville/Davidson County through grant resources.  Her efforts have led to hundreds of existing homeowners receiving property tax relief, COVID-19 grant assistance as well as preserving over nearly 500 rental units and impacting over 1,000 individuals through our landlord property tax relief grant.  Alisha also oversees Nashville’s first Community Land Trust, which has been instrumental in changing the narrative around affordable housing, permanent affordability, and creative homeownership opportunities.  Now as the head of community and economic development, her primary focus is the development and creation of affordable units and community facilities within the state of Tennessee. 

Before Alisha started her work at The Housing Fund, she led a local resource center located in North Nashville, the epicenter of the African American community. She worked to bring and enhance necessary resources such as housing stability programs, industry recognized workforce development training programs, small business training and resources, youth development and senior services to create real and lasting results of growth and transformation in the lives of Nashville community members.  

Alisha has served on the board of directors of nonprofit organizations and created and led programs for women and men to find their voice and place in society. She is the board chair of the Nashville Community Review Board, board member of Corner to Corner and an advisory board member of Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s and Memory Loss Institute.  She is an ordained minister and second-generation graduate of Belmont University. She enjoys spending quality time with her husband and son, traveling, and listening to music.