Brian Daskalovitz, CPA, MBA, is a distinguished financial professional with a rich background in accounting, finance, risk management, and banking. Over the years, Brian has successfully steered multiple organizations through reengineering and modernization initiatives, driving sustainable growth.

Brian’s most recent role was as Director of Risk Management at DreamSpring CDFI from 2021 to 2023, where he played a pivotal role in spearheading and managing key departments, fortifying fraud prevention protocols, and implementing innovative technologies to streamline lending processes. Prior to this, he served as Interim CFO at the same organization, showcasing his ability to architect sophisticated control structures and manage finances with precision.  Brian’s career journey also includes significant achievements as a Fractional CFO at Red Rocks Federal Credit Union and as Chief Finance Officer at NextMark Federal Credit Union, where he achieved remarkable revenue and net income growth. Brian was awarded the CFO of the year in 2017 by Credit Union Times

Brian is a CPA in the state of Maryland.  With a Master of Business Administration from the University of Baltimore and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Towson University, Brian’s qualifications are complemented by his active involvement in the community, as evidenced by his volunteer work with the Town of Hamilton’s Planning Commission and his candidacy for Mayor in October 2022. Brian has one daughter and loves coaching her baseball team.

Daniella Djiogan serves as the Small Business Support Services, Associate Director. She previously managed the small business and entrepreneurship program at the Washington DC Economic Partnership where she cultivated strategic partnerships, provided program leadership, developed resources, and assisted hundreds of entrepreneurs and businesses looking to start and grow in the district.

Daniella has also worked for the Charles County Economic Development Department in Southern Maryland, where she contributed in planning, developing, and implementing strategic economic development projects in target industry sectors. She holds a master’s degree in International Development and a bachelor’s degree in Economics. Originally from Cameroon, Daniella is a polyglot with fluency in English, French and her native dialect.

Doug Mollett is NCRC’s Workforce Development Program Manager. He will be based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Before coming to NCRC, Doug was Manager of Economic Empowerment Programs at Easterseals serving Greater Cincinnati. There, he oversaw four workforce development programs designed to help low-income job seekers remove the barriers that were standing in the way of long-term, gainful employment. Doug’s favorite part of that work was the voice that bridges the viewpoints of job seekers, employers and community development leaders. He also has a background in affordable housing work, including eviction and foreclosure prevention, and in-depth knowledge of federally-funded public assistance programs.

Doug has bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science and Spanish from Georgetown College (Kentucky) and a master’s degree (MA) in Urban Sustainability from Xavier University and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Northern Kentucky University. 

Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, reading and traveling.

Lexine Varughis is NCRC Community Development Fund’s CDFI Program Specialist. She was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, IL, and comes from a background in the legal and mortgage industry, and in affordable housing, while working with many housing agencies across the country.

Lexine holds a master’s degree in public policy, human rights advocacy from Adler University, Chicago, and a bachelor’s in political science from Michigan State University. Through this educational experience, she was able to see how political, social and economic change is evaluated, and how policy recommendations are developed and implemented especially for communities that are in need.

Lexine enjoys volunteering and serving in the community, and leading people to serve in the communities around her. She has a heart for social justice and believes everyone has the right to reach their full potential in this world.

Simon “Mac” McNeil is the Executive Director of NCRC’s Community Development Fund (NCRC CDF). He is a top performing executive with multinational business experience that understands how to motivate large and small staffs of leaders to achieve high-level and demanding goals, while balancing employee work satisfaction. Named as one of the 10 Most Influential Black Corporate Leaders to Watch in 2023 by CIO Views Magazine, he most recently reported to the CEO of the Sanneh Foundation as Executive Vice President and led all business functions and senior leadership teams of the organization to include, data management, external affairs and partnerships, finance, fundraising, human resources, learning and development, operations, programming, risk and threat management, strategic branding and sustainability, strategic initiatives, and technology.

Mac has 19 years of finance and executive leadership experience with large banks such as JPMorgan Chase, where he was a 1st Vice President District Manager in Arizona and Southern California, and at Bank of America as Vice President/Operations Market Manager in the Inland Empire of California. Mac was the executive operations leader for 60 financial centers and had direct responsibility for a $2 billion P&L and over 500 employees. He was Vice President Operations for Synchrony Bank and led the Operations Optimization team to include Agile project management methodology, process improvement transformation, robotic process automation, intelligence character recognition implementation, the IRA and Trust front office operations teams and the bank correspondence and ATM card teams with operations in Charlotte, North Carolina; Merriam, Kansas; and Manila, Philippines.

Mac also has executive leadership experience in the CDFI space. He led all enterprise operations as Senior Vice President of Operations for the Community Reinvestment Fund, USA, which included asset management, credit underwriting, customer engagement, data management and analytics, loan origination and closing, loan servicing, process governance, risk and controls, technology and vendor relations.

Mac began his leadership career in the United States Army as an Intelligence Analyst in the Special Operations Command, specializing in psychological operations and is a Desert Storm Veteran. 

Mac has a doctorate (ABD) from the University of Phoenix in Management in Organizational Leadership, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a BS in Business Administration from Pfeiffer University.

Mac has served on several boards to include Feeding America of Greater Riverside, Inspire Life Skills Training, and was the co-lead for the African American Network Charlotte for Synchrony.  He has also been featured in Who’s Who of Black Charlotte.

Patrick Dixon has experience serving low-income African American communities through volunteering, interning, and work experience. His passion, mission, and purpose lie in helping those who are overlooked and underserved. His ultimate goal in his career is to expand awareness and access to economic development for groups who are underserved. He believes that closing access and opportunity gaps while empowering the underserved are not only the best way to create more equitable economies, it is simply the right thing to do. To achieve his goals, he plans to gain real-world experience in economic development so that he is in a position to build opportunities for others. He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and is originally from Blythewood, SC.