Larisa Kofman is a nationally recognized expert on domestic violence, housing, and systems coordination with more than 25 years of experience in the domestic violence field and nearly 20 years of specialized expertise at the intersection of domestic violence and housing. Her work spans national, state, and local initiatives focused on public policy, business operations, systemic alignment, protocol design, capacity building, technical assistance, and training.

Larisa is widely regarded as a leading authority on the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Housing Title and has been instrumental in VAWA reauthorization efforts since 2005, including helping draft portions of the Housing Title and negotiating agreements among key stakeholders. She provides training and technical assistance to Continuums of Care (CoCs), Public Housing Authorities, victim service providers, statewide coalitions, legal service organizations, and government agencies on VAWA, VOCA, and FVPSA compliance and policy development. Her expertise includes emergency transfer policy and protocol design, confidentiality and data collection requirements, lease and notice obligations, coordinated entry systems, and survivor-centered housing access.

Larisa has worked directly with CoCs systems across the United States to design and implement trauma-informed, survivor-centered coordinated entry assessment processes, develop accessible coordinated entry systems and parallel survivor coordinated entry systems, and operationalize emergency transfer plans that support survivors’ access to housing and homeless services. In 2020, she co-authored the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Interim Emergency Transfer Policy and related implementation materials.

In addition to her policy and systems work, Larisa currently serves as an adjunct Associate Professor at University of Maryland Global Campus. She holds a Juris Doctor from University of Maryland School of Law and a Master of Arts in Teaching from University of Southern California.

Biography coming soon

Karma Cottman is a nationally recognized leader in the gender-based violence (GBV) field with more than 25 years of experience advancing survivor-centered policy, systems change, and cross-sector collaboration at the local, state, national, and international levels. She is widely regarded as a leading expert on the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA), with extensive experience strengthening housing, victim services, and community responses for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of GBV.

Karma currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Ujima,The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community, where she works to expand housing options for survivors. Previously, Karma served for a decade as Executive Director of the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where she increased housing resources for survivors by securing additional funds and developing partnerships with the local Continuum of Care. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Policy and Emerging Issues at National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), where she directed the organization’s national policy agenda, established and led the transitional housing technical assistance initiative, and supervised NNEDV’s state coalition work. In that role, she worked closely with national policy partners and federal agencies to strengthen legislation and enhance local, state, and national responses to domestic violence survivors.

Karma’s current policy and systems-change work focuses on strengthening cross-sector partnerships among healthcare agencies, affordable housing providers, financial institutions, and victim service organizations to expand survivor safety, housing stability, and economic opportunity. Across her leadership roles, Karma has been instrumental in establishing federal funding streams and national technical assistance centers aimed at increasing access to resources and sustainable support for culturally specific service providers and underserved communities.

Debbie Piltch is a nationally recognized attorney, trainer, and compliance expert with decades of experience in fair housing, employment law, discrimination law, affordable housing compliance, and civil rights. Debbie currently serves as Vice President of Compliance for Maloney Properties, Inc., where she oversees all compliance and regulatory matters for the organization. Since joining the senior staff of Maloney Properties, Inc. in 2002, she has been responsible for developing and updating regulatory compliance and fair housing protocols, conducting live and webinar-based trainings for staff, supervising compliance personnel, and coordinating with state monitoring agencies during site audits. 

Prior to joining Maloney Properties, Debbie founded Piltch Associates, Inc., a consulting firm established in 1994 that provides technical assistance and training to government agencies, housing providers, employers, and private organizations on civil rights, employment law and housing law compliance. Through her consulting work, she has developed a national reputation in discrimination law and housing law, assisting organizations in designing compliance protocols, reviewing policies and procedures, and implementing training programs focused on affordable housing admission and occupancy issues, fair housing, reasonable accommodations, disability rights, harassment, employment law, and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) compliance.

Debbie holds a master’s degree in labor relations, is a trained mediator, a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, and continues to be a sought-after consultant, trainer, and advisor on fair housing, reasonable accommodation, harassment, compliance, and affordable housing management nationwide.