Tabitha Aktins

Tabitha is founder and chief executive officer of the Atkins Group, where she leads strategic initiatives to drive economic revitalization and create sustainable financial solutions for underserved communities. She has extensive expertise in community development finance, strategic partnerships, and creative structured financing tools to develop and manage impact projects across various sectors, including technology, health care, and food distribution.

Previously, Tabitha was executive director of the Urban Action Community Development and a senior advisor for Cross Street Partners’ Financial Advisory division. At Cross Street Partners/UACD, she played a critical role in sourcing, underwriting, and managing a portfolio of development projects in low-income urban areas utilizing tools such as New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, and tax-increment financing.

Over the past 15 years, Tabitha has worked with community development financial institutions, community development entities , banks, and government agencies to promote economic growth in distressed communities and expand access to affordable financial products for low-income individuals. Prior to her tenure at UACD/Cross Street Partners, she was the vice president of community development for City First Bank in Washington, D.C., where she managed programs and partnerships, provided data analysis and reporting for the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act activity, and supported underwriting and asset management for its NMTC portfolio.

Earlier in her career, Tabitha was the new markets program manager at the National Trust Community Investment Corp., overseeing compliance, asset management, and community benefit agreements for adaptive reuse of historic real estate projects nationwide. She has also held significant roles with the Opportunity Finance Network and the CDFI Fund, and is known as a leader in community development finance.