From Practice to Policy: Public Investment, Heirs’ Property, and Stronger Local Economies
This session concludes our three-part series on practical advocacy and policy solutions that protect heirs’ property families. We will explore how public investment in legal support, housing assistance, landowner education, disaster recovery, and community-based solutions helps families protect the roof over their heads and the land under their feet — while strengthening local economies and stabilizing communities.
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET
Learn More About the Speakers
Senator Kim Jackson
Georgia State Senate
District 41
Kim Jackson serves as Senator for Georgia State Senate District 41 in Dekalb County and the Minority Whip for the Senate. Kim works every day to build a safer, fairer, and more prosperous Georgia, and bring the diverse voices of her district to the Capitol: immigrants, refugees, the unhoused, and people living on the margins.
In her years in office, Kim has defended our voting rights against relentless attacks; authored life-saving legislation for stalking victims; secured unprecedented funds for Black farmers, pre K programs, and those experiencing traumatic brain injuries; served as co-chair of the Mental Health Caucus and chair of the DeKalb County Delegation; and currently serves as Whip for the Senate Democratic Caucus. Most recently, Kim passed legislation to create an Address Confidentiality Program for survivors of domestic violence, stalking violence, and human trafficking.
An Episcopal priest from the rural South, Kim made Georgia home over a decade ago. After graduating from Furman University, Kim volunteered as an EMT before receiving her Master’s of Divinity at Emory’s Candler School of Theology. Over the past 10 years of ministry, she has served as a college chaplain, a nationally-renowned consultant and preacher, and Vicar for the Church of the Common Ground, a parish in downtown Atlanta co-creating church with those experiencing homelessness. Kim is the Senior Vice President of Programs at State Innovation Exchange (SiX), a national organization working to drive progressive policy change through state legislator policy support, strategic advice, and capacity-building.
She, her wife, and two boys live on an urban farm in Stone Mountain with a menagerie of goats, ducks, honeybees, rabbits, and chickens.
Sarah Bolling Mancini
Managing Director of Advocacy
National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)
Sarah Bolling Mancini is Managing Director of Advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) focusing on foreclosures, mortgage lending, and credit reporting issues.
Sarah is a co-author of the report, Keeping it in the Family: Legal Strategies to Address the Challenge of Heirs Property and Prevent Home Loss and lead author of Unmet Promise: Reverse Mortgage Servicing Challenges and How to Preserve Housing Stability for Older Adults.
She is the primary author of Truth in Lending. She is a contributing author to Home Foreclosures, Mortgage Servicing and Loan Modifications, Mortgage Lending, and Fair Credit Reporting.
Sarah is a fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, and a Director at the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute. She served as chair of the Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2023 to 24.
Before joining NCLC, Sarah worked in the Home Defense Program of Atlanta Legal Aid, and she represented homeowners in litigation in state, federal district, and bankruptcy courts. She also clerked for the Honorable Amy Totenberg, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Education:
J.D. Harvard Law School
B.A. Princeton University
Karama Neal, PhD
Principal
Neal Firm
Karama Neal, PhD is the principal for the Neal Firm which provides consulting and mediation services informed by her experience in rural community development, heirs’ property, and personal and community finance and her prior work in academic, corporate, philanthropic, nonprofit, and government sectors. In 2021, she launched the Heirs Property Information Project which grew out of a statewide grassroots organization she started in 2013 to promote passage of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act. The legislation was passed with no dissent in 2015. Arkansas was the fifth state in the US to pass this legislation. Dr. Neal is an heirs’ property owner and mediator and has worked nationally in heirs property policy, education, and research. She is a frequent speaker on family property issues and leads the national heirs’ property initiatives of the Asset Funders Network.
Dr. Neal was appointed by President Biden to serve as Administrator of Rural Business Cooperative Service, a Rural Development agency at the US Department of Agriculture. While at USDA, she testified twice before committees of the US House of Representatives. Prior, she served as President of Southern Bancorp Community Partners, a CDFI loan fund and financial development organization promoting economic mobility in rural Arkansas and Mississippi.
Dr. Neal’s first career was in the basic biosciences and she has taught at the high school, college, and graduate levels. After graduating from the historic Little Rock Central High School, She earned a BA in biology at Swarthmore College and later a doctorate in genetics from Emory University and a master’s in bioethics from Loyola University Chicago. She also completed executive education in impact investing at the University of Oxford Saïd School of Business. She is certified by the state of Arkansas to provide civil and probate mediation. Additional information is available at www.nealfirm.co.
