Southern California Student Housing & Higher Education Summit

As Chief Operating Officer, Natalie plays a direct role in formulating and executing the company’s strategy, and oversees its Acquisitions, Asset Management, Marketing, Investor Relations, Human Resources and Capital Markets activities. Prior to joining MJW Investments, Natalie served as Senior Vice President at Entrada Partners, where she was responsible for all acquisitions, financings and dispositions. During her four-year tenure, Entrada’s portfolio size nearly tripled. Before Entrada, Natalie was a Director in the acquisitions team at Rexford Industrial Realty (NYSE: REXR), where she completed fifteen acquisitions and was responsible for all asset dispositions. She also held the position of Senior Asset Manager at Colony Capital and worked in Wells Fargo’s REO Group; in each of these roles she managed nationwide portfolios comprised of 100+ commercial real estate owned (REO) assets and nonperforming loans across all property types. Natalie also served as Assistant Vice President in the finance group at Lowe Enterprises, closing over $800 million in loan transactions. She began her career in UBS Investment Bank’s Real Estate, Lodging & Leisure Group, focusing on M&A transactions and private equity placements. Currently, Natalie is President of the UCLA Real Estate Alumni Group. She is also an active member of the Urban Land Institute, where she sits on the Multifamily Council. She is affiliated with several philanthropic organizations, including the Israel Democracy Institute. Natalie received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College at Columbia University (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), and a Masters in Business Administration from UCLA Anderson School of Management (Dean’s List).

Pete Angelis is Assistant Vice Chancellor of UCLA Housing & Hospitality Services and has served in his current position since 2007. In his current capacity at UCLA, he oversees a service driven auxiliary enterprise that generates over $330M in annual revenues and employs approximately 2700 team members. The operation houses more than 17,000 students, faculty and staff and serves roughly 30,000 meals daily. The hospitality division includes the 4 star Meyer & Renee Luskin Conference Center, UCLA Guest House and Lake Arrowhead Conference Center; Bruinwoods Resort. Prior to his appointment as Assistant Vice Chancellor, Pete worked in the hospitality industry for more than 20 years with industry leaders working with industry leaders such as Hyatt Corporation and Hilton Worldwide Hotels. Pete received his B.A. in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and completed the Executive Program at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Pete and the UCLA Housing & Hospitality Services team are focused on continuing a tradition of excellence in providing premier residential housing, dining, and other hospitality services for students, visiting conference guests, and UCLA faculty and staff. Under Pete’s leadership, the H&HS team has consistently achieved top customer and team member satisfaction scores, while funding well over $1 billion dollars in housing developments and renovations that are either underway or in the early planning stages.

Regional Vice President-Development, Student Living with The Michaels Organization (Michaels), leading the company’s public-private partnerships with higher education institutions in California, by bringing nearly 20 years of real estate development and finance experience including the development of large-scale housing and dining facilities that utilized public-private partnership (P3) delivery models. In addition to delivering P3 real estatement development projects on-campus, Raoul is the company's leader for off-campus student housing development in California.

Dr. Conn provides leadership and oversight for Student Housing and Residential Life at CSUN. Dr. Conn received his Doctorate in Education from New York University and has experience working in both small and large, private and public institutions. Dr. Conn has and continues to serve on local, regional, and national associations within residence life and LGBTQ+ advocacy. Dr. Conn has nearly fifteen years of experience working with and researching the topic of emotional intelligence and related dynamics within both student and professional staff. His passion for this content has inspired a number of initiatives in the areas of staff development, professional advancement, and divisional onboarding all informed by ongoing research and assessment efforts. Dr. Conn has a strong passion for research turned engagement and has partnered with colleagues on international ACUHO-I grant-funded research projects focused on the evolving role of the Resident Assistant. Furthermore, Dr. Conn just published a book entitled, Evolving Landscape of Residential Education, which is a collaboration with several global colleagues in the field. In his spare time, he is an avid marathon runner, foodie, and travel enthusiast.

Design & Construction Services (DCS) is a group of dedicated architects, engineers, project managers, inspectors, contract administrators, and support staff responsible for the implementation and management of the campus capital program. The department is comprised of five units: Budget & Finance Administration / Contract Administration / Construction & Inspection / Project Management / Quality Assurance. The department is led by Brian Pratt, Associate Vice Chancellor & campus architect, who is the designated building official for the campus.

Vincent Polhemus is Senior Business Development Manager at Clark Pacific, a leading design- manufacturer-builder of prefabricated building systems. Vincent’s experience in prefabricated building systems spans 20 years in Southern California and includes unitized curtainwalls, window walls, aluminum panels systems, architectural precast concrete, thin-shell concrete and GFRC. Starting as a project manager for a glazing contractor, Vincent moved to Preconstruction in 2016, and has worked on award winning projects throughout California, including the California New Natural Resources Building in Sacramento, 510 S Vermont in Los Angeles and One Westside in Los Angeles.

A graduate of Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, David formed McCullough Landscape Architecture as a sole proprietorship in 1999 while consulting for another firm. After wife and partner, Catherine joined the business in 2001 and became Chief Executive Officer and President in 2002; the firm became a woman-owned corporation and a certified Small Business by the State of California. With offices in San Diego and the Bay Area, McCullough creates spaces for hospitality, retail, mixed-use and institutional properties around the world. As principal landscape architect, David oversees all aspects of the design and production of firm projects at McCullough. He serves as head designer on all projects and maintains quality control on all work completed. Previous projects have earned awards and recognition in several national publications. David finds time in his schedule to take leadership in creative organizations such as the the San Diego Architecture Foundation (SDAF) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) local Urban Design Committee. He currently serves as Chair of the Pecha Kucha Night program, which is on its sixth successful year. He finds it inspiring to take part in such a diverse mix of creative minds while bringing them together to share with the public their wild ideas. In addition, recently David was appointed by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer to serve on the Historical Resources Board as Chair, which governs the identification, protection, retention and preservation of historical sites in San Diego. Concurrently, he has been invited to serve on the city’s Code Monitoring Team (CMT). David’s design philosophy is centered around merging context and creative passion with grit, soul, and style. The firm takes every project with a uniquely creative approach that centers around diversity, discovery and conservation. David feels it’s important to engage the human spirit with nature, while expressing empathy. Recent projects include a large waterfront development in Shanghai, China, Seaport San Diego redevelopment, several multifamily projects in Calgary and Vancouver, along with other notable hospitality, entertainment, and mixed-use collaborations in the Western US and Canada.