About Us

Who we are

The Wealth Accelerator is a collaboration between ConnCORP, ConnCAT, The Connecticut Project, Public Finance Initiative, Graustein Memorial Fund and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven designed to close the racial wealth gap by launching wealth-building interventions for low and moderate income Connecticut families.

How we started

The Wealth Accelerator began in 2021 with a question posed by Erik Clemons:

What would it take to aggressively eradicate poverty in the state of Connecticut?

Over the past few years, this question developed into action, bringing along organizations like ConnCORP, ConnCAT, M&T Bank, Edward Jones, Graustein Memorial Fund, Public Finance Initiative, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and the Connecticut Project, who have been instrumental in creating the infrastructure for this work.

Today, in conjunction with a 10 member Council of New Haven residents, we are building out the answer to Erik’s question by launching wealth-building programs for Connecticut’s low and moderate income families.

Our Steering Committee

Erik Clemons

Founder and CEO at ConnCAT, Founder and CEO at ConnCORP
Mirellise Vazquez

Vice President of Investment, The Connecticut Project
Sheena Strawter-Anthony

Director of Impact Investment, Graustein Memorial Fund
Lourdes German

Executive Director, The Public Finance Initiative
Karen DuBois-Walton

President & CEO, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Alexis Willoughby-Robinson

Associate Director for Outreach & Engagement, Yale SOM