Albert Lerma has over thirty years of public sector experience in the fields of community economic development, development finance, business attraction and retention, research, real estate development, workforce development and training programs, and higher education issues related to minority communities. Prior to launching ImpactNow Advisors, he served as the Director of Business Development & Innovation at the Sonoma County Economic Development Board for seven years where he oversaw agency program operations that included economic development business assistance services, administrative and fiscal operations, research, economic forecasts conferences, and strategic program development. He served on the Sonoma County Workforce Investment Board and the Sonoma County Transportation Authority Citizens Advisory Committee where he served as an advisor on workforce development and transportation issues.

​

Previously Mr. Lerma served as the Program Director of Community Economic Development for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Community Development for nearly a decade under the administrations of both Mayor’s Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown. At the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Community Development, he worked extensively with neighborhood nonprofit agencies in the provision of economic development and micro-enterprise development services in San Francisco’s underserved and low-income neighborhoods.  He also managed the city’s Small Business Revolving Loan Fund that provided loans for small businesses that could not access traditional sources of capital for business startup or business expansion projects.

​

Early on Mr. Lerma worked for ten years in Indiana state government at the Indiana Department of Commerce where he served as the Deputy Director of Development Finance under the administration of Governor Evan Bayh and Lt. Governor Frank O’Bannon.  His work included administering economic development financing programs and workforce development training grant programs that supported business attraction and retention efforts statewide, with a focus on workforce development training issues facing employers in the manufacturing sector for the State of Indiana. Mr. Lerma worked to expand the use of innovative training and workforce development strategies as incentives to attract business and industry to locate and expand in the State of Indiana that included a portfolio of Fortune 500 companies.

 

He began his career by serving  as the Coordinator of Latino Services at the Office of Latino Affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington, an advocacy office providing student recruitment, career placement, academic and cultural support systems for Latino college students at the Indiana University-Bloomington main campus.  He holds a Master of Public Affairs (M.P.A) in Public Finance from The O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University - Bloomington campus and a B.A. with double majors in Economics and Journalism from the Indiana University - Bloomington campus.