James Carras

Adjunct Professor, Harvard University & Principal, Carras Community Investment Inc.

James Carras is the principal of Carras Community Investment, Inc., a nationally recognized boutique community and economic development finance consulting firm.

He is also an adjunct lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Carras has facilitated the creation of over fifty community development corporations and development financial institutions as well as authored numerous affordable housing studies and revitalization plans.

He has served as the founding executive director of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders and as the founding president of the Broward Housing Partnership and the South Florida Community Land Trust.

Prior to establishing his consulting business, he served as a community development advisor to the mayor of Boston and was the executive director of the Massachusetts Urban Reinvestment Advisory Group, where he was awarded the John Hay Whitney Fellowship. Carras is also recognized as a national expert on the Community Reinvestment Act, opportunity zones, and other development tools and their implementation in low opportunity communities.

Carras was awarded a BA in urban sociology from Suffolk University in Boston, completed graduate work at Tufts University’s Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and received an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in public administration.

He is certified by the National Development Council (NDC) as an economic development finance professional and completed NDC’s rental housing finance course. He is also certified as a leadership facilitator by the Lincoln Land Institute.

James previously served as the chairperson of the Broward Housing Council and completed a four-year term on the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Board of Directors.