Marla Bilonick

Marla Bilonick serves as President and CEO of NALCAB. She is a seasoned leader in economic and community development with over 20 years of experience in small business development, community-based financial services, particularly focused on Latin America and uplifting the economic contributions of the US Latino population.

In 2021, Marla was appointed Chair of the US Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund Community Development Advisory Board. She is the first Latino and only the second woman to hold this position in the board’s 27-year history. She also serves on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion, where she advises the agency on strategies to expand access to banking services for underserved communities.
Prior to joining NALCAB, Marla served as Executive Director of the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) in Washington, DC, where she led efforts to advance the economic and social mobility of low- to moderate-income Latino communities to propel the local economy. From 2016 to 2020, she also served as a member of NALCAB’s Board of Directors.

Earlier in her career, Marla worked at Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), managing multimillion-dollar international development contracts in countries including Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, and her native Panama. She also served as Director of Seedco’s Upper Manhattan Business Solutions Center in Harlem, a public-private initiative supporting small businesses with access to capital and consulting services. Additionally, she helped lead Seedco’s long-term small business recovery strategy following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Marla holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an MA in International Economics and Latin American Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

She is a former Aspen Institute Emerging Leaders in Microbusiness (ELM2) Fellow and a graduate of the Citi/Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) Leadership Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves on the Community Advisory Councils for Capital One and PNC Bank and has advised Wells Fargo’s regional Where We Live initiative. In 2015, she was named a Community Champion by Capital One Bank for the Washington, DC metropolitan area.