President

Nicki Cometa serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Affirmed Housing, a leading developer of affordable housing across California. With over 30 years of experience in finance, accounting, and real estate development, Nicki has played a key role in guiding organizations toward sustained growth, operational efficiency, and long-term success. Before joining the affordable housing sector, she held leadership positions with both private and publicly owned homebuilders, gaining extensive experience in development and construction finance.

Nicki’s passion for housing and community well-being extends far beyond her professional role. In 2008, she co-founded Love Your Lunchbox alongside Robin Martinez—the grassroots nonprofit that would eventually evolve into Compass for Affordable Housing. Her commitment to supporting residents and advancing community health continues through her service on the boards of the San Diego Housing Federation and Cardiff Housing Foundation.

A graduate of San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Nicki enjoys living in Southern California and traveling with her family.

Treasurer

James H. Laverty leads the Construction and Real Estate Practice Group for Marsh & McLennan Insurance Agency LLC. He has more than 25 years of experience providing risk management services to real estate clients across all asset classes including office, industrial, retail, multifamily, affordable housing, and homebuilding. He is a frequent speaker and panelist at various industry conferences including the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), the Information Management Network (IMN) Real Estate Private Equity Conference, and the Urban Land Institute. He is a board member for the NAIOP Foundation and serves as a Real Estate Committee member of the University of San Diego’s Burnham Moores Center for Real Estate. Mr. Laverty earned his bachelor’s degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He lives in Solana Beach with his wife, Kristina, and their two children. 

Secretary

Dr. Denise Gomez, PharmD MD trained as a pharmacist at UCSF School of Pharmacy before attending medical school at UC Irvine College of Medicine. She returned to school determined to work in a community health setting to provide high quality, compassionate care. Dr. Gomez completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Harbor-UCLA and immediately started working at TrueCare Clinic. She provides care for patients with complex medical conditions including geriatric, HIV, Hepatitis C, and transgender persons. Dr. Gomez has held several leadership roles over her tenure at TrueCare, including Lead Clinician at the Oceanside clinic, Associate Medical Director of Adult Medicine and Interim CMO, and currently, Director of Adult Medicine. Dr. Gomez was instrumental in initiating the clinical pharmacy program at TrueCare, participated and implemented two electronic medical record transitions, handled response and care coordination during the COVID pandemic, managed a remote patient monitoring program, and initiated a proctoring program for UCSD pharmacy and medical students. She is also the recipient of several awards including: Excellence in Clinical Quality, Provider of the Year, Leader of the Year, and multiple Continuous Quality Improvement awards. Dr. Gomez states her most prized award is the ability to care for patients and their families. She enjoys reading mystery thrillers, and spending time with her dogs and grandchildren.