Alison Rossen Feighan

Alison devoted her life to expanding opportunities for people and communities too often left behind and without access to capital. She made and kept friends for life. She mentored countless young men and women and delighted friends and family with her inimitable sense of fashion, talent as an artist, and sharp sense of humor, which she often acknowledged was not intended for people who did not appreciate sarcasm.

She prided herself on being an excellent lobbyist, focusing on what she knew, not who she knew. She channeled her ability to master arcane details of the law and regulatory policy with an intrepid passion for economic empowerment and justice to deliver results. Through the Feighan Team, the firm she founded and led for ten years, she became a trusted advisor to national nonprofits, community lenders, coalitions, and advocacy networks working to strengthen families, small businesses, and local economies. Her work was grounded in a simple but powerful belief: policy is ultimately about people, and every community deserves the chance to thrive.

She began her career at Quincy Community Action, literally working out of a closet, advocating for access to affordable housing and other services. For many years, she was Vice President of Robert. A Rapoza Associates. There, she played a critical role in building a coalition in support of the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) administered by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) at the Treasury Department. She helped CDFIs based in cities, rural areas, and Tribal lands secure funds that spurred economic activity and opportunity. She also led lobbying efforts to support Small Business Administration (SBA) programs, notably microloan lending programs.

She played a transformative role in community finance. Her work with the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) advanced some of the most important federal tools for expanding access to affordable capital. She built support for the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program Improvement Act, championed amendments to strengthen the CDFI Fund, and guided CRF’s appropriations strategy with precision and heart. She understood that long term, low cost capital could change the trajectory of entire communities—fueling small businesses, childcare centers, affordable housing, and community infrastructure.

The Mission Lenders Working Group, a national coalition she built from the ground up, became a powerful voice for SBA authorized community lenders. She also played a key role in shaping the national conversation around fair lending. Through her work with the Responsible Business Lending Coalition, she helped build a unified advocacy voice for transparency and responsible practices in small business financing.

Finally, she was passionate about improving the lives of migrant and seasonal farm workers who toil in often terrible conditions to put food on our tables. Alison was a galvanizing force behind ensuring funding and access to the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program. Because of her unwavering dedication for over 25 years, she established an enduring presence of the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association in Washington, D.C., ensuring that the voices of agricultural worker families were not only heard but respected at the highest levels of policy and decision-making. Ever persistent and deeply engaged with policymakers and families, she dedicated more than five years to shaping, refining, and advancing the Head Start Act—work that culminated in the landmark Head Start Reauthorization of 2008, which strengthened and modernized the program for generations to come. She was also instrumental in broadening the federal definition of “agricultural worker,” opening doors for entire sectors of farm working families to access and benefit from AgFamilies Head Start (formerly Migrant and Seasonal Head Start). She loved mentoring young people from migrant families who participated in the NAFHSA’s Summer Internship Program. You may honor her legacy by supporting this program here.

Her life’s work is filled with many more examples. Across every partnership, Alison brought a rare combination of strategic insight, policy fluency, and deep humanity. She had an extraordinary ability to translate complex federal processes into clear, actionable pathways and did it with integrity and genuine care for the people behind the work.

Always an artist at heart, in the last month, she painted and created a collage that paid tribute to the heroism of migrant farm workers. She had an eye for fashion. As a teenager, she sent drawings of her fashion ideas to the famed designer Bob Mackie. Even in the final weeks of her life, strangers would complement her personal fashion touches.

Alison was born November 15, 1961, in Cleveland, OH, the daughter of John T. Feighan, IV, and Lynne Rossen Feighan. She graduated from the Laurel School in Shaker Heights, OH in 1980, attended Wellesley College, and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1984. There, she formed lifelong friendships with kindred spirits in the Progressive Student Alliance. While proud of her roots in Ohio, she invariably called out “Go Blue” at the sight of a Michigan sweatshirt or bumper sticker. She earned an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University in 1990. She then volunteered for three months with the Southern Africa Cooperative Network and traveled on her own through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Namibia.

She was predeceased by her father, John Feighan. She is survived by her devoted and loving husband of 29 years, Stephen J. Norton, and their two children, Lincoln and Rose, of Washington, DC, as well as the family schnoodle, Rigby, who has licked away many tears. While Lincoln and Rose were robbed of years they should have enjoyed with her, Alison’s pride in them was limitless. She nurtured Lincoln’s love of the blues, Rose’s artistic talent, and their work ethic, moral compass, and empathy for others.

She is also survived by her mother, Lynne R. Feighan, her brother, John E. Feighan, M.D., sister-in-law Elizabeth (Briggs) Feighan, M.D., nephew Alex M. Feighan and his wife Katy (Kleinhenz), and their son, John, niece Delaney R. Lawrence, and her husband, Wyatt, all of Cleveland. Alison is also survived by her mother-in-law, Constance M. Norton of Annapolis, MD, three sisters-in-law, Susan McCormick, Ellen Kranefuss, and Hope Zuleta, their spouses, nieces Brooke McCormick, Caroline Kranefuss, and Olivia Kranefuss, and nephew Conner Zuleta.

A memorial will take place at noon on Saturday, April 18 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill, to be followed by a celebration of Alison’s life in the North Hall of Eastern Market on 7th Street.