Natalie Hodge Davis has been named Community Market Lead for Southern Virginia at Locus.
Richmond, VA — Locus, a Virginia-based Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), is proud to announce the appointment of Natalie Hodge Davis as the Community Market Lead for Southern Virginia. A dynamic storyteller and ecosystem builder, Davis has been at the forefront of impactful community engagement since returning to the region in 2016. With a background in workforce development and media production, she has consistently leveraged storytelling and partnership-driven strategies to drive economic growth and opportunity.
In this new role, Davis will serve as a bridge between Southern Virginia communities and the capital solutions Locus can provide. She will listen to the needs of residents, civic leaders, and business owners—showing up at town halls, community centers, coffee shops, and special events—to gather insights and share them with Locus and key partners who can create innovative, high-impact community investments. With a focus on affordable housing, business development, food access, and clean energy, she aims to ensure all communities in Southern Virginia benefit from the region’s dynamic expansion.
“I see this work as a natural extension of the successful partnerships I’ve built in workforce development and the storytelling I continue to champion through Rudy’s Girl Media,” said Davis. “Southern Virginia is poised for transformative growth, and I want to ensure that every community has a voice in shaping its future.”
In addition to her local engagement efforts, Davis will represent Locus and Southern Virginia at statewide and national conferences on community-focused economic development. She will share the region’s successes, learn best practices across the field, and bring innovative strategies back home.
While taking on this new leadership role, Davis remains fully committed to the mission of Rudy’s Girl Media—continuing to elevate and celebrate great storytelling in all places, with all people.
Locus is excited to be working in alignment and partnership with Community Investment Collaborative (CIC), a Charlottesville-based CDFI focused on business microloans and comprehensive entrepreneur support, that has expanded into Southern Virginia. Together the team is committed to increasing access to capital and other resources needed to advance the region’s priorities.
As recognized by the Opportunity Finance Network, “America’s 1,432 CDFIs across every U.S. state and territory are the backbone of our local economies, supporting small business owners, catalyzing private sector investment, and creating or retaining more than one million jobs annually across America.”
To learn more about Locus’ work within the region, connect with Natalie Hodge Davis at ndavis@locusimpact.org. To learn more about CIC, contact DaShanna Carr, CIC’s new Southern Virginia loan officer, at dashanna@cicville.org.
About Locus
Locus (formerly Virginia Community Capital) is a $395 million nonprofit and parent organization for a family of social enterprises, which includes Locus Bank, Locus Impact Fund, Locus Capital, and the Community Investment Guarantee Pool, or CIGP. The mission of Locus is to create access to capital by developing community partnerships and innovative tools that tackle systemic challenges and advance opportunities. Locus employs solutions including lending, banking, impact-driven programs, place-based investments, and strategic consulting and works with each community to build investment strategies that lift their assets and meet their unique needs. To learn more, visit locusimpact.org.
About Community Investment Collaborative
Community Investment Collaborative (CIC) was founded in 2011. Its mission is to strengthen our community and contribute to economic development by fueling the success of under-resourced entrepreneurs through education, mentoring, financing, and networking. Learn more about CIC at www.cicville.org.