When doomsday struck in 2022 with the first interest rate hike, Tiffany Dawson was already prepared. As a budding real estate investor she knew that refinances were losing steam, and the purchase market would be the new path forward. While many new MLOs did not last the year or make it far into 2023, Dawson excelled, closing 24 loans in one month and being promoted to Senior Loan Officer in her first year.

Nicole Haggard, PhD, Director of the Center for the Advancement for Women at Mount Saint Mary’s University, exposes the hidden costs women pay for products and services in just about every area of their lives. From healthcare to beauty standards. From a lack of access to venture capital to invisible domestic labor and unbalanced care work. All those added costs can be added to the list of barriers holding back more women from achieving homeownership.

Best-selling author and compliance professional Tory Haggerty discusses his new book, Thick Red Line, which breaks down how bias and discrimination can affect any and every part of the loan cycle from application to underwriting to pricing to marketing. Using case studies, Haggerty shows how some banks have navigated their way back to compliance and fair lending.

Have you ever seen a DEI campaign that made you physically cringe? That’s a common side effect to reading canned messaging from a company pandering to a certain demographic, whether its minorities or women or LGBTQ+ people. How does a mortgage company avoid such cringe-worthy pandering when trying to reach minority homebuyers? NAF Co-founder and CEO, Patty Arvielo, and her SVP of Growth and Expansion, Mosi Gatling, are here to explain the difference and teach listeners about authentic representation.

Finally, Gated Communities proudly welcomes one of the most respected figures in the mortgage industry, the man who brought DEI to the forefront, and runs the largest minority-focused mortgage association in the United States: Tony Thompson, founder and CEO of NAMMBA, also known as the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America. Thompson shares his story, the origins of NAMMBA, and why inclusion is the key ingredient for companies to achieve more profitability with diversity. Why do some companies see increased profits when diversifying the c-suite while others don’t? Inclusion, Thompson said; they’re not bringing the I in DEI.

Broker owner and CEO of Blue Dolphin Capital, Sam Harris III, candidly explains his thoughts on why the mortgage industry continues to fail Black and other under-resourced borrowers as well as aspiring mortgage professionals, despite the amount of DEI initiatives being implemented by companies and associations nationwide. It’s because people aren’t being intentional with their initiatives, Harris said. When a company needs to cut costs to improve on margin, executives ruthlessly slash expenses wherever necessary. But when a company fails to reach DEI goals, they pat their own backs for trying and nothing changes.

Mauro Guzzo, CEO of Guzzo & Co., wants his company to become the McDonalds of the mortgage industry. By that he means he wants the same international presence as McDonalds, offering consumers familiarity and simplicity if they relocate or buy real estate internationally. Guzzo’s goal is to make the process easier for more consumers, who typically have difficulty with the language barrier as well as the different regulations and procedures for getting a mortgage. But in order to establish such a dominant presence, he must earn the trust of foreign banks, regulators, and sometimes politicians who may not even know what a brokerage is.

Over the next 20 years, the Urban Institute forecasts that Latinos will be 70% of net new homeowners. UnidosUS, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, is on a mission to encourage the creation of 4 million new Latino homeowners by 2030. Senior housing policy analyst at UnidosUS, Sam Kenney, says the industry doesn’t have to wait because 8 million Latinos are mortgage ready right now!