GENERAL SESSION: Government Policy Update

2024 MBA Chair-Elect; President, Lennar Mortgage

A 30-year mortgage industry veteran, Laura has held leadership positions with both bank-owned and independent mortgage companies overseeing all aspects of mortgage banking including production, operations, compliance, accounting and training. Her personal ground-level experience in every facet of mortgage lending has enabled her to manage and fully integrate all these departments within Lennar Mortgage. Escobar is also a licensed mental health counselor and devotes much of her time working with underprivileged women.

Executive Director, Loan Guaranty Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

John E. Bell III began serving as Executive Director, Loan Guaranty Service, on June 21, 2022. He is responsible for delivering VA Home Loan Benefits to his fellow Veterans. Mr. Bell has extensive mortgage industry experience having served in leadership roles with nationwide lenders for over 20 years before starting his career with VA in 2010. Mr. Bell’s top priorities are ensuring that VA home loan benefits are the product of choice for Veterans and that Loan Guaranty is the VA program of choice for his 900 talented staff. As Deputy Director, Mr. Bell was instrumental in VA Loan Guaranty Service’s fast response during the COVID-19 pandemic through frequent communications and the issuance of guidance which ensured that home loan benefits continued to be delivered to Veterans without delay and reassured industry partners at this critical time. As Assistant Director, Mr. Bell leveraged his industry experience to initiate Loan Guaranty’s transformation to better align with the fast-paced mortgage industry. Several key projects included automating Certificate of Eligibility (COE) functionality, implementing national workload for full file loan reviews and COEs, and national workload for program specific phone calls. Mr. Bell began his career in mortgage finance while attending Lambuth University in Jackson, TN. Mr. Bell served in the US Navy during Operation Restore Hope and the Gulf War.

FHA Commissioner, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Julia R. Gordon serves as the Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Ms. Gordon was nominated for this role by President Biden and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 12, 2022. Throughout her career, Ms. Gordon has been both a strong advocate for and hands-on practitioner working to achieve equal justice, fairness and equity in housing, and consumer protections. As Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner, Ms. Gordon is responsible for HUD’s policies, programs, and operations supporting the nation’s homebuyers, homeowners, renters, and communities. She is responsible for the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Single Family, Multifamily and Healthcare mortgage insurance programs which currently serve more than 7.5 million homeowners, some 1.4 million renters, and approximately 4,000 healthcare facilities across the U.S. and its territories. In addition, Ms. Gordon is responsible for HUD’s Multifamily assisted housing portfolio which serves more than 1.2 million low-income residents, the administration of HUD’s housing counseling program, and the development and oversight of federal standards for the design and construction of manufactured homes. Prior to joining HUD, Ms. Gordon was most recently the President of the National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST) where she was a passionate advocate and leader for housing equality and neighborhood investment, launching multiple new initiatives supporting neighborhood stabilization and affordable housing. From 2012 through 2015, Ms. Gordon was a senior leader at the Center for American Progress where she led the Center’s work to address access to affordable homeownership and rental housing, and safe financial products and services. In previous roles, including a leadership role the Federal Housing Finance Agency and at the Center for Responsible Lending, Ms. Gordon was instrumental in grassroots efforts to shape mortgage and housing finance laws, regulations, and programs to protect homeownership and family wealth, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and the Making Home Affordable program. Ms. Gordon received her bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Executive Director, Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA Rural Development

Ingrid Ripley is the Executive Director for Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) for the USDA Rural Housing Service and directs a guaranteed portfolio of $114B. Ripley has over 38 years experience in performance management, strategic planning, loan administration, risk management and primary/secondary financial service markets operations for both public and private sectors. She is recognized for her expertise executing multi-million-dollar multifaceted contracts delivering transformative technology lending platforms, and extensive experience leading reorganizations and initiatives for USDA. Ripley has led multiple Small Business Administration (SBA) high-risk mission-critical contract transitions of innovative loan origination platforms.

Acting President, Ginnie Mae