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On July 29th-31st, the Women in the Housing & Real Estate Ecosystem (NAWRB) hosted the 2018 NAWRB 5th Annual Conference, “Year of Women,” in Chicago, Illinois at The Standard Club, featuring incredible discussions, presentations and new connections at this diverse, high-profile gathering of thought leaders and industry experts.
Keynote Address by First Lady of Illinois Diana Mendley Rauner, Ph.D.
Diana Mendley Rauner, Ph.D., First Lady of Illinois and President of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, gave an inspiring speech about the importance of the work she does with her non-profit organization to empowering women, children and families to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty through education. She encourages us to help advocate for education and support for children living in poverty. “Everyone has potential, everyone can succeed,” she states. “There is no one that doesn’t deserve to succeed.”
SHETalk Series
Sharron P.A. Levine, Director, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, Federal Housing Finance Agency; Dr. Chitra Dorai, AI Visionary, Former IBM Fellow, Master Inventor, VP of CTO Cognitive Services, Member of IBM Industry Academy & Academy of Technology, and co-inventor of more than 45 patents; Dottie Herman, CEO, Douglas Elliman; Tami Bonnell, CEO, EXIT Realty International; and Rebecca Steele, President & CEO, National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), each shared incredible stories and words of wisdom.
Levine, Dorai and Herman provided enlightening sound bites of important issues affecting the industry, such as opportunities for women in housing as professionals and consumers, Technology Human Balance™ and advice for building a successful business. Bonnell gave us useful tips for achieving a work/life balance and building a formidable “Dirty Dozen” team, and Steele told us how to successfully be a disruptor rather than a lemming.
“Education, Education, Education”
Our high caliber of speakers represented various areas of the housing ecosystem at our conference to discuss women’s issues and diversity and inclusion (D&I). This is the first known time in the nation that there has been such as vast representation of the women’s issues and top leaders in one venue, and NAWRB brought them together.
- mPower Addressing Workplace Disrupters: Featured mPower’s first male panelist David Hrobon, President & CEO at Wintrust Mortgage
- The Investing in Opportunity Act Panel: An intense conversation about the intricacies of the act which encourages long-term private sector investment in low-income communities
- Building Infrastructure, Maintaining Agriculture & Disaster Recovery: Attendees learned of opportunities for contracts and involvement with FHFA, FEMA and USDA
New Relationships & NAWRB’s Expanding Membership
This event facilitated the formation of long-lasting relationships in a supportive environment of like-minded professionals. Men and women alike shared ideas and opportunities, such as procuring contracts and leveraging trends in women’s homeownership.
The industry can achieve great things for women’s economic growth and D&I when men and women professionals and related industries work together, share each other’s resources and knowledge, and support each other’s successes as teammates instead of competitors. Therefore, NAWRB would like more men to become members and help expand our platform!
There has never been a greater time to be involved with NAWRB. Learn how by visiting www.nawrb.com or call (949) 559-9800.