Symposium Agenda

The Mind of the Homebuyer:

Featured Speakers and Panelists

Featured Speakers

Sendhil Mullainathan, Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Sendhil Mullainathan is professor of economics at Harvard University and director of ideas42, a center devoted to using insights about people from behavioral economics to create novel policies, interventions and products. Sendhil is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a founding member of the Poverty Action Lab, and a board member of the Bureau of Research in the Economic Analysis of Development. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant.

Professor Mullainathan conducts research on development economics, behavioral economics and corporate finance. He has published extensively in top economics journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Political Economy. In addition to being a MacArthur Fellow, Mullainathan is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including those from the National Science Foundation, the Olin Foundation, the Sloan Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation.

Sandra Braunstein, Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Sandra Braunstein is the director of the Board's Division of Consumer and Community Affairs. As director, Ms. Braunstein is principally responsible for the development and administration of Federal Reserve policies related to consumer protection for financial services. She administers programs that write and review regulations for federal consumer protection laws. Additionally, the division is responsible for consumer compliance supervision and enforcement and has oversight of the Federal Reserve System's consumer compliance examinations in state member banks and bank holding companies. Ms. Braunstein administers outreach efforts to the financial services industry, state, local, and federal government officials, and consumer and community organizations. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Board, Ms. Braunstein was executive director of a local community development corporation in Washington, DC. Previous experience includes coordinator for commercial revitalization in Alexandria, VA, management consultant for McManis Associates and federal program administrator for Wilmington, DE.

Vada Hill, Kelton Research

Vada Hill is a principal at Kelton Research — America's fastest growing market research consultancy, two years running.

As Fannie Mae's chief marketing officer, Vada led efforts to qualify future marketing initiatives to responsibly increase homeownership levels — particularly among Hispanic, African-American, new immigrantand female headed households. Vada launched a comprehensive survey of financial and mortgage related activities and behavior among +10,000 households leading to a breakthrough category segmentation model profiled in American Demographics magazine. He traveled to South Africa to aid its major banks in more effectively reaching black South Africans through leveraging the insights gleaned from US Hispanic and African-American consumers.

As Taco Bell's chief marketing officer, Hill developed the renowned "Chihuahua" advertising campaign, making such phrases as "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" part of America's vernacular. He successfully repositioned the brand through the launch of such products as Gorditas, Chalupas and Grande Meals, and the sale of over 35 million talking plush Chihuahuas.

He successfully repositioned brands such as Cheer® and Dreft® as brand manager at Procter & Gamble and served as part of the US State Department's South Africa Election Support Project working with the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party to help it prepare for the country's first democratic elections in 1994.

Selected "Marketer of the Year" by the Promotion Marketing Association, lead "Power 50" marketer by Advertising Age magazine, Vada is a winner of the Grand Effie and two Gold Effie awards for business building advertising. He is an owner of the Cincinnati Reds and served on the board of the Denny's Corporation.

Vada is a native of Cincinnati and a graduate of Harvard University.

Panelists

Kathy Crosby, Senior Vice President, Group Campaign Director, Ad Council

As Senior Vice President, Group Campaign Director at the Ad Council, Kathy directs the development of Ad Council campaigns in the Washington, DC, office. Ms. Crosby oversees 30 national PSA campaigns including the Ad Council's award-winning and iconic Smokey Bear, Foster Adoption and Drunk Driving Prevention campaigns.

Ms. Crosby joined the Ad Council in 2002 from Arnold Worldwide where she served as Vice President, Director of Strategic Planning on the Truth Anti-Tobacco account. She has 20 years of advertising agency experience in both the account management and strategic planning disciplines. Her experience includes directing the US Airways and SAP software accounts, and conducting strategic planning for McDonald's and Exxon/ Mobil Oil.

Ms. Crosby received a BA in political science from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Lewis Dancy, Self Help Credit Union

A native of North Carolina, Lewis joined Self-Help Credit Union in 1999 as a loan officer. Since then, Lewis has worked in all aspects of the home lending process: originating, processing, underwriting, closing, post-closing/quality control, transfer of loans to the secondary market, regulatory compliance and loss mitigation. In addition he has designed and implemented new mortgage products. Lewis is currently assistant director of Mortgage Lending where he directs the Credit Union’s loss mitigation efforts. He also serves on the credit committee of the Latino Community Credit Union.

Jane Katz, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Jane P. Katz is regional affairs officer and director of education programs. She is responsible for setting the Bank’s educational strategy, reviewing programs, and developing and launching new efforts to support economic and financial literacy in the Second District.

Before joining the Bank in 2008, Ms. Katz was an economist and editor of the Regional Review at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Ms. Katz earned a master's degree from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago.

David Almacy, Edelman Digital Public Affairs

David Almacy is a senior vice president in Edelman's Digital Public Affairs practice. A native of the Washington, DC, area, David brings over 15 years of experience at the intersection of government, public relations, marketing, politics and digital communications.

Prior to joining Edelman, David spent almost two years as vice president of Digital Strategies (Studio D) with Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, probably best known as the longtime agency of record for Microsoft.

In 2007, David was named as one of PRWeek's Top 40 Under 40. In May 2009, Washingtonian listed David among the Top 100 Tech Titans in Washington, DC.

Previously, David was the White House Internet and E-Communications director under President George W. Bush. In that role, he managed online communications strategy, served as an official spokesman for Internet press and bloggers and acted as a liaison to the federal government Web manager community. He was also the primary owner of the White House Web site and spearheaded its comprehensive redesign in March 2007.

Additional background and experience includes stints with the Republican National Committee, Washington Business Journal, C-SPAN, GovTech Solutions and the US Department of Education.

Bridgette Russell, New Haven HomeOwnership Center

Bridgette currently serves as the managing director for the HomeOwnership Center (HOC) at Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (NHS). She manages program development for client services and staff training for the HOC. She also directs operations of pre and post purchase curriculum design, credit counseling, financial literacy, foreclosure intervention counseling and full cycle lending. A graduate of the College of William and Mary with a degree in political science, Bridgette has also completed coursework with the NeighborWorks Training Institute, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and HUD.

Bridgette previously served as homeownership director for Vision Financial Services, Inc. of New Orleans, where she acted as program administrator for a Freddie Mac statewide Lease Purchase Homeownership Initiative. In this position, she facilitated statewide trainings and orientations for realtors, homebuyers, and credit counseling agency providers. She later consulted and served as interim director of Homeownership & Credit Training for Faith CDC in Stratford, working with the Housing Authority to facilitate classes for staff and workshops for residents as part of the Connecticut Freddie Mac Credit Smart Initiative. Bridgette also coordinated the homebuyer education program for the American Dream Down Payment Initiative administered by the City of Bridgeport.

With more than 20 years’ experience in financial management training and residential real estate, Bridgette has partnered with banks, non-profits and faith-based organizations to develop and present homebuyer and financial literacy programs in Atlanta, Orlando, Baltimore, Oakland, Little Rock, San Antonio and much of Connecticut.