Inaugural Women with Vision award winners

The complete list of 2019 Women with Vision award winners has been released, and the field features visionary leaders from all corners of the mortgage industry.

These women are industry trendsetters and visionary leaders who have broken ground in numerous ways over the course of their careers, and who have a proven track record of inspiring growth in others. The winners were chosen by 20/20 vision for Success Coaching and Mortgage Women Magazine, and will be featured in the November issue of Mortgage Women Magazine.

One of the winners is Jane Mason, founder and CEO of Clarifire, a privately held, women-owned corporation that is a leader in workflow automation for the mortgage and healthcare services industries. She led the development of award-winning software that automates workflows for financial services organizations, enabling them to work more efficiently and cost effectively, and gain competitive advantage. Mason’s vision has always been to take organizational chaos and figure out how to solve problems efficiently using simple technology that the business can own and make changes as needed.

“My vision is giving organizations a way to think differently, and to understand a process is a process, but you’ve got to keep your customer at the heart of it. At the heart of that is that trust and a transparent relationship,” Mason said.

Mason sits on the board of the University of South Florida and mentors students, and her team at Clarifire is very hands-on when it comes to participating in disaster relief efforts.

Another recipient of the Women with Vision award is Dana Fortin, chief marketing officer at Embrace Home Loans.

"I am delighted to be recognized with this award," Fortin said in a statement. "I'm supported by a great team at Embrace, and would like to share this recognition with all of them."

Fortin has launched several ground-breaking initiatives at Embrace Home Loans. She came up with the idea of using geolocation to target homebuyers when they are most engaged in looking for a home and then worked with her team to execute it, a first in the industry.

"Dana is a great innovator, as well as a skilled marketer, and has helped to develop Embrace Home Loans into the top independent mortgage banker it is today," said Embrace CEO Dennis Hardiman. "She is an extraordinary leader, and seeks to draw out, inspire and develop the best in people from the inside out – a true servant leader."

Mason said that this is an exciting time for women entrepreneurs, especially since technology affords so many opportunities to improve the mortgage industry specifically.

“I'm pursuing an increased awareness of women in business as a way for me to give back,” Mason said. “It doesn't matter if you're male or females—you can be an entrepreneur, and you can make this happen.”

Other winners include:

Megan Anderson, MBS Highway, Business Development National Director 

Valerie Ausband, Arch Mortgage Insurance, Senior VP, National Field Sales

Joelle Baez, Culture Estate & Hard Money Project, Manager & Brand Ambassador 

Jessica Barron, First Option Mortgage, VP of Human Resources

Christina Bartning, National MI, VP of Marketing and Product Development

Cynthia Berman, Freedom Mortgage Corp., SrVP, CCO, and Regulatory Counsel

Laura Brandao, AFR, President

Tricia Brouwers, Wintrust Mortgage, Area Manager

Courtney Keating Chakarun, Roostify, Chief Marketing Officer

Marcia Davies, MBA Chief Operating Officer, Founder of mPower

Molly Dowdy, Next Mortgage Events, Co-Founder

Michelle Dugan, MS Lending, LLC, Owner/Mortgage Broker

Kerry Fitzpatrick, AnnieMac Worx, Co-Founder at

Jennifer Folk, Planet Home Lending, Senior VP Operations and Ops Support

Maria Fregosi, Home Point Financial, Chief Financial Officer

Dana Galiano, National Mortgage Insurance, Business Development Manager

Summer Gell, Partner Engineering and Science, Inc., Principal

Cathy Haddad, Atlantic Home Loans, Senior Mortgage Consultant

Kristi Harris, PrimeLending, EVP National Operations

Cheryl Hayes, PrimeLending, SVP Marketing

Debbie Hoffman, Symmetry Blockchain Advisors, Inc., CEO & Founder

Kim Hoffman, Envoy Mortgage Ltd., EVP, Chief Operating Officer

Cari Jacobs, Unison Home, Chief Marketing Officer

Elizabeth Karwowski, Get Credit Healthy, CEO

Tawn Kelley, Taylor Morrison Home Funding, President

Loretta Kirkwood, QuestSoft, Vice President, Compliance

Melissa Langdale, Fidelity Bank/Right By You Mortgage, Director of Mortgage, SrVP

Leesa Logan, Computershare Loan Services, Senior VP, Head of Compliance

Lisa Lund, Lund Mortgage Team, Owner

Cheryl MacNally, Mortgage Assets Management LLC, President

Jennifer McGuinness, Mortgage Venture Partners, Co-Founder, Head of Aggregation & Structured Finance

Joyce Morgan, First Option Mortgage, Regional Production Manager

Heather Olson, Walker & Dunlop, Vice President

Desirée Patno, Women in the Housing & Real Estate Ecosystem (NAWRB), CEO

Jessica Peterson, Simply WOW Agency, Founder

Jen Du Plessis, Kinetic Spark Consulting, CEO

Rocio Portella, Mint Mortgage, Senior Loan Originator

Stacie Rankey, Full Circle Solutions, Founder/CEO

Kelsey Rauchut, AnnieMac, National Business Development Manager

Leora Ruzin, Guaranteed Rate, VP of Secondary Marketing

Judy Ryan, Credit Plus, Inc., Vice President of Corporate Sales

Ana Maria Sanin, PRMG, Business Development National Director

Michelle Sapit, CMC Funding, Vice President

Lisa Schreiber, NewRez LLC, Senior Vice President, Correspondent Lending

Faith Schwartz,  FormFree, Board Member

Natallia Shastak, City Wide Realty Inc.

Lakshmi Stockham, TD Bank, SVP, Technology Retail Product Customer Acquisition

Corey Tess Trujillo, Synergy Maven, LLC, Chief Maven

Melinda Wilner, United Wholesale Mortgage, COO and Chief Risk Officer

Sue Woodard, Total Expert, Chief Customer Officer

Suha Beidas Zehl, Guidance Residential, LLC, Chief Information Officer