MBA Hires Charmaine Brown As New Director of Diversity and Inclusion

The Mortgage Bankers Association hired mortgage industry veteran Charmaine Brown to fill its newly created position of Director of Diversity and Inclusion.

Brown, who will start on Jan. 4, will be responsible for developing, promoting and advancing diversity and inclusion programs for the real estate finance industry.

“MBA is committed to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion internally and for our residential and commercial real estate finance members. Charmaine brings a wealth of knowledge that will help us develop best practices, identify and break through potential barriers, and create programs that lead to a more diverse and inclusive industry workforce that reflects our diverse country,” said MBA President & CEO Robert D. Broeksmit, CMB.

“Charmaine has a proven track record of empathetic leadership and is passionate about ensuring there is open and honest communication among leadership and every level of an organization,” said Lisa Haynes, MBA Senior Vice President, CFO and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. “I am excited for Charmaine to join our team to help us deliver on our commitment to develop and promote successful D&I programs that benefit MBA and our industry.”

Brown brings to MBA an extensive background in business development, corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion and community relations. Most recently, she served as Chief Equity Officer for Charles County, Md., where she was responsible for developing, implementing and managing the strategic framework for the county’s D&I programs.

Prior to that post, Brown worked in various roles at Fannie Mae for more than 20 years. Her most recent position was as Diversity Director in Fannie Mae’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion where she was responsible for creating training and development programs and promoting inclusionary, corporate-wide engagement. Her successful leadership in this role included developing a D&I action plan, creating unconscious bias workshops for customers and diversity recruitment.

Brown holds a Master of Arts in Communications from Johns Hopkins University; and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Bowie State University.