mPower Aims to Continue to Inspire in Philadelphia

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s mPower initiative–MBA Promoting Opportunities for Women to Extend their Reach–was created after MBA Chief Operating Officer Marcia Davies noticed something that surprised her: more and more women were attending industry events, but they just didn’t seem to know each other the way many male attendees did.

“So, literally, the idea was just ‘let’s get women together and see if they will take time out of their very busy schedules during the conference,’ ” Davies, who has had a nearly four-decade career in the industry, said.

Davies invited 75 women to have lunch with her at a conference.

Ultimately, 150 showed up.

“It didn’t matter if you were in servicing, in operations, in originations, in the commercial multifamily segment or the residential–there was this need and desire from the women attending these events to come together to get to know each other, and to have a safe place to learn about some of the things that might be difficult to explore with your male colleagues sitting right next to you,” she said.

“I think every industry probably needs a way for people–especially women, people of color or anybody who feels that they have struggled a little bit to make connections and find their spot–to get a community that helps navigate all the successes and challenges we all face in the workplace,” Davies continued.

mPower was formally created in 2016, and the first full-day mPowering You Summit was in 2017, at that year’s MBA Annual Convention & Expo in Denver. Davies remembered seeing the effect it had on female attendees and described watching women high-fiving each other the next day as they headed to a General Session at the Annual Convention.

The mPowering You Summit will again be held immediately before MBA’s Annual Convention–this year on Oct. 14 in Philadelphia.

Davies said over the years, mPower and its events have covered everything from how to be confident in presentation skills to how to overcome imposter syndrome and how to ask for help when you need it and such issues as gender equality, pay equity, and sexual harassment.

While some speakers may touch on similar topics, Davies acknowledged, one of the great things about a community such as mPower is that it’s “not  one-size-fits-all. Speakers can have similar topics, but it’s the information they deliver and the takeaways that really help propel you into a better place.”

Davies reflected on some of those speakers mPower has been able to bring to its community since its inception. “If you are going to take your time to come to mPower, I want it to count. I can’t control how you’re going to network. I can encourage you to meet somebody new or to reach out and introduce yourself, but I can’t control that,” Davies said. “But what I can control is making sure the program we put together will have information that can transcend the industry.”

mPower has welcomed a number of high-profile speakers to various events, webinars and its video series, mPower Moments, who do exactly that.

For example, Abby Wambach, a famed player for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, has contributed to mPower. “You don’t have to play soccer for her stories to resonate, because they’re about teamwork, and they’re about leadership, and they’re about digging deep and saying: ‘I can’t expect somebody else to fix this, I’ve got to be part of fixing it myself,’ ” Davies said.

For those attending this year’s summit, there’s once again a bevy of inspirational and exciting speakers slated.

Carla Harris, who Davies noted was one of her first mPower speakers years ago, will lead a General Session on Intentional Leadership.

Harris, a Senior Client Advisor and former Vice Chairman at Morgan Stanley, “writes books and talk about leadership in a different way, including the lessons she learned coming up through Morgan Stanley as a successful Black female on Wall Street,” Davies said. “She does a really amazing job of not only inspiring you, but making you realize that you might be holding yourself back. I love that Carla is going to be back with the mPower community this year because I think so many people will take away so much from her talk.”

Other speakers include Dr. Meg Myers Morgan, an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma and best-selling author, Ruth Sherman, an executive speech coach and celebrity media trainer, and 2024 MBA Chair-Elect and President of Lennar Mortgage Laura Escobar, among many more.

Attendees can also get significant value from the connections and bonds they’re able to form.

Davies spoke of her own connections built through mPower. She gave the example of Nina Tassler, former chairman of CBS Entertainment and author, who recently spoke at a conference. Davies said Tassler still sends texts to check in, “because she values the work that we’re doing and mPower. That means the world to me because that means the connection resonated with her.”

And as we head into this year’s mPowering You Summit, Davies also wanted to emphasize the importance of the industry’s support.

“I would love to thank all the women and men who support mPower and the work that we do, because without the support of the industry, we wouldn’t be as successful,” she said. Davies noted: “I want everybody to say: ‘this was the best year yet.’ ”