Monique Winston
Monique Winston is a nationally renowned C—Suite Executive and Minority Business Advocate with 27+ years in the Title Insurance and Financial Services industry. Mrs. Winston has also focused on the inclusion and development of women and minorities as business owners and homeowners.
As the current President and CEO of MWINS Consulting, Mrs. Winston provides speaking, training, moderating,
events and other services to real estate and financial services organizations. Since 2000, she has delivered over 500 messages nationwide, in Canada, Mexico and the Virgin Islands. In addition to leading MWINS Consulting, Mrs. Winston is the Chief Resource and Development Officer for the Minority Business Accelerator (MBA). The MBA is an affiliate of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. The mission is to accelerate the development of sizable minority business enterprises and strengthen and expand the regional minority entrepreneurial community.
Monique has worked for several organizations throughout her career, focusing on every facet of the title insurance industry. She served as the Vice-President, National Business Development Executive with WFG National Title Insurance Company, Chief Executive Officer of Optima Lender Services in Cleveland, Ohio and Senior Vice-President/Senior Underwriting Counsel for Stewart Title Guaranty Company in Houston, Texas. Early in her career, Mrs. Winston worked as a Compliance & Resource Officer and Manager at Fidelity’s Lender Services, Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA. This position launched her career in the title insurance industry, and over the last 27+ years, she has developed a reputation as a leader in the industry. She has become well-known as a teacher and lecturer and has developed a curriculum of title/closing, homeownership, and diversity and inclusion courses and workshops.
Mrs. Winston is a 1991 graduate of Duquesne University and a 1994 graduate of Duquesne University School of Law. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a public service sorority, and Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society.
Monique is the President of the Ohio Realtist Association and the Immediate Past President of the Greater Cleveland Realtist Association. Both are divisions of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB). She also serves as the organization’s national conference/convention co-chair.
Her accomplishments are numerous. Mrs. Winston was featured in Who’s Who in Black Houston and Who’s Who in Black Cleveland. In 2012, during the Obama Administration, she received an invitation from the White House Business Council and Business Forward to participate in their business leaders’ discussions.
Mrs. Winston was the feature cover story in the July/August 2016 edition of Phenomenal Woman Magazine. She was chosen to represent Cleveland entrepreneurs at the 2018 State of Black America Summit and National Urban League Legislative Policy Conference in Washington, DC. Crain’s Cleveland Business also selected her as a 2018 Woman of Note as one of the top female business leaders in Northeast Ohio. In 2021, Mrs. Winston received the Par Excellence Award for her outstanding performance in support of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.
John Zimmerman
, Vice President of the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center
John manages Education and Outreach for the organization which provides continuing education credits for Realtors and Housing Providers. He conducts fair housing workshops for consumers, targeted outreach to vulnerable populations and targeted work in low-to moderate income neighborhoods as well as working with municipal staff, planning departments, social service & charitable organizations whose work intersects with housing. He is the Co-Chair of the Montgomery County Reentry’s Council’s Housing Subcommittee. He is a member of the Women’s Council of Ohio, a member of the Greater Dayton Realtist Association. He has a Bachelor of Arts and Communication from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.
Shanti Abedin
Vice President of Housing and Community Development at the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
Shanti is responsible for providing strategic direction, thought leadership and research, and programmatic planning for NFHA’s Housing and Community Development division, including the Inclusive Communities Fund and Keys Unlock Dreams Initiatives. She oversees NFHA’s investments and programmatic work in communities throughout the nation to increase affordable housing, reduce barriers to equitable housing opportunities, increase quality amenities and services in communities of color, and broaden the number of state and local programs working to advance fair housing.
Prior to joining NFHA in her current capacity, Shanti was the Director of Shared Equity Housing at NeighborWorks America, where she launched and grew a new initiative to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations to use community land trusts, limited-equity cooperatives, and other shared equity homeownership models to create permanent affordable housing, stabilize neighborhoods, and create wealth for low income families. Shanti also ran a $27.5 million grant program at NeighborWorks America that funded comprehensive community development projects in communities that were hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.
Shanti serves on the Board of Directors for Shelterforce and Hope and a Home. Shanti graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.A. in Art History and from the University of Sydney with a master’s of Urban and Regional Planning. She is a recent graduate of the Fulcrum Fellowship with the Center for Community Investment.
Andrea Lau
Housing and Community Development Program Analyst at the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
Andrea oversees the Inclusive Communities Fund, which reinvests dollars from fair housing case settlements into communities who have been destabilized by discrimination by funding local housing assistance organizations. Andrea also contributes to NFHA research that promotes equitable homeownership programs that create healthy, vibrant, and inclusive communities. She holds a B.A. from Case Western Reserve University, and a master’s in Public Policy from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy
Netta Whitman
Director of Housing Advisory Services, Homeport
Netta and is an experienced housing advisor and financial counseling professional with expertise in program management, community outreach, and organizational development. She holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Franklin University and is certified in various areas, including personal finance counseling, foreclosure prevention, homebuyer education, and financial education. Her passion to increase homeownership opportunities for the residents of central Ohio has fueled her 22 years of service to Homeport. Since 2003, she has held several positions at Homeport, advancing to Director of Housing Advisory Services, where she oversees housing programs, homebuyer education, financial counseling, compliance, and down payment assistance. Netta is also a dedicated community leader, serving on multiple boards and leadership teams. She serves on the Board of Directors and as the Program/Advocacy Committee Chair for Local Matters. The organization focuses on food access, education, and advocacy. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Women for Economic and Leadership Development (WELD) who’s mission is to develop and advance women’s leadership to strengthen the economic prosperity of the communities it serves. As a Co-Lead with Convergence Columbus, a collaboration of industry professionals dedicated to increasing the homeownership of the black community and other minority populations she has been allowed to be participant in creating nontraditional solutions to the housing disparities plaguing our area. Her background reflects a strong commitment to fostering homeownership, financial literacy, and community development.
Anita Schmaltz
Vice President of Financial Wellness, County Corp and manages its HomeOwnership Center
Prior to joining County Corp, Anita specialized in Fair Housing Act enforcement and compliance, working as the Director of Enforcement at the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center and later as a Senior Associate Director of Enforcement at the National Fair Housing Alliance. During her tenure at these organizations, Ms. Schmaltz advocated for numerous households to have full access to their housing options. Schmaltz’s advocacy resulted in additional training for housing professionals and thousands of units opened up from discrimination. She found her way to housing advocacy after serving as a Tenant Organizer for Mobile Home Parks residents through AmeriCorps VISTA.
Anita completed her master’s in public administration at Wright State University in 2017. She resides in Trotwood with her family and dog.
Marie Kindrick Fair Housing Awards
Marie Kindrick
was a remarkable woman who for nearly sixty years was committed to working for the rights of those who are under-represented. Her mother was from Indiana, and her father was an immigrant from Italy. Speaking of her childhood, Marie recalled that her neighborhoods in Cincinnati were totally diverse with everyone working and playing together, as it should be.
The first thing people who knew Marie remember is her big warmth and her generous spirit. She made her life a testament to the kind of work that we honor with these awards. As a REALTOR® in our community, she was a volunteer tutor for the DABR Partners in Education at Ruskin School and also taught English as a second language in Kettering Schools. She served on DABR’s Equal Opportunity Committee from 1992 until her untimely passing in May 1998. Each year we pay tribute to Marie Kindrick and honor her for the inspiration to work for fairness and equity for everyone by honoring a Community Professional, a Community Volunteer, and a REALTOR®.
Fair Housing and Equity Focused Homeownership
Workshop time: 8:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
We want to thank and acknowledge our Diamond Sponsors, PNC Bank, the National Association of Realtors, and Dayton REALTORS® for providing support and resources for this seminar.
This workshop fulfills 3.0 CEU hours for Realtors in the State of Ohio.
This class is inspired by the work of the lead presenters, both from National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) located in Washington D.C. They are Vice President of Housing and Community Development, Shanti Abedin and Housing and Community Development Program Analyst, Andrea Lau. They published a study called: “First Generation Foundations: A Guide* to Advancing Equity with First Generation Homeownership Programs.”
The NFHA presenters will give an overview of Special Purpose Credit Programs they highlight in that publication: These programs are from Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Minnesota. Further, they will instruct attendees on best practices of developing community-based equity focused homeownership programs and highlight how it helps everyone obligated to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH), meet that responsibility by building sustainable neighborhoods through increased homeownership. AFFH responsibility includes licensed real estate professionals, municipalities that receive funds from the federal government, and all lending institutions to name a few.
Local Presenters are Netta Whitman, Director of Housing Advisory Services for Homeport, a non-profit housing developer based in Columbus, Ohio and Anita Schmaltz, Vice President of Financial Wellness, of County Corp in Dayton, Ohio. She manages its HomeOwnership Center programming. These two presenters will discuss the opportunities that their organizations provide in their communities that foster equity in housing.
*All attendees will receive a copy of the Guide. Homeownership has long been a path to creating financial security and intergenerational wealth, and it continues to be the primary driver of wealth building for families in the U.S. today. While homeownership rates overall have been on the rise, the cost of purchasing a home is significantly higher compared to a year ago, pricing many buyers out of the market. This guide builds on NFHA’s existing policy proposals and research to support local, state, and regional actors to develop and adopt first-generation homeownership policies and programs.
