mPower Event:

mPower Founder; Chief Operating Officer, Mortgage Bankers Association

Marcia Davies is Chief Operating Officer for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). As COO, Marcia is responsible for ensuring cross-organizational alignment and facilitating the implementation of strategic initiatives, as well as maintaining oversight of key organizational priorities. She is also the lead strategist for MBA's external activities, providing leadership, guidance and overall management to the public affairs and marketing divisions. In addition, Marcia provides strategic direction and management of MBA's Conferences, Membership, Education, Information Technology and Office Services divisions. She also provides management oversight to and is a Board member of MBA's Opens Doors Foundation. Previously, Marcia worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner. She directed HUD's industry relations program to strengthen relationships, garner support, streamline communications and resolve policy and regulatory issues. Before joining HUD, Marcia spent 21 years at Freddie Mac, where she held a variety of officer positions in communications, customer outreach, marketing, servicer relations and policy. Marcia is the founder of mPower - MBA Promoting Opportunities for Women to Extend their Reach - MBA's networking platform for women in the real estate finance industry. Under her leadership, mPower has grown into an engaged community of more than 24,000, providing best-in-class conference and webinar programming, networking events, and online opportunities to stay engaged. Through mPower, more women are positioned to achieve leadership positions and are well represented in all segments of the industry. Marcia is a member of the NAWRB Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council (NDILC). She is also a member of Women in Housing Finance and the International Women's Leadership Association. Marcia received the silver Stevie Awards for Women in Business 2018 Maverick of the Year. She is also the recipient of Five Star's Laurie A. Maggiano Legacy award, a two-time Mortgage Women Magazine Women With Vision award winner, and a recipient of the NAWRB 2018 Industry Revolutionary Award, and the CIFS Diversity & Inclusion 2018 Trailblazer Award. In 2015, Marcia was honored by HousingWire as one of its 2015 Women of Influence. Marcia is a graduate of the Katharine Gibbs School in Montclair, N.J.

Author, All In Her Head; Associate Professor of Medicine, NYU

Dr. Elizabeth Comen, M.D., has dedicated her medical career to saving the lives of women. Though women comprise 50% of the population, their health is often overlooked, misunderstood, and met with derision as mere “bikini medicine.” This blatant disregard often leads to life-threatening consequences in the form of delayed or inaccurate diagnoses that could have been avoided had doctors taken their patients’ concerns seriously. An award-winning, internationally sought-after clinician and physician-scientist, Dr. Comen works to bring women’s health out of the shadows and into the light. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU and a medical historian. Dr. Comen’s first book, a USA Today bestseller, is titled All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today. Praised in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as “meticulously researched and conveyed in lucid prose,” it “fascinates and outrages in equal measure.” It made Oprah’s Book Club. In a world where women weren’t required to be included in clinical trials until 1993 and heart disease symptoms common in women are still called a typical because they don’t often present in men, All in Her Head works to right the wrongs of centuries of what Comen calls “insidious incuriousity” about women’s health. Part medical history, part holistic reintroduction to women’s bodies, part call-to-action, the book reminds us that women are not small, “hysterical” men ruled by hormones. Recognized for her compassion and easy-to-comprehend communication with patients, Dr. Comen is the recipient of numerous grants and awads, including the Department of Defense Breakthrough Award for Breast Cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award, and multiple grants from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, among others. Her research has been published in prestigious scientific journals, including Nature, Cancer Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and The Journal of National Cancer Institute. Chosen as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor in New York since 2017, she has also been featured as a New York Magazine Top Doctor multiple years in a row. Dr. Comen has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View, ABC News, NY1, Wall Street Journal online, Fox News, and in other media outlets, such as the New York Times, Elle magazine, and Self magazine. A tireless advocate for women’s healthcare, she has mentored many students throughout their academic and medical careers with the goal to empower patients with the tools they need not just to survive but thrive. She earned her BA in the History of Science from Harvard College and her MD from Harvard Medical School, then completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and her fellowship in oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.