Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

James Baublitz, CFA, is the managing director of pipeline analytics at Black Knight

Before coming to FormFree, Dr. Michael Covington was co-founder and former associate director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at The University of Georgia.

Garrett A. Hartzog is the Principal of Fundamental Advisory and Consulting, LLC. He previously was a Director at MGIC and also served in the Office of Housing and Regulatory Policy at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Heidi joined Arizent at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Previously, she was the special editions editor at real estate trade publication The Real Deal, covering residential and commercial markets in South Florida, Los Angeles and the metro New York area. Prior to TRD, she was features editor at hyperlocal New York news site DNAInfo, where she oversaw coverage of the city's residential real estate market. With a Bachelors of Science from the College of Communication at Boston University, Heidi majored in film and later worked for celebrated cinéma vérité documentarian Frederick Wiseman. She also did stints as film editor at Metro Newspaper and UsWeekly.

Twitter: @heidipantz

Dr. Selma Hepp is the chief economist at Cotality.

Seth Appleton is president of U.S. Mortgage Insurers. He previously served as an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Spencer Lee is a New York-based technology reporter at National Mortgage News, whose coverage area spans artificial intelligence, fintech platforms and policy developments.

A reporter at National Mortgage News since 2021, Spencer has written and reported in-depth pieces ranging from marketing strategy for home lenders, affordable housing initiatives and changes artificial intelligence is bringing to the workforce. He also covers company news, particularly surrounding fintechs and the expanding niche of home equity investment platforms. Spencer regularly speaks to leading mortgage executives and policy experts, 

Spencer has a Master's degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York and in 2024 was a finalist for the Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Technical/Scientific Content.

His notable interviews include those with Former Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan and Lower CEO Dan Snyder. He also co-created the 2024 podcast "Getting people into affordable homes and loans"

Twitter: @Spencer_NYC
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-lee-journo/

With tight inventory and rising rates posing challenges to today's home buyers, mortgage lenders face a tricky environment for maintaining volumes. National Mortgage News chats with three of the top-ranked producers of 2022 to discuss strategies to stay competitive in the months ahead.