The HousingWire Awards Spotlight Series Highlights the Individuals and Organizations We’ve Recognized Editors’ Choice Award, Enrollment for HousingWire 2023 HW Rising Stars Open until Friday, February 24, 2023. Click here To nominate your someone today.
HousingWire’s Rising Stars Award honors housing professionals age 40 and under who are making a major impact on the industry. Each year, the list of honorees is made up of an impressive and ultra-diverse group of professionals.
Meg Parker Young, Vice President fannie mae Was recognized as a 2022 Rising Star for her work on environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, helping shape Fannie Mae’s approach to managing ESG risks and guaranteeing $4 trillion of business expanding its influence in the book.
Parker Young said, “It’s been a big year of growth for both me and Fannie Mae.” “My goals remain consistent – to make the greatest positive impact at the scale that I am capable of delivering. This means ensuring that our work is not limited by department or business unit silos, and that we continue to promote racial equality. , including housing sustainability and climate resilience – continue to develop the core case for aligned business outcomes and impact at scale.
HousingWire contacted Parker Young to learn more about what she believes will be some of the biggest changes coming to the housing shortage and how she got her start in the industry nearly 15 years ago.
HousingWire: Looking forward to the next five years in housing, what do you think will be the biggest changes for housing professionals to prepare for?
Meg Parker Young: Climate and racial equality work must be brought closer together. You cannot address climate risk without addressing systemic and broader equity issues. The groups working on each issue will need to become more fluent in each other’s data and processes to achieve meaningful results.
HW: Some people think about getting into the mortgage industry at a young age. What was your introduction to the industry?
MPY: I actually first started working on housing finance under very different circumstances – and in a different country! In 2007 I was based in Sichuan Province, China, working on economic development research with a fellowship under an Oxford programme. We were setting up a micro-finance unit to assist farmers who want to scale elements of their operations.
Then came the Sichuan earthquake. It was a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that killed over 100,000 people and displaced millions. Overnight, our work changed from finance to scale up small-scale agricultural operations, to ensuring the communities we worked with had the money and resources they needed to rebuild their homes before winter arrived Have access It was a dramatic introduction to the importance of reliable funding in housing markets, especially in times of distress, and has driven my commitment to the importance of this work to this day.
HW: Last year, you stepped into a leadership role for the ESG strategy team. When you think about your professional goals, where do you want to take your career and what are you doing to get there?
MPY: This has been a big year of growth for both me and Fannie Mae, as we continue to mature our approach to this work. My goals remain consistent – to make the most positive impact that I am able to deliver. This means ensuring that our work is not limited by department or business unit silos, and that we continue to develop the core case for aligned business outcomes and impact at scale – including racial equality, housing sustainability and climate resilience. Let’s keep Partnerships across the enterprise are critical to the success of this work, and I feel grateful for the opportunity to work every day with colleagues across our business and the broader marketplace to advance this work.
