Rod is senior vice president and senior regulatory counsel in ABA’s Regulatory Compliance and Policy Division, where he is responsible for oversight of residential and commercial real estate lending laws and regulations. Rod serves as principal staff on ABA’s Dodd-Frank mortgage-related implementation efforts and serves as the ABA staff liaison to the Mortgage Markets Committee. Prior to ABA, Rod served as legislative counsel and director of government affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association and head of MBA’s Regulatory Compliance and Legal Issues Committee. Rod was also an attorney with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and served as special projects counsel to Latino civil rights organization National Council of La Raza. He earned a law degree from Syracuse University College of Law and a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Maryland.

Alesha is a Senior Compliance Expert focusing on Lending Compliance for the Content Team at Ncontracts and holds a designation from both the Mortgage Banker’s Association as a Certified Mortgage Compliance Professional and the American Banker’s Association as a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager.

She started in the mortgage and banking industry in 2013 after many years in the nonprofit sector. During her previous roles, she built CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) programs from the ground up, working closely with other banking institutions and federal regulators; facilitated and implemented regulatory implementations and updates, including the 2015 TRID Rule and the 2018 HMDA (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act) update; became a Mortgage Loan Officer with a focus on CRA Loans and Loss Mitigation loans; and performed compliance reviews and assisted the institutions during state and Federal audits.

Alesha is passionate about helping others and lending her expertise to “find and fix” compliance-related issues.

Isaac Jimenez is the Assistant Director of Public Events and Training at the Arkansas Attorney General Office. He is a graduate of Hendrix College in Conway with a BA in Sociology and gives presentations raising awareness of common scams and internet safety all over the state.

John Schmelzer, Senior Examiner of the Consumer Affairs Unit in the Supervision, Credit, and Learning Division, joined the Federal Reserve in 2014 after receiving his MBA in finance from Southeast Missouri State University. Since receiving his examiner commission in 2017, John has served as the central point of contact for multiple regional banking organizations, performed complex compliance, fair lending, and CRA examinations, and conducted advisory visits with new state member banks, midpoint reviews, and various outreach activities.

Brandon Bowles is Manager, Advisory Services with FORVIS MAZARS. Brandon has worked in the financial services industry for more than 13 years. He possesses vital knowledge that spans throughout the regulatory compliance and operational risk sectors of the financial services industry.

Brandon has worked as a Teller, Deposit Processing Specialist, BSA/Fraud Specialist, Senior Compliance Consultant, Senior Compliance Officer, and currently Managing Consultant. This has allowed him to gain experience in retail banking, operations, FinTech, and regulatory compliance.

Shaun Harms is currently the Partner for FORVIS in the Financial Services Division specializing in Consumer Compliance and BSA. He is responsible for consulting and audit services for community and regional banks and has over 17 years of consulting experience with financial institutions.

Prior to joining FORVIS, he was the Founder and Executive Director of Bankers Assurance, LLC that was one of the largest compliance consulting companies in Arkansas representing over 80 banks in Arkansas and the surrounding states. He has extensive knowledge in consumer compliance and BSA. He has performed numerous audits in both consumer compliance and BSA. In addition, Shaun has conducted numerous training sessions for financial institutions.

Shaun graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in finance. He also graduated from Arkansas State University in 2003 with a master’s degree in business administration, and the Barret School of Banking in 2007 (summa cum laude).

In addition, Shaun completed the ABA National Compliance School in 2006, and holds the ICB Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) designation. He was selected as one of Arkansas Business 40 under 40 for 2014.

Mallory is a senior manager at HORNE where she serves financial institutions. Specializing in internal audit and risk management capacities, she guides financial institutions with regulatory compliance matters, including Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (“BSA/AML”) compliance, to help them identify areas for opportunity and effectively manage risk. She has conducted independent audits and risk assessments and provided consulting related to compliance for banks, credit unions, farm credit associations, and non-bank financial institutions, including money services businesses.

Mallory has presented at various conferences for bankers and audit committees and represented HORNE as a subject matter expert on regulatory compliance. She leads compliance training regularly for clients and team members.

Mallory joined HORNE in 2018. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Mississippi College.

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