Ashley O’Neal’s first job in banking was a turnaround. 

She’d been hired into a management-trainee program at National City Bank in 2006, after she graduated from the University of Missouri–Columbia, and then put in charge of a struggling branch. 

The assignment came with a daunting list of problems for a new branch manager: “The branch had a huge employee issue. Employee morale, unethical behavior and turnover were all high at this branch,” she recalled. “I went in with a lot of issues to correct.”

The U.S. has long been in the thralls of an affordable housing crisis, with a shortage of more than 7 million rental homes for people living at or below the federal poverty line. In the aftermath of the pandemic, supply shortages, inflation and rising interest rates have made the problem even worse. And it has also made the job of Victoria O’Brien, head of equity acquisitions KeyBank community development lending and investment, even more challenging.

Overseeing compliance at a bank can be difficult in the best of circumstances. Doing it for an institution headquartered in Sin City can make the task downright daunting. 

But Hilary Nelson, director of operations and compliance at Lexicon Bank, takes it all in stride. 

“I was born and raised here so it’s just normal for me,” she said. 

A two-day exploratory seminar at an insurance company set a teenaged Kimberlene Matthews on a path to becoming an actuary. Now she runs the Pension and Enterprise Solutions group in PNC’s Institutional Asset Management arm. “I love math; I always did,” she said. 

Tracy Woodrow, chief administrative officer at M&T Bank, called Erin Komorowski an “unlikely banker.” 

“Erin has C-suite potential because she is empathetic and fearless,” Woodrow added. 

Prior to joining the Buffalo, N.Y.-based institution, Komorowski’s resume was filled with stints at nonprofits — including two years with the Peace Corps. It was during her time working in Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean with a population just over 70,000, that eventually led her to business school and banking. In Dominica, she worked with a nonprofit that provided training and mentoring to help entrepreneurs gain access to credit from banks and through grants. 

Working at Hanmi Bank in Los Angeles is not just business to Vivian Kim — it’s personal. 

Hanmi was created 40 years ago with the mission to help bank the Korean American community, a segment that was overlooked by other mainstream financial institutions. Kim is Korean American. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1990 and are small-business owners operating several laundromats.

Melissa Garcia started in banking in 2009  as an assistant manager at a Wells Fargo branch. A little more than a year later, she joined as a branch manager at BMO Harris Bank and started her ascent through the bank’s ranks. She eventually rose to be the head of U.S. business relationship management before being promoted to national sales manager for U.S. personal and business banking in April 2022. 

When Jessica Faris joined Fifth Third Bank six years ago, she quickly emerged as the “go-to” person to delve into new areas such as the impact of new corporate tax rates on the bank’s commercial loan portfolio. Before joining the $211 billion-asset Cincinnati bank, Faris had been practicing family law.

Michaela Diverio started her career in finance after graduating from William & Mary in 2007. She joined Morgan Stanley as an associate, and spent the next six years in equity capital markets and investment banking. She next worked at Goldman Sachs and spent 11 years in the equity capital market covering tech, media and telecom.

Jennifer Auerbach-Rodriguez is on a mission to democratize access to the financial advisory industry. 

While most American don’t know how to search for a financial advisor, and one-third of affluent Americans aren’t currently working with an advisor, research shows that the problems are significantly more pronounced among diverse communities