Denise Hogan, a native Washingtonian, graduated from the University of Maryland as Finance major, with honors. Throughout her professional career she dedicated much of her free time to helping others, chiefly through volunteer programs sponsored by her church in Burtonsville, Maryland. These programs include volunteering monthly in a soup kitchen staffed by members of her parish and annually volunteering with other members of her parish for a program to repair housing for poor people in her community.
Her concern for others has been a part of her career in multifamily lending. When she started her career she didn’t realize the impact that multi-family lenders have on the lives of so many people. She quickly realized that financing apartment complexes is more than just providing people with a place to live. Lenders insure that apartments that people chose to rent satisfy a number of health and safety requirements (often taken for granted) dictated by the federal government or by local law. Lenders also help those individuals in our society that have disabilities. They do so by requiring that the properties they finance meet the requirements spelled out in the Americans with Disability Act. In her last job, she helped create an impact financing program that incentivized property owners to provide housing for low-income people.