Liz Facemire is the Director of State Government Affairs at MBA and takes part in leading the association’s policy and advocacy engagement at the state and local level, which includes serving as primary staff to the association’s State Legislative and Regulatory Committee and its subgroups.

Prior to joining MBA in 2023, Liz spent her career in the industry in a variety of roles, including as a licensed mortgage loan originator and underwriter. In 2018 she served as a state policy lobbyist mostly covering Pacific Northwest and Midwestern states, including Nebraska. In 2021, she moved into a specialized role in mortgage policy supporting MBA membership priorities and advocacy efforts externally. She has been a member of many of our state MBA counterparts and has assisted in driving MBA’s policy initiatives throughout her time in Government Affairs. 

Long before I became Mr. Thank You, my lessons in sales and influence began in my teens as a semi-professional skateboarder pitching myself to companies for sponsorship. Competition was fierce! So how did I wind up working with some of the biggest brands in the industry when there were so many kids just as good or better than me? I became more “relevant” to the companies’ success than my competition. I stopped talking about my goals, and started asking about the brands’ goals. Instead of just wearing a t-shirt with a logo, I built relationships for my brands and actively fought for them to get shelf space at local skate shops. That wasn’t in my “job description” but putting them first made me their go-to choice. As my skating career ended and my business career began, those lessons of human connection and relevance became the cornerstones of my sales success. In a few short years I became the #6 rep out of 10,000 sales associates across the country. When the housing crisis of the 2000’s hit, and many businesses were devastated, relationships I had built and nurtured stayed with me and supported our companies’ success.