NAR’s leadership team is majority-female for the first time ever

For the first time in its history, the National Association of Realtors will be lead by a leadership team that is majority-female, including its president.

As it does every year, the 1.5 million-member trade group installed the new volunteer leaders at its annual Realtors Conference & Expo, which took place in San Diego. On Monday, at a NAR board of directors meeting, outgoing NAR President Charlie Oppler turned over his gavel to Leslie Rouda Smith, NAR’s 2022 president.

In taking that gavel, Rouda Smith is following in her father’s footsteps. She is the daughter of Ohio residential real estate brokerage owner Harley E. Rouda, Sr., who served as NAR’s president in 1991. Her husband and their two children are also Realtors.

“Observing my dad in his leadership roles inspired me to get involved and to give back to the profession that means so much to me,” Rouda Smith said in a statement. “I think we should all strive to leave it better than we found it.”

Rouda Smith is the 7th female president in NAR’s nearly 115-year history and will lead a seven-member leadership team that is majority-female for the first time ever, for a trade group whose membership is two-thirds female, according to a press release from Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate.

Rouda Smith is a broker associate at the Dallas firm, “though she rarely lists a property in her name these days,” the brokerage said. She has been a Realtor for 36 years and has served on the NAR board of directors since 2009, including several years on the trade group’s Executive Committee. Since then, she has served in various committee and leadership roles at the local, state and national level, including Texas’s “Realtor of the Year” in 2018.

Oppler will remain a member of NAR’s leadership team as immediate past president. The other members of NAR’s 2022 leadership team are:

Kenny Parcell, 2022 NAR president-elect, is a broker-owner who in his 24 years as a Realtor has served as NAR’s vice president of government affairs, vice president for NAR’s Region 11, president of the Utah Association of Realtors, Realtor Party RPAC Fundraising Liaison and Realtor Party Director, according to NAR. He was also Utah’s 2013 Realtor of the Year.

Tracy Kasper, 2022 NAR first vice president, is a broker-owner with nearly three decades of real estate experience who chaired NAR’s 50th Anniversary of RPAC Implementation Group and was a member of the Future of the Realtor Party Presidential Advisory Group and the RPAC State Fundraising Partnership Goal PAG, according to NAR. She was also president of the Idaho Association of Realtors and named that association’s Realtor of the Year in 2016.

Nancy Lane, NAR’s 2022 treasurer, is a principal broker specializing in commercial brokerage who has been a Realtor for more than two decades. She had been vice president for NAR’s Region 5 and chaired the trade group’s Real Property Operations Committee and its Commercial Economic Issues and Trends Forum, according to NAR. She was president of the Mississippi Association of Realtors in 2005, its Realtor of the Year in 2010 and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2015, NAR said.

Shannon King, NAR’s 2022 vice president of association affairs, is a broker-owner who was an original member of NAR’s Young Professionals Network and helped the YPN become a recognized committee as its second chair, according to NAR. She has been a Realtor since 2000 and is vice president of NAR’s 2022 Executive Committee.

Kaki Lybbert, NAR’s 2022 vice president of advocacy, has been a Realtor for 27 years and served as chair of NAR’s RPAC Major Investor Council, Corporate Investor Council, and RPAC Fundraising Forum, according to NAR. She was also chair of the Texas Association of Realtors in 2018.

NAR’s 2022 regional vice presidents are:

• Kimberly Allard, Braintree, Massachusetts. Region 1: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont;
• Frank Jacovini, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Region 2: New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania;
• J. Russ Boyce, Waldorf, Maryland. Region 3: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia;
• Brian Copeland, Nashville, Tennessee. Region 4: Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee;
• Ryan Brashear, Augusta, Georgia. Region 5: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands;
• Pete Kopf, Cincinnati, Ohio. Region 6: Michigan and Ohio;
• Erik Sjowall, Madison, Wisconsin. Region 7: Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin;
• Bart Miller, Rapid City, South Dakota. Region 8: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota;
• Brenda Oliver, Odessa, Missouri. Region 9: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma;
• Logan Morris, Leesville, Louisiana. Region 10: Louisiana and Texas;
• Rick Southwick, Ogden, Utah. Region 11: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming;
• Dale Chumbley, Camas, Washington. Region 12: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington; and
• Pat “Ziggy” Zicarelli, Tarzana, California. Region 13: California, Hawaii and Guam.

NAR’s new leadership comes in as just as the trade group has voted in a slew of governance changes designed to make the association more nimble, efficient and transparent.

Email Andrea V. Brambila.

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