2017 Women in Real Estate Spotlight - Aya Beckles Swanson
Vice President, Community Lending
Community Investment Corp.
Years in real estate: 4
What real estate association are you a member of: CEDAS and NEDA
How do you play your strengths to your advantage in your career: As a woman of color in commercial real estate, I’m certainly atypical, but my strength has always been customer service, so I focus my efforts on going above and beyond for my clients. To do so, I need to know as much as possible about commercial lending in general, and SBA lending in particular, so I attend professional development and training workshops multiple times per year. I’m also well aware that people are intimidated by the paperwork required for government-backed loans, so I do my best to walk clients through the process, working with them every step of the way.