July 15th, 2025

I am deeply honored to have been selected as your 2025-2026 CLTA President and have tremendous gratitude to all of you who serve the CLTA and our industry. Foremost, I wish to thank Shari Schneider for all her hard work and unwavering commitment to the CLTA this past year. She has laid out some large shoes to fill, but I am confident that I am up for the challenge. I would also like to thank the amazing CLTA staff for their dedication to our industry’s aims at the state and national level and recognize that none of this could be possible without them. I look forward to their guidance and partnership this coming year. Finally, I would like to thank my fellow executive officers, board members, committee chairs, committee members, and industry colleagues for selflessly giving their time and energy to keep the CLTA as a leader among land title associations at the national level.

​Although I have been a part of this industry for nearly twenty years, and might know a thing or two, I have always adhered to the practice of seeking out and surrounding myself with people who have far more experience and knowledge about our industry than I ever will. It is with and through these individuals that we all succeed and advance our vital role in serving the citizens of our great state. This year, the CLTA had the privilege to honor (and congratulate) several well-known individuals who are retiring, all of whom have graced us for many years with their time, insight, and knowledge. Of course, we will keenly feel their absence in the years to come, but will use these moments as a calling for others to step into new roles of leadership and contribution.

As was the responsibility of my predecessors, we must continue finding ways to meet the challenges and the never-ending push for change that faces our industry. Of course, no challenge would be complete if it did not have its own acronym to grace our internal memos and policies, whether it be RESPA, TRID, RON, CCPA, COVID, or now, the nationalization of FinCEN. We are having a role foisted upon us that we neither asked for nor have we been historically tasked with enforcing. Yet here we are. The magnitude of these changes will be felt in every branch office, in every county. It will demand that we prepare our operational personnel for what is to come, because it is they who will bear the brunt of these new rules and the inevitable ire of our customers. But as they say, nothing worth having comes easy. So again, we will rise to the challenge and support each other as teammates, not as competitors.

I am confident that the CLTA will, as always, lead the charge when it comes to making our state’s voice heard as to these important issues, and that the concerns we raise and positions we take will become the benchmark for other state land title associations to follow. I am excited for what the year ahead holds and am ready to work hard in the service of the CLTA.