PARAMUS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 1, 2026--
Longbridge Financial, LLC, a leading national mortgage lender and servicer specializing in home equity solutions for older Americans, today announced that Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer Melissa Macerato has been named a 2026 HousingWire Woman of Influence. Now in its second decade, the annual recognition highlights female leaders making outstanding contributions to the mortgage and real estate industries, with an emphasis on achievements over the past 12 months.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260701770843/en/
Macerato leads Longbridge's extensive sales, marketing, communications, and human resources functions and has been a driving force behind the company's most significant product and business milestones. Over the past year, she guided the company’s expansion, with more than 40% annualized growth in the last year and half despite rising rates, along with the launch and expansion of HELOC For Seniors®, the nation’s first-ever home equity line of credit designed specifically for homeowners 62 and older. She also continued to spearhead the sales and marketing strategy behind Longbridge's proprietary Platinum reverse mortgage line, which contributed to record earnings in the first quarter in 2026, with reverse mortgage originations reaching more than $500 million, an increase of more than 50 percent year over year.
"Melissa has a remarkable ability to take a bold vision and build the organization needed to make it a reality," said Christopher Mayer, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Longbridge Financial. "She leads with accountability, invests in the people and infrastructure that drive success, and gives her teams the support and trust they need to do their best work. Her leadership has been instrumental in bringing HELOC For Seniors ® to market and helping deliver a record first quarter to start 2026. I am proud to work alongside her every day."
"Melissa sets a high standard and inspires those around her to rise to it," said Bill Packer, Chief Operations Officer of Longbridge Financial. "She has built a culture of collaboration, accountability, and shared purpose, and her teams are deeply committed to delivering for the people we serve. Seeing her recognized this way is a clear recognition of her talents."
Macerato was a key partner to CEO Chris Mayer in helping bring products like HELOC For Seniors ® and Platinum Peak from concept to market. She played a central role in building the organizational structure, recruiting key talent, and developing the operational infrastructure needed to launch and scale the product. The offering addresses a longstanding gap in the market: homeowners age 62 and older with substantial home equity have historically had limited access to traditional home equity lines of credit due to income-based underwriting requirements.
"I'm grateful to HousingWire for this recognition, and I share it with the teams at Longbridge who make this work possible every day," said Macerato. "We have a long way to go in terms of what this industry can do for older homeowners, and that's what keeps me focused. I’m excited about what’s to come."
The HousingWire Women of Influence program was the first national effort of its kind and has recognized hundreds of leaders across mortgage banking and real estate since its launch. Honorees are selected by a committee and evaluated on their contributions to both their organizations and the broader industry.
About Longbridge Financial
Longbridge Financial, LLC (NMLS #957935), is a nationally recognized mortgage lender and servicer focused on helping older homeowners access their home equity through flexible, responsible lending solutions designed to support a more secure retirement. Founded in 2012 and led by a respected Ivy League professor, the company combines deep industry expertise with a strong commitment to education, innovation, and transparency. Guided by a mission to empower aging Americans, Longbridge Financial provides the tools and insights they need to help make confident financial decisions in or near retirement.
For more information about Longbridge Financial or interview requests, visit longbridge-financial.com/newsroom.
Melissa Macerato, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer at Longbridge Financial, was named a 2026 HousingWire Editor's Choice Women of Influence Award winner in recognition of her leadership, innovation, and lasting impact on the mortgage industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the stars of the American firmament once advised citizens of all stripes how to express their love of country. Mark Twain's long-ago words capture how Americans are stepping out this week to wish their nation a happy milestone birthday.
“Our patriotism is medieval, outworn, obsolete,” Twain wrote in 1905. “The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.”
In these rabidly partisan times, those who think President Donald Trump deserves their support and those who don’t are joining in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Whether all the partying to come gives the nation a breather from disunity or aggravates it is an open question.
It's a proud and loud moment, sown with division and doubt.
Love of country comes in different flavors, of course. Some love it as is. Some love what it could become and press on with their activism and protest in pursuit of history's call for a “more perfect union." Some love what it used to be and might be once more — the underpinning of MAGA.
But overall, belief in American exceptionalism has waned. More people in the U.S. think there are better countries in the world than those who think the United States is the best. That’s according to an April poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that found 44% endorsing the United States as just one of the best.
This is not the America of, say, Teddy Roosevelt, whose presidential library Trump is visiting in North Dakota on Wednesday. Roosevelt mirrored the brashness and ambition of a country surging in innovation, industry, influence, military muscle and spirit.
In its place is a country where the president is his own brand of brash, but millions of the people he leads wonder if it's all coming apart.
For the 250th, the division starts at the top, with two organizations claiming to be the one leading the commemoration and all but ignoring the other.
A decade ago, Congress created the bipartisan America250 group and charged it by law with planning the country’s local, national and international events for the 250th. Trump stepped on that with an executive order making his Freedom 250 group “the” national organization in charge.
Marquee events like the Fourth of July fireworks at the National Mall, the parade of tall ships in New York and the Great American State Fair along the National Mall are the province of Trump's Freedom 250. Musical stars who had been lined up for the splashy opener of the fair last week withdrew, concerned Trump, a Republican, would make the festivities political and very much about him.
He stepped forward to fill the void, declaring himself the “No. 1 attraction," and he delivered a speech there June 24 on American glory and his achievements. He'll headline the official July Fourth events in the capital as well, for what he called “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all."
America250, meantime, put together America's Block Party — a series scheduled simultaneously around the country anchored by a Fourth of July benefit concert in Los Angeles hosted by Queen Latifah, with Chris Stapleton and the Smashing Pumpkins among the acts.
By congressional mandate, America250 is also sinking a 900-pound (400-kilogram) time capsule in Philadelphia with items from all states and branches of government, to be pried open in 250 years.
The people of 2276 will then see a major league baseball lineup from 2026, poems from Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky and more, postcards from Colorado and Maine, beaded artwork from Montana, an Oklahoma belt buckle, a message in a vintage Coca-Cola bottle, a pocket Constitution signed by the U.S. justices, a George Washington Lord’s Prayer gold medal from Utah given out at the Wedding of the Rails event celebrating completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and more.
In Philadelphia, where the founders signed the declaration and birthed the nation, 250 people will form the contours of the Liberty Bell in a parade with 50 marching bands and Miss America delegates, formerly called contestants, representing every state.
Though there are official events galore, it's not as if Americans, of all people, need the government to show them a good time.
In one of thousands of gatherings under the national radar, Evans, Pennsylvania, will hear the Circle of Friends Choir perform patriotic songs a cappella in an event also featuring a patriotic trivia contest and a barbershop quartet.
In Pocatello, Idaho, drag queens organized a reading of patriotic picture books for young people, including the story of Katharine Lee Bates. Bates returned from the Colorado Rockies, where the spacious skies, purple mountain majesties and fruited plains inspired her to write the poem that became “America the Beautiful.”
Twain, the scold and satirist of American government and of imperialism, shared Bates' love of his country's natural beauty. He loved the nature of its people, too — sometimes. “We glorious Americans will occasionally astonish the God that created us,” he wrote.
But a century before Make America Great Again grabbed the political zeitgeist by the lapels, he was speaking of good old days lost.
This story has been corrected to show the benefit concert host’s name is Latifah, not Latifa.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., left, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., unveil the Congressional Time Capsule at the Capitol, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The crew of Ecuador's sail training vessel BAE Guayas wave to onlookers from the ship's mast as they dock at the Port of Baltimore ahead of the Sail250 event Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)
People listen before President Donald Trump speaks at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The George Washington Bridge's two towers are lit ahead of America's 250th birthday, Monday, June 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People watch Rodeo250 at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Saturday, June 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
The U.S. Capitol is seen through fog behind the ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Sunday June 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
