Virtual Homeownership Fair Speakers – February 2022
Michele Burns has been the Chief Finance Officer at Habitat for Humanity Texas for the past four years, with over 15 years of affiliate experience with Midland Habitat for Humanity before that. Michele has over 40 years of experience in mortgage loan originations and servicing.
She serves on the MPAR (Mortgage Procedures and Regulations) statewide team, is a Certified Homebuyer Counselor, a Certified Relocation Professional, has achieved a certificate in Nonprofit Executive Leadership and is a past recipient of Habitat Texas’ Mary Ruth Rodenbaugh Staff Excellence Award.
Andrea Fowler is the VP, Mortgage Loan Originator with Cadence Bank. She has devoted the last 20 years to giving back to the community that raised her, sharing her knowledge to enable clients to attain a mortgage loan and financial stability.
An active community member both inside and outside the office, Fowler has led financial literacy classes via the YWCA’s girls on the rise program, Covenant Capital and the Princess Within Foundation. She is a board member of the NAACP Housing Committee, a member of the Women’s Council of Realtors and a certified applied neuroscience coach.

Jeremiah Rivera supports the City of Houston’s Housing and Development Department – Single Family Division in his role as Program Policy and Partnership Manager by establishing and fostering strong collaborative relationships with program partners, community and non-profit organizations, developers, homebuyers, and other stakeholders. Prior to joining the City of Houston, Jeremiah worked for five years in community and economic development nonprofit organizations in San Antonio, TX and five years in civil service with the State of Michigan.
Jeremiah is a graduate from Texas A&M Corpus Christi where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and from the University of Texas at San Antonio where he earned a Master’s of Public Administration.
Sylvia Villalpando is the Homeowner Services Manager of Houston Habitat for Humanity and joined in 2019.
Sylvia serves as a driving force to solicit and build a pipeline of homebuyers; manage all aspects of the homebuyer application process and partner family compliance with the terms of homeownership program; plus assess and reduce obstacles faced by partner families to help them achieve their goal of homeownership.