Heidi Patalano

Heidi Patalano

Editor-In-Chief

National Mortgage News

Heidi Patalano is the editor-in-chief of National Mortgage News. Previous to this role, she was a magazine editor at real estate trade publication The Real Deal. She also oversaw residential real estate news reporting as the features editor at DNAinfo.com. Patalano holds a Bachelor of Science from Boston University's College of Communication.

Featured Sessions

Tuesday, September 15, 2026
9:50 am

As AI becomes central to competitive advantage, the buy vs. build decision is taking on new urgency. Should lenders develop proprietary AI capabilities in-house to maintain control and differentiation, or partner with external providers to accelerate deployment and keep pace with innovation? In this session, we explore how organizations are evaluating this trade-off across speed, cost, data ownership, and long-term scalability — and how to strike the right balance in an increasingly AI-driven mortgage landscape.

Past Sessions

Tuesday, September 16, 2025
9:45 am

The Future of Multi-Channel Mortgage Lending

Join industry stalwart Kim Nichols, who joined Pennymac in 2011 to build what is now America’s largest correspondent investor, and more recently built Pennymac TPO into one of America’s top wholesale lenders. In this discussion, you’ll learn how Pennymac runs their multi-channel strategy, why brokers have gained so much market share, the unique technology challenges in each channel, and what vendors can do to stay relevant to lenders and servicers.

9:10 am