Laura Arce

Laura Arce is Senior Vice President for Economic Initiatives at UnidosUS. Laura is the architect of and now leads the Home Ownership Means Equity (HOME) Initiative, a multi-year movement to transform the economic trajectory of Latinos through homeownership.  The HOME Initiative leverages policy, research, communications, and place-based strategies to influence systemic change to enable the creation of four million new Latino homeowners by 2030.

Prior to joining UnidosUS, Laura was Senior Vice President for Public Policy for Wells Fargo & Co. where she was responsible for policy analysis and engagement on consumer banking, consumer and home lending, and community reinvestment, among other high-impact public policies.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 2015, Laura was Senior Policy Analyst at the Federal Housing Finance Agency where she oversaw reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage servicing policies and products during the Great Recession. During her tenure at FHFA, Laura was awarded the Distinguished Service Award and selected as an Excellence in Government Fellow.

Laura has held senior positions in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors, including on Capitol Hill and at UnidosUS, then known as the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).  She successfully authored the certification application for the Raza Development Fund, the first CDFI sponsored by a civil rights organization and secured federal funding to establish a national network of housing counseling agencies focused on increasing the Latino homeownership rate. Laura currently serves on the Fannie Mae Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.

Laura is a first-generation American and a second-generation graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.  She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Rutgers University where she was a Community Development Fellow.