Women in Banking

Born and raised in northern California, Summer lived in the pool. Inspired by her brother Trevor, she joined the team at age 4 and never looked back. Although she did cry on the blocks of her first race, that was when she first learned to push through the fear in order to truly feel the accomplishment. That sense of accomplishment became her motivation for every facet of life.

Summer went on to earn a swimming scholarship to Stanford University and back-to- back NCAA Swimmer of the Year awards in only 2 years as a collegiate swimmer. Her prize accomplishment was being a part of the 1992 National Championship team with Stanford. That summer at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Sanders emerged as the most decorated U.S. swimmer, winning four medals – two gold, a silver, and a bronze.  Soon after, she shifted her passion to television.

As ABA’s chief policy officer, Naomi Gendler Camper leads the ABA’s policy and advocacy functions, including government relations, regulatory policy and compliance, economic research and the office of strategic engagement. Her division also includes specialized groups, such as the Card Policy Council and BAFT, ABA’s global transaction banking subsidiary.

Sherry Cromett joined the Biller Family Foundation in December 2018 as President of CareerWork$. Based in Seattle, she oversees the operation and expansion of the two CareerWork$ training programs, BankWork$® and CareerWork$ Medical®.

Jennifer Docherty is a managing director and associate general counsel in the financial services group at Piper Sandler & Co. She has over 20 years of experience as a senior banking and legal advisor, including structuring and executing over $63 billion in capital raising for financial institutions since 2014, including over $25 billion through more than 130 debt and equity transactions in 2020. In addition to transactional work, Docherty works closely with management teams and boards of directors providing general strategic and industry advice. She is a frequent national speaker and panelist at industry conferences, and regular contributor to articles on banking and gender diversity.

Miranda LeKander (she/her/hers) is Special Counsel on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. She is charged with leading the department’s efforts in implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives and serves on the California Leads Steering Committee on Race, Ethnicity & Gender. She also contributes to the Underwriting for Racial Justice taskforce coordinated by Beneficial State Bank. 

Kathy Moe is the Regional Director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) San Francisco Region. As a 35-year veteran, Moe is directly responsible for the safety and soundness of insured deposits, evaluation of asset and liability management, lending, investment and corporate governance practices of 350 financial institutions in 11 Western States, plus the Pacific U.S. Territories. Leading in a regulated environment subject to economic fluctuations, while navigating complex interagency relations, provides Moe with a unique skill-set. Areas of expertise include, but are not limited to: real estate, commercial credit and investment markets, compliance and risk management, cyber security, anti money laundering, information technology, vendor management, consumer protection, mergers and acquisitions, and de novo applications.

Mongkha Pavlick is a group vice president in the SF Fed’s Supervision + Credit Group. She is responsible for overseeing the SF Fed’s consumer compliance supervision, credit risk management, applications, and fintech teams.

April Frazer is managing director and head of Banks in Wells Fargo’s Corporate & Investment Bank. In her role as head of Banks, April leads the coordination of all investment banking and corporate banking activities across the bank’s client segment globally, driving the collaboration necessary to deliver our full capabilities to clients. April is responsible for the strategy and growth of the business, partnering with FIG regional leaders and product partners on the development and execution of growth strategies.

Virginia Varela is the President and CEO of Golden Pacific Bank, a Sacramento based community bank with a mission of providing exceptional personal and business banking services and creating customer loyalty and satisfaction. Virginia is a seasoned banker with over 30 years of successful community banking experience, both as a bank executive and as a former banking regulator.

Melanie Cuevas serves as the vice president of government relations for the California Bankers Association, where her advocacy portfolio focuses mainly on issues related to cannabis, debt collection, labor and employment, political reform, privacy, and agricultural, student and military lending.

Jason Lane is vice president and deputy director of government relations for the California Bankers Association and manages California state tax policy for the association, which involves analyzing legislation and regulatory activity, and the development of policy positions for the association. Lane is one of three lobbyists at CBA and, in addition to his primary focus on taxation, he also lobbies on behalf of the association on issues related to the state budget, and consumer lending legislation. Lane has significant expertise in handling legislative issues including taxation, data security, identity theft, and housing.

Blending neuroscience, practical application, and over 31 years of experience made a client dub Sharon Dye “the CEO whisperer”. Sharon uses her talent to quickly separate symptoms from root causes, advise with practical solutions, and do so with an approach that respects the client’s strengths.

Her multi-faceted experience includes helping organizations identify the culture they need to maximize their marketplace success and ensuring employee engagement is robust, change management expert, executive coach, certified merger and acquisition advisor, and strategic plan development advisor.

Kaitlin Asrow is a Fintech Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In this role Kaitlin is responsible for research and monitoring in the areas of data portability, data privacy and data rights, and artificial intelligence. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve System she worked as a research manager for a nonprofit consulting firm, the Financial Health Network, and specialized in financial data use and aggregation in the United States.

Jennifer Dimenna is the Vice president of Xpress Commercial Engagement at Apiture. She started her career in fintech writing documentation and help systems for cash management software at a small company near Atlanta. Over the last 20 years, Ms. Dimenna has continued to help U.S. and global financial institutions serve the digital banking needs of their business and consumer customers. At S1, ACI, Q2, Zenmonics and currently Apiture, Ms. Dimenna led teams of product managers, business analysts, solution consultants and UX Designers who defined, designed, and coordinated development and deployment of some of the market’s most innovative digital banking products.

Rachel Gerlach has served as Chief Operations Officer for Alpine Bank since 2017 and in several positions of increasing responsibility for the bank since 1997. She begins a new role as Chief Credit Officer in 2021.

She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of University of Denver, with a B.S.B.A. in International Business and a minor in Management. Ms. Gerlach also completed the three-year intensive graduate banking school at Louisiana State University, as well as the Commercial Lending School at Southern Methodist University.

Su Ning is passionate about building and leading high functioning teams through rapid growth. Her sweet spot includes the intersection between technology and business, where the combination of analytical, creative and operational skills is paramount for success. With over 20 years of experience in the digital space, she has worn many hats as a digital strategist, product marketer and business developer. This diverse experience at premier Vancouver based tech companies, such as JUDI.AI, Blast Radius, Vision Critical and HootSuite, positions her well for driving innovation and delivering seamless, end-to-end customer journeys.