Matthew Difanis, ABR, AHWD, CIPS, GRI

Matt considers himself the world's most improbable DEI and fair housing evangelist. Matt served as the 2018 President of the 50,000 member Illinois REALTORS® trade organization. During his 4 years on the state leadership team, he went from unaware of any of these issues to aware, then concerned, and eventually outraged. In the last few years, he has developed a reputation for building bridges to historically marginalized groups that have been impacted by housing discrimination–particularly the Black community. Matt served as the 2020 Chair of the National Association of REALTORS® Professional Standards Committee, which is charged with updating and interpreting the NAR Code of Ethics.  During his time leading that group, he advanced a series of proposals that eventually became Standard of Practice 10-5 in the Code of Ethics—a ban on discriminatory hate speech by REALTORS®.