Meet the Team Dedicated to Reducing Your Vacancy and Increasing Your Income

Julie Ann Guffey has been in the housing and leasing industry since 1986 when she started her career in the multi-family industry in Salt Lake City, UT as a community manager. In 1989, Mrs. Guffey moved to Arizona, where she continued her work as a manager focusing on compliance of various Affordable communities until 1998.

In 1998 Mrs. Guffey was contracted with RTC/DIC federal government as compliance agent in the State of Arizona with Phoenix Revitalization Corporation to be a Program Coordinator/Compliance Monitoring Specialist of 6,055 units. Her duties included on-site audits, desk reviews/audits, affordable housing training for on-site management with requirements based on HUD handbook 4350.3, annual billing for program fees, LURA release with title agencies reviewing and processing annual reports from properties. In addition, she drafted and presented the annual and semi-annual reports to Congress through the RTC/FDIC agency.

In 2000, Mrs. Guffey founded JAG Compliance & Consulting as the approved 3rd party Compliance Auditor for IDA bond (regulatory agreement) financed communities. Services include support and training on monitoring for compliance, training on complying with a variety of housing programs, education, and consulting on restoring, maintaining, and achieving affordable compliance. Prior and current work includes over 200 owners/management companies/non-profits, City of Phoenix IDA, Maricopa County IDA, Pima County IDA, and the City of Tucson IDA.

In 2015, Mrs. Guffey joined Occupancy Solutions as the Compliance Specialist overseeing the Compliance Solutions Department where she will provide support and training on monitoring for compliance, training on complying with a variety of housing programs, education and consulting on restoring, maintaining and achieving affordable compliance.

Occupancy Solutions is proud to have Anita Banks as their Southwestern Regional Operations Manager. Anita brings over 25 years of experience from various vital positions held within the multi-family housing industry in Arizona. Anita earned the prestigious Certified Property Manager, CPM, designation through the Institute of Real Estate Management and has an Arizona Real Estate License. Anita also earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Georgia and studied Engineering at Arizona State University.

Anita's starter into the world of multi-family housing was as a Research Associate for Park Weaver, a local broker who specialized in the sales of apartment communities in CA and AZ and compiled apartment rental rate and vacancy rate statistics for Maricopa County, AZ, and San Diego and Orange County, CA. That position lead to contacts within the Arizona Multihousing Association who subsequently hired her as their Director of Operations. She was known as Anita Draper in those days. A few years later, she was hired away by one of the AMA members, Dunlap and Magee, to become an Assistant Asset Manager and was instrumental in creating an association with the City of Phoenix when they started to purchase apartment communities to offer as affordable housing. From there Anita moved into a position as a Portfolio Director for a local developer of luxury apartment communities that also operated as a fee management company, The P. B. Bell Companies, where she remained for over 19 years supervising all classes of apartment communities. Anita also worked with Silver Mountain Real Estate Group managing an HOA and upscale condominium rentals in North Scottsdale, AZ and as a Realtor for single-family home sales before joining Occupancy Solutions.

Anita actively serves on committees for the Arizona Multihousing Association.

Saule Jackunas graduated from the University of Detroit in 1994 with a BA in Public Relations and Marketing. She immediately started in the automotive project management industry managing budgets, schedules, marketing/sales, purchasing, payroll, legal matters, customer relations, plus problem resolution, collections, and much more. These skills and experiences prepared her to launch a new career path in 2004 into property management.

Ms. Jackunas has followed her interest in property management and joined Occupancy Solutions in early 2014 as the Midwest Solutions Coordinator. She has been able to take her work experiences from past roles and utilize them in a variety of ways relating to property management to create innovative and creative solutions for clients throughout the United States.

Denise Lanfear is a Human Resource Professional who is passionate about HR and how critical Human Resources is to all companies. She is currently an instructor at Oakland University and University of Phoenix teaching various courses in Business and Human Resources Management at the Graduate level. Denise has an extensive background in all areas of Human Resources, including executive-level coaching, mentoring, recruiting, benefits, compensation, and training. Denise has a solid background in guiding employee relations, compliance, and HR strategy for even the best management teams.

Denise holds her Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration with a focus in Human Resource Management and minor in Production and Operations Management from Oakland University. Denise has her Professional in Human Resource Certification and is an active member of SHRM and HRAGD. Finally, Denise holds her Master’s in Business Administration from Oakland University.

Denise can analyze your needs quickly and develop the best solution to fit your company’s needs. It’s as simple as allowing you to focus on what you do best and letting Denise concentrate on her expertise, which is human resources systems and strategies.

Passionate about equipping organizations who want to boost their Leadership IQ so they can enhance effectiveness, increase employee engagement, and raise productivity, Sherene brings almost two decades of experience empowering leaders for exceptional success in and out of the workplace.

Armed with a Ph.D. in Counseling, Sherene is keenly aware of the immense impact that effective leadership and clear communications have on an organization's bottom line. Combining the knowledge of a former graduate professor with humor and real-world stories, Sherene skillfully empowers leaders to step up and bring out the best in themselves and others.

Having spoken extensively throughout North America, as well as in South American and Asia, Sherene’s authored two books, been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and writes a monthly column addressing leadership and interpersonal issues in the workplace. A member of the National Speakers Association, Sherene is president of the Michigan National Speakers Association.