Matt Difanis (ABR®, AHWD, C2EX, CIPS, GRI) served as the 2024 NAR Association Leadership Liaison. Matt boasts over two decades as a REALTOR®.
A fervent advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Matt chaired NAR’s Professional Standards Committee in 2020. His efforts to craft and advance proposals aimed at curbing discriminatory hate speech among REALTORS® culminated in the development of Standard of Practice 10-5 and Policy Statement 29, which makes the Code enforceable in all activities by REALTORS®. Matt is an instructor for NAR's At Home with Diversity and Bias Override certifications and regularly leads other training sessions nationwide.
He is a full-time practitioner, team leader, and multi-office broker-owner based in Champaign, Illinois, a city renowned as the home of the University of Illinois campus, boasting an enrollment of 56,000 students.
Matt is also an active community volunteer. He dedicates his time to Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, a historically Black church in Champaign, where he manages sound, photography, and live video streaming while mentoring teenagers in technology booth responsibilities.
Family holds a cherished place in Matt's life and he takes pride in being the father of two teenagers. Belle, a high school junior, leads the low brass section in the Marching Bulldogs. Gabe, currently in his first year of college, is an accomplished trumpeter within the 400-member Marching Illini, a group hailed by John Philip Sousa as "the world's greatest college band."
Matt is a member of the REALTORS® Political Action Committee Hall of Fame.
He holds a B.S. in psychology and a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois.