Embrace Employee Spotlight: Tara Schlehuber-Johnson and Quincey Linner

There’s a lot to love about Embrace Home Loans, but one of our strongest assets has always been our employees. We have teammates who have been with us for 10, 20, even 30+ years. And we’ve also been hiring new employees at a furious pace recently.

In this Employee Spotlight, we’ll be featuring two Embrace teammates — one new employee, and one employee who has already been with us for a while. Each will give different perspectives on the Embrace experience and a little more personal info so you’ll be able to get to know them better.

Want to nominate someone to feature in a future spotlight? Email Mary Mack at [email protected]

QUINCEY LINNER, Sales Development Representative

What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?

Sales Development Representative. My job is to build relationships with mortgage professionals, such as loan officers and real estate agents. In the process of building a relationship with said professionals, I’m sharing information about Embrace while learning about them as well. If interested in becoming employed at Embrace, I simply introduce them to a manager in a region where an office is commutable for them.

What made you want to work at Embrace?

Aside from Embrace’s amazing background and accolades revolving around employee satisfaction, I was very excited to work for the Director of Sales Development, Patrick Mullen after interviewing with him. Patrick has been a great boss, coach, and mentor from the start. This is also one of my first jobs out of college.

How has it been starting a new job at Embrace?

It’s been really great! I’ve enjoyed getting to know my coworkers and enjoyed getting to know mortgage professionals on the east coast! Especially people from New Jersey!

What did you do for a living before you came to Embrace?

Before Embrace, I worked as Financial Representative for Northwestern Mutual. It was an internship that I accepted in my last semester on the Sales Team at the University of Minnesota for the summer after graduation in the spring of 2020. During the internship, I had performed well enough to advance into full-time.

We’d love to get to know you a little better! Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in Minnesota. I am a huge Minnesota Vikings fan. In my free time, I enjoy working out, golfing, fishing, traveling, and hanging out with friends. Currently, I am living with my parents in the metro area of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis & St. Paul) until I save up enough to get my own place!

---

TARA SCHLEHUBER-JOHNSON, Northeast Processing Manager

What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?

Northeast Processing Manager — I support all of the processors in the Northeast.

How long have you worked for Embrace?

Next month will mark my 6th anniversary with Embrace.

What made you want to work at Embrace?

There were a number of things, but I think the two major factors were the sense of community that is evident even through initial conversations in interviews and the opportunities for growth within the company.

What’s one of your favorite Embrace memories?

We had a processing summit a number of years ago now that I really enjoyed. It was great to be able to connect with our processing and underwriting teammates in person. It’s something I hope we do again in the future.

How was it working from home for most of this year?

I actually prefer to work from home. I did not do it very often pre-COVID but I had worked from home for years before I came to Embrace. I find that I am far more productive at home than in an office. I am still working remotely even now that the offices have opened.

We’d love to get to know you a little better! Tell us about yourself.

I live in Buxton, ME with my husband Lance and we have just celebrated our 25th year of marriage. We have a daughter named Hannah who also lives in Buxton with her fiancé and they will be getting married in a little over a month.

About a year and a half ago, Lance and I sold our house of 20 years and bought a farm just four miles from our old house. We now have three horses and a mini mule, a flock of chickens (two of which are blind), one dog, one cat, and will likely soon have some goats and a donkey (I hope). Our vision for the farm is to hold weekend events for individuals, families, or groups to come and enjoy the animals, hold meetings or other types of events, do some team building incorporating the horses or offer equine therapy to those who are interested and enjoy great food. We have a food trailer at the farm that we will serve out of, and working on plans for a commercial kitchen on the property.

My hobbies obviously include being with and taking care of animals of all kinds, growing both culinary and medicinal herbs, and cooking. I also love to work on my food blog, The Maine Harvest Table, that I started back in 2015 but since plans for the farm began in 2019 I haven’t had a lot of extra time to work on that.

I have done some herbal studies online with The Herbal Academy and sustainable food and agriculture studies through Cornell’s cooperative extension programs — and now looking forward to putting that knowledge to good use on the farm.