The Economic Security Summit is an annual convening of the nation’s top leaders in industry, academia, philanthropy, government, and nonprofit organizations, to explore challenges facing American workers and families in today’s changing economy. Given the intertwined nature of household financial and employment challenges, leaders can no longer be content to focus on partial solutions or explore ideas in siloed discussions. The Summit brings together leaders from across sectors, disciplines, and political leanings to find common ground, make connections, deepen understanding, and explore solutions to the greatest financial and economic challenges facing American households today. Participants at the 2017 Economic Security Summit include…
Hilary Abell
Co-founder, Project Equality
Hilary Abell is the co-founder, with Alison Lingane, of Project Equity (PE), and one of our nation’s leading experts on worker cooperative development in low-income communities. Project Equity’s mission is to build economic resiliency with low-income communities by demonstrating and replicating strategies that increase employee ownership; its strategy is to motivate and support successful businesses to become employee-owned, while developing ecosystems of support for employee-owned companies. Project Equity’s main programs are Awareness Raising, Business Outreach, and Business Ownership Transitions, the latter comprising a 9-18 month process of supporting every aspect of a company’s transition to employee ownership. Launched in spring 2014, PE has published numerous field-building papers, facilitated several “Cooperative Growth Ecosystem” convenings, educated 100s of businesses, helped dozens assess their potential fit with employee ownership, and shepherded several companies through the transition to employee ownership. In 2017, it began to replicate its programs with partners in Western North Carolina and the Twin Cities. For her work with Project Equity, Hilary was awarded Presidio Graduate School’s Big Idea Prize in 2013, an Echoing Green Fellowship in 2014, and a 2016 Local Economy Fellowship. She is the author of “Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale” (published by The Democracy Collaborative in 2014) and a lead author, with Melissa Hoover, of “The Cooperative Growth Ecosystem: Inclusive Economic Development in Action” (Citi Community Development, 2016). As Executive Director of WAGES (now called Prospera) from 2003 to 2011, Hilary led the organization through a period of major growth, resulting in a network of five worker-owned green cleaning businesses that sustain 100 high quality jobs in Bay Area communities. She got her start in the cooperative movement as a worker-owner at Equal Exchange in the 1990s.
Amon Anderson
Associate Director, Acumen
Amon co-leads Acumen America – setting strategy, building community, and investing in companies across the US. Acumen America supports high-impact, high-growth entrepreneurs across the US, investing in Seed and Series A stage companies tackling poverty through innovations in health, financial inclusion, and workforce development. Most recently, Amon worked on Acumen’s Global Portfolio team out of New York. Prior to that, Amon led Acumen’s agriculture and water/sanitation investing in East Africa. Amon was based in Nairobi for four years where he originated, diligenced, and managed a number of investments, building the agriculture portfolio from scratch. Prior to joining Acumen, Amon worked in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with Cherokee Investment Partners, developing an impact investing strategy and building a community of entrepreneurs. Amon began his career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, helping to launch the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative. Amon holds a BA with Highest Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. Amon also holds a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he received the Frances & Arjay Miller Fellowship in Social Innovation and the Miller Social Change Leadership Award.
Joseph Blasi
J. Robert Beyster Distinguished Professor, Rutgers Univ School of Mgt & Labor Relations
Joseph Blasi is author of 15 books on employee share ownership and profit sharing. He holds the J. Robert Beyster Distinguished Professorship at Rutgers University ‘s School of Management and Labor Relations and serves as the Director of the Fellowship Program on Employee Share Ownership and Profit Sharing. The program sponsors research fellowships for young and emerging academics to study these issues and their effect on the middle class and the economy. It has more than 100 fellows at more than 40 universities and in more than 30 states in the U.S. studying these issues. Prof. Blasi is author of The Citizen’s Share: Reducing Inequality in the 21st Century (Yale University Press) and Having a Stake, a thirdway.org policy report on these issues with colleagues Richard Freeman of Harvard and Douglas Kruse of Rutgers. Blasi has advised Presidential candidates and members of Congress and state governments on these issues. He specializes in large empirical datasets on these issues and policy at the Federal and state level.
Ray Boshara
Senior Adviser, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Senior Fellow, The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
Ray Boshara is senior adviser and director of the Center for Household Financial Stability at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The center conducts research on family balance sheets and how they matter for strengthening families and the economy. Boshara is also a senior fellow in the Financial Security Program at The Aspen Institute, where his work focusses on the future of building wealth. Before joining the Fed in 2011, Boshara was vice president of New America, a think tank in Washington, D.C., where he launched and directed several domestic and international policy programs. He has also worked at CFED, a UN agency in Rome, the U.S. Congress, and Ernst & Young. Over the past 25 years, he has advised presidential candidates as well as the George W. Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations. He has testified before the U.S. Congress several times. Boshara has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Democracy, among other publications, and his media appearances include National Public Radio, CNBC, C-SPAN, and Bloomberg News. He serves on many local and national boards and commissions related to financial security, community development, and peace and justice. His book, The Next Progressive Era, co-authored with Phillip Longman, was published in 2009. Boshara is a graduate of The Ohio State University, Yale Divinity School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Colleen Briggs
Executive Director, Community Innovation, JPMorgan Chase & Co
Colleen Briggs is Executive Director of Community Innovation within the Office of Corporate Responsibility at JPMorgan Chase & Co, a global leader in corporate philanthropy with $200 million invested in communities annually. She is responsible for helping establish and execute the firm’s global philanthropic strategies on financial health and community development, including two signature initiatives – the Financial Solutions Lab and PRO Neighborhoods competition. The Lab is a $30 million, five-year initiative that convenes leading experts in technology and design to improve consumer financial health for underserved populations. PRO Neighborhoods is a five-year, $125 million program that works to increase the availability and accessibility of vital economic opportunities in distressed neighborhoods. Colleen also manages numerous programs across both topics designed to surface new approaches to community challenges, as well as explore global cross-cutting themes across the Foundation’s work, such as women’s empowerment, peer learning, evaluation, and attracting additional investment in our projects. Prior to joining, Colleen was the Economic Policy Advisor to Senator Debbie Stabenow. In this role, Colleen managed the Senator’s economic portfolio, including policy related to financial services, tax, small business, job creation, community development, manufacturing, and housing. Colleen managed the Dodd-Frank market reforms for the Senate Agriculture Committee, and helped draft the Recovery Act, TARP, the Dodd-Frank Act, and healthcare reform. Colleen is a member of the Asset Funders Network Steering Committee and the Innovations for Poverty Action Policy Advisory Group. She earned an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Rhett Buttle
Principal, Public Private Strategies
Rhett Buttle is a Principal at Public Private Strategies (PPS), a consulting firm that is exclusively focused on where the public and private sectors meet. Before founding Public Private Strategies, Rhett was the Business Engagement Director for Hillary for America serving as Secretary Clinton’s liaison and advisor to the private sector during her run for President. Before joining the campaign, Rhett was President & Managing Director at Small Business Majority, a national business advocacy organization where he lead an organization of over 25 people actively doing policy and advocacy work both nationally and in 10 states across the country. Prior to that, Rhett was was a presidential appointee on The White House Business Council and served as the Director of Private Sector Engagement in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, he was the main liaison between the department and the business community. Buttle has also served in the Office of the President at George Washington University, in the Office of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and has worked on several presidential, state, and local campaigns. Rhett frequently engages with the media and has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, and several business publications. He has spoken on business issues at the Aspen Institute, the Harvard Institute of Politics, and the Center for American Progress. He also serves on the boards of several organizations. Rhett holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Diego and a master’s degree from The George Washington University. In addition, he is active in many volunteer & professional organizations including American Legion Boys State. Rhett was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV.
Andrei Cherny
CEO/Co-Founder, Aspiration
Andrei Cherny is CEO of Aspiration, an online financial firm with a conscience that is democratizing access to great banking and investing products. Founded on the idea that we can do well and do good at the same time, Aspiration offers America’s top-rated checking account and top sustainable investment fund to everyday people, trusts it customers to Pay What Is Fair, and gives ten percent of its revenue to charities around economic opportunity. It was named one of Fast Company’s 50 “Most Innovative Companies in the World” and in the top 5 most innovative in both Finance and Social Good. Founded in 2014, Aspiration is one of the fastest growing online financial firms in America. Andrei has worked for nearly twenty years to make the financial system more open and fair. One of Investment News’ “40 Under 40” investment professionals, Andrei has been an advisor to Fortune 100 companies including some of America’s largest financial institutions, a senior fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and at the Center for American Progress, a Navy reserve officer, and a financial fraud prosecutor. As the co-founder and president of Democracy journal, Andrei worked with then law professor Elizabeth Warren to launch the fight for what became the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A former White House aide, President Clinton called Andrei a “critical part of the team” which brought about the economic successes of the 1990s. His 2000 book, “The Next Deal,” outlined how technology was transforming the expectations of consumers and citizens. He is also author of the bestselling, “The Candy Bombers” about the occupation of Germany and the beginning of the Cold War. He graduated from Harvard University and from the University of California Berkeley law school.
Maureen Conway
Vice President for Policy Programs, The Aspen Institute
Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program, The Aspen Institute
Maureen Conway serves as vice president for Policy Programs at the Aspen Institute and as executive director of the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). Conway founded EOP’s Workforce Strategies Initiative (AspenWSI) and has headed up workforce research at the Aspen Institute since 1999. She leads a team of researchers and consultants in a variety of initiatives to identify and advance strategies that help low-income Americans gain ground in today’s labor market. She is a nationally recognized expert in sectoral, or industry-specific, workforce development and has been quoted in a variety of news media including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Maureen is the author of numerous publications including research reports, case studies and policy briefs, including co-editing, together with Robert P. Giloth, the book Connecting People to Work: Workforce Intermediaries and Sector Strategies. Recently, Maureen led the creation of the Working in America and Reinventing Low Wage Work speaker series at the Aspen Institute, bringing together voices from business, worker advocacy, media, academia and others to discuss the challenges experienced by many in today’s labor markets and new ideas for addressing these challenges. In addition, her current work includes multi-year evaluations of several promising innovations in workforce development and a new project exploring an emerging practice of work that strives to create economic stability as a platform for economic mobility. Conway’s previous experience includes consulting for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris and work for the U.S. Peace Corps, where she advised on the organization’s economic development programs in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Maureen has an MBA from Columbia University, a master’s in regional planning from the University of North Carolina, and a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Holy Cross College.
Erin Currier
Director, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Erin Currier is director of family financial security and mobility at The Pew Charitable Trusts. The project conducts original research to assess differences in family balance sheets across diverse U.S. households and the degree to which Americans’ short-term economic security relates to their longer-term economic mobility. In this role, Currier works with top experts in the field, oversees the project team on its comprehensive research agenda, and ensures their work is understandable to a variety of audiences, including policy makers and the public. She has testified before state legislatures and Congress, spoken about financial security and mobility at conferences across the country, as well as conducted interviews on national television and radio news programs and with top print publications. In 2013 she was included in National Journal’s list of the 25 most influential Washington women under 35.Currier has a master’s degree in Public Policy and women’s studies from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in English and sociology from the University of Michigan.
Mickey Edwards
Vice President, The Aspen Institute
Director, Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership, The Aspen Institute
Mickey Edwards was a member of Congress for 16 years, serving on the House Budget and Appropriations Committees and as a chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. After leaving Congress he taught for 11 years at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government before moving on first to Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and then back to Washington, DC, as vice president of the Aspen Institute, where he directs a bipartisan fellowship for elected public officials. Edwards, who grew up in Oklahoma City, has degrees in both law and journalism. He began his career as a newspaper editor and reporter and later won awards in advertising and public relations before being elected to Congress. While teaching at Harvard he returned to journalism as a weekly political columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times and broadcast a weekly commentary on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered”. Edwards is a board member of both the Constitution Project, where he has chaired task forces on judicial independence and the war power, and the Project on Government Oversight. Among his books are “Reclaiming Conservatism”, published in 2008 by Oxford University Press, and “The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans”, published in 2013 by Yale University Press. His articles have appeared frequently in publications ranging from the New York Times and the Washington Post to Daedalus, The Public Interest, and the Atlantic. He is a frequent public speaker and has been a guest on many of the nation’s leading radio and television news and opinion broadcasts. Edwards has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Quinten Farmer
President, Even
Quinten cofounded Even, a service that provides more stable income for the millions of Americans living with paycheck to paycheck income volatility. Previously, Quinten was an early employee at Taykey and Onswipe (Acquired), working across product, engineering, and partnerships. Quinten studied Computer Science at Columbia University.
Alastair Fitzpayne
Executive Director, Future of Work Initiative, The Aspen Institute
Alastair Fitzpayne serves as Executive Director of the Future of Work Initiative. Prior to his work at the Aspen Institute, he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Sylvia Burwell. In addition to serving as Chief of Staff at HHS, Fitzpayne also held a number of senior roles at the Department of the Treasury during the Obama Administration, including Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs. He has also served on Capitol Hill, in both the Senate and the House, as an economic advisor to Sen. Evan Bayh and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, respectively. He has also worked at the Office of Management and Budget and Abt Associates, a public policy consulting firm. Fitzpayne holds a BA from Vassar College and an MPP from the University of California-Berkeley.
Timothy Flacke
Executive Director, Commonwealth
Timothy Flacke is Executive Director of Commonwealth (formerly D2D Fund), a mission-driven organization that builds solutions to make people financially secure. Commonwealth collaborates with consumers, the financial services industry, policy makers, and other mission-driven organizations to discover ideas, pilot solutions, and drive innovations to scale, so that wealth – of opportunity, tools, financial assets – is possible for everyone. Tim helped launch D2D in 2001 and has served on the organization’s board of directors since that time, drawing on twenty-five years’ experience in the non-profit and private sectors helping working people to build savings. Under his leadership, D2D has grown from a start-up social venture into Commonwealth, a nationally recognized innovation incubator which partners with leading financial service firms and receives support from the world’s most respected philanthropic foundations. Tim speaks widely and comments in the media about Commonwealth’s work, the need for broader financial security, and the role of fintech and innovation in addressing this need. He has directed signature Commonwealth efforts including the Refunds to Assets project, linking federal tax refunds to savings, and Online IDA, a scalable infrastructure for matched savings programs built on industry-leading 401(k) recordkeeping technology. These and other efforts have thrice impacted the federal tax code and spawned new financial products and public policies responsible for helping hundreds of thousands of Americans to build hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. Before Commonwealth, Tim worked as an independent consultant, author and grant writer in the field of financial empowerment and asset development. He served as a VISTA volunteer in rural Vermont, and earlier in his career, held leadership positions in corporate human resources and risk management for Filene’s Basement, Inc. He holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Boston College.
José García
Program Officer, Inclusive Economies, The Ford Foundation
José García is a program officer on the Inclusive Economies team. Prior to joining Ford, he served as program officer for Strong Local Economies at the Surdna Foundation, where he led the design and implementation of a $4 million grant-making portfolio to spur business development and acceleration while focusing on quality job and wealth creation. His portfolio focused on double and triple bottom line local businesses and organizations assisting the growth of people of color, women, and immigrant-owned businesses. Additionally, he sourced and monitored program-related investment (PRI) deals that fit the foundation’s program strategy. Before his time at Surdna, he was a policy fellow at the National Council of La Raza’s Wealth Building Policy Project. During his tenure, he coauthored the book Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Credit and the policy report Making the Mortgage Market Work for America’s Families. Shortly before that, he deviated from his career path to assist his family’s small business during a period of transition—and was able to see firsthand how economic policies affect mom and pop shops. Earlier in his career, José served as associate director for the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, where he authored dozens of reports on household debt and coauthored the book Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies are Drowning Americans in Debt.
Julie Gehrki
Vice President, Progams – Walmart Foundation, Walmart
Julie serves as Vice President of Programs for the Walmart Foundation. This team leads philanthropic investments for Walmart and the Walmart Foundation. The Walmart Foundation funds initiatives focused on Sustainability for people and planet throughout the supply chain, including work on agriculture, hunger and nutrition; Opportunity, including work on women’s economic opportunity, career opportunity, veteran’s support, small business support and domestic manufacturing; and Community, which engages our associates and facilities to make positive change in communities where they live and work. Julie joined the Walmart Foundation in 2008. Prior to Walmart, Julie worked in the nonprofit community on issues of anti-racism, homelessness and community revitalization. Internationally, she has done program evaluation in Kenya and Tanzania and taught English in Eastern Europe. Julie has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religion from Rhodes College and a Master of Arts in Public Service from The Clinton School of Public Service. She was a Jane Addams-Andrew Carnegie Fellow at Indiana University’s School of Philanthropy. She serves on the boards of the Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals and Saving Grace, a transitional living program that helps young women aging out of foster care or facing homelessness.
Peter Georgescu
Chairman Emeritus, Young & Rubicam
Author, Capitalists Arise!
Peter Georgescu went from a Soviet-style labor camp in Romania, to first-class education at Exeter, Princeton, and Stanford, and continued on to Young & Rubicam where he rose through the ranks to become Chairman and CEO. Peter is an author and speaker, devoted to income equality and opportunity for all Americans. His remarkable experiences of hardship and oppression, combined with his business career, give him a unique perspective on the challenges facing our society.
Todd Greene
VP, Community and Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Todd Greene is vice president and leads the community and economic development department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Greene has oversight for research, policy, and outreach initiatives that promote inclusive economic growth with a focus on small business, housing, community and economic development finance, and human capital and workforce development in all or portions of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. At a national level, Greene leads the Federal Reserve System’s human capital/workforce development working group in the community development function. He has published and presented on various economic and workforce development related topics and is the coeditor of the recent book Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century.Previously, Greene was a member of the general faculty at Georgia Tech where he led various centers and programs related to applied economic development, including the Community Policy and Research Services group, the Center for Manufacturing Information Technology, and the Program in Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy.Greene earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and holds master’s degrees from Washington University and Georgia State University. He has completed executive education programs at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Universidad ESAN (Lima, Peru). Greene is on the board of directors and is a member of the governance committee of the International Economic Development Council, is vice chairman of the Atlanta CareerRise Leadership Council, and is a member and past chairman of the Georgia Economic Developers Association. He currently serves on the Augusta University Board of Visitors and the board of directors for the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), and is a member of the Southern Economic Development Council. Greene is an alumnus of the 2003 Leadership Buckhead, 2009 Leadership Georgia, and 2011 Leadership Atlanta programs.
Vishal Jain
Vice President, Prudential Financial, Inc.
Vishal is Group Insurance’s Vice President of Strategy and Financial Wellness. He works with the Profit & Loss (P&L) leaders, functional business leaders, and others throughout the organization to develop winning business strategies, coordinate and manage the business planning process, and convert GI’s marketplace data into actionable insights and competitive advantage for current and future business. Vishal also leads Group Insurance’s financial wellness initiative, which includes teaming with partners across Prudential to define, develop, and deliver a market-leading institutional financial wellness value proposition. Vishal joined GI from Prudential’s Strategic Initiatives Group, where he helped lead Prudential’s cross-business thought leadership and strategic review efforts since 2008. Earlier in his career, he was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, where he supported retirement providers, asset managers, and insurers on strategy and marketing issues.
Carla Javits
President & CEO, REDF
Carla Javits is President and CEO of REDF, a California-based, national nonprofit venture philanthropy and intermediary that is leading the pioneering effort to create jobs and employment opportunities for people facing the greatest barriers to work. Through her stewardship, REDF has expanded from the SF Bay Area throughout the US, helping impact the lives of thousands of people in need of jobs by investing capital and expertise in social enterprises – mission-driven businesses focused on hiring and assisting people who are willing and able to work, but have the hardest time securing employment. Inspired by REDF’s founder, George R. Roberts of KKR, Carla focuses on achieving measurable results by building the partnerships and systems to provide a business solution to joblessness among those overcoming the most significant challenges.
Randel Johnson
SVP, Labor, Immigration, & Employee Benefits, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Randel K. Johnson joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on December 1, 1997. As senior vice president, he is primarily responsible for labor, immigration, an employee benefits issues pending before Congress and the federal agencies. Consulting with the Chamber’s member policy committees and his staff of 11, Johnson determines the Chamber’s position and sets strategy on a wide variety of issues that fall within the jurisdiction of his division. Johnson regularly testifies before Congress and is widely quoted in the media on employment and immigration issues as a recognized expert in these fields. Before joining the Chamber, Johnson was the Republican labor counsel and coordinator for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce where he supervised a staff of professionals and was responsible for employment policy and legal issues before the committee. His work centered on legislative activity under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Congressional Accountability Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. His prior experience also includes six years as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor where he was the special assistant to the Solicitor of Labor for Regulatory Affairs and the department’s liaison to the Office of Management and Budget, specializing in the areas of equal employment opportunity and occupational safety and health. Johnson is a graduate of Denison University and the University of Maryland School of Law and earned his Master of Laws in labor relations from the Georgetown University Law Center. He received a graduate certificate from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government for Senior Managers in Government and is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.
Karen Kahn
Rapporteur, The Aspen Institute
Karen A. Kahn is a seasoned communications professional with nearly 30 years of experience in nonprofit communications and journalism. She has a broad range of experience leading advocacy campaigns, managing publications, handling media relations, and developing digital strategies. As a consultant, Karen provides strategic communications, content development, and editorial support to nonprofit and academic clients. For nearly two decades, Karen served as Director of Communications for PHI, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of jobs for our nation’s nearly five million nursing assistants and home care aides. In this role, she established PHI as the nation’s leading authority on the direct-care workforce. Among her many accomplishments, Karen led PHI’s successful advocacy campaign to expand the federal Fair Labor Standards Act to the home care workforce. An accomplished writer and editor, Karen is the co-author of Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America’s First Legal Same-Sex Marriages (Beacon Press, 2007). Prior to her career at PHI, she was the editor of Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, a monthly feminist journal published for three decades out of Boston. During her tenure at Sojourner, she edited a collection of essays, Frontline Feminism: Essays from Sojourner’s First Twenty Years (Aunt Lute, 1995). Throughout her career, Karen has provided a range of writing and editorial services to nonprofit and academic clients. She has edited journal articles, dissertations, policy reports, and book-length manuscripts, including providing editorial support for Our Bodies, Our Selves for the New Century (Simon & Schuster, 1998) and Pockets of Hope: How Students and Teachers Change the World (Praeger, 2001). Currently, she is a newswire blogger for the Nonprofit Quarterly.
Sarah Keh
Director, Corporate Giving, Prudential
Sarah S. Keh is a director of corporate giving and of The Prudential Foundation within the Office of Corporate Social Responsibility at Prudential Financial, Inc. In her current role, she leads Prudential’s efforts to prepare and connect people to quality jobs. This includes supporting demand-driven employment pathways for underserved populations, building diverse talent pipelines in math and technology, and improving job quality for American workers. Previously, she was the associate director of teaching & learning at The Center for Arts Education, funding arts education programs in New York City public schools. She was also a program associate and operations manager at Associated Grant Makers, Inc, a regional association of grantmakers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Sarah currently serves on the Partners Council of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, co-chair of the Education Subcommittee of the Newark Funders Group, on Mayor Baraka’s National Community Schools Advisory Board and the Governance Committee of the Funders Collaborative for High Quality School Options in Newark. She was also selected as a Presidential Leadership Scholar in the 2015 inaugural class. She holds a bachelors degree in psychology from Wellesley College and a masters degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Anne Kim
Senior Writer, Washington Monthly
Anne is Senior Writer at the Washington Monthly and a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program. She writes extensively about economic and social policy, with a particular focus on politics, poverty and economic opportunity, and served as the rapporteur for the 2015 and 2016 Economic Security Summits. She’s also worked as senior policy strategist at CFED, the economic program director at Third Way and as legislative director to Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN). A recovering lawyer by training, she lives in northern Virginia with her husband and two boys.
Joyce Klein
Director, FIELD, The Aspen Institute
Joyce Klein is Director of FIELD at the Aspen Institute, which advances business ownership as an economic opportunity strategy. Ms. Klein assumed the leadership of FIELD in 2012, after working as a senior consultant since the program’s inception in 1998. She is recognized as a leading expert on the field, speaking at national and regional industry conferences and being quoted in a variety of news media including The New York Times and National Public Radio’s Marketplace. Joyce has more than 20 years of experience studying and supporting microenterprise and entrepreneurial development programs in the United States, and has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including funder brief and strategy guides, evaluation and research reports, case studies and policy briefs. She has also designed and managed grant programs aimed at supporting innovation in the practice of microenterprise development in the United States.
Noah Lang
CEO, Stride Health
Noah Lang is CEO and Co-founder of Stride Health, a benefits platform built for traditionally benefit-ineligible workforces. Stride’s suite of “Benefits for Independents” delivers intelligent health care, coverage, and financial protection to part-time, contract and seasonal workers. Stride is directly integrated into the world’s largest labor and capital marketplaces (including Uber, Etsy, TaskRabbit & Care.com), as well as large hospitality and retail workforces. The company is backed by leading venture capital firms Venrock, NEA and Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital, and is available nationwide. Lang is a graduate of Stanford University as a President’s Scholar, with a degree in Product Design.
Andrea Levere
President, Prosperity Now
Andrea Levere is President of Prosperity Now, a national nonprofit that supports families to build financial security and wealth through financial inclusion and capability, matched savings, entrepreneurship, and affordable housing. Prosperity Now operates a comprehensive public policy program to build and protect assets at the local, state and federal levels, and produces the nationally recognized Assets and Opportunity Scorecard. In 2016, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System appointed Ms. Levere to its Community Advisory Council. She also serves as the Chair of ROC USA (Resident Owned Communities USA), a national social venture that converts manufactured home parks into resident owned cooperatives and is a member of the FDIC’s Committee on Economic Inclusion and Morgan Stanley’s Community Development Advisory Board.
Ben Mangan
Executive Director + Faculty, BerkeleyHaas Center for Social Sector Leadership
Senior Fellow, The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
Ben is Executive Director and Faculty at the Berkeley-Haas Center for Social Sector Leadership. Ben was co-founder and CEO of EARN, which is using technology to help workers in all 50 US states, to save and invest in their futures. Ben is also a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program. At Berkeley-Haas, Ben teaches strategy and leadership for social impact as well as the Social Lean Launchpad, an intense 11-week sprint for early-stage social ventures comprised of MBAs and other graduate students from around campus. He also helps lead Berkeley-Haas’s Global Social Venture Competition. In addition to teaching, Ben is the Berkeley-Haas lead for a global partnership with the online learning initiative Philanthropy University, a groundbreaking initiative that provides free online training by the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners, for people around the world who want to increase their ability to have positive impact in the world. Philanthropy University has enrolled over 250,000 unique learners from 190 countries worldwide. Ben is also the founder and faculty director for the Social Impact Collective, which provides insight and community to high net worth families seeking to maximize their impact through philanthropy and impact investing. Ben has been featured in Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek. He has won multiple awards, including the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award and the Fast Company Social Capitalist of the Year Award. Ben also serves as an appointed member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Community Advisory Committee. He remains a Board Director at EARN, and also serves as a Board Director for the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Ben holds a BA from Vassar College and an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Aparna Mathur
Resident Scholar, Economic Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Aparna Mathur is a resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005. At AEI, she id the director of the AEI-Brookings Paid Family Leave Project. Her research has focused on income inequality and mobility, tax policy, labor markets and small businesses. She has published in highly esteemed scholarly journals, testified several times before Congress and published numerous articles in the popular press on issues of policy relevance. Her work has been cited in academic journals as well as in leading news magazines such as the Economist, the Wall Street journal, Financial Times and Business Week. She has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School Of Public Policy. She is an opinion writer for Forbes.
Alex Mazer
Founding Partner, Common Wealth
Alex Mazer is a Founding Partner at Common Wealth, a mission-driven business dedicated to expanding access to good retirement plans, with a focus on modest-earning, precarious workers. In partnership with the Service Employees International Union, Common Wealth recently created my65+, Canada’s first retirement plan for lower- and moderate-income workers. Alex has advised governments, unions, associations, international financial institutions, and pension funds with collective assets exceeding half a trillion dollars on a wide range of pensions and retirement-related issues. In 2015, Alex was appointed as a special advisor on the implementation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, at the time one of the largest greenfield pension projects in the world. Previously, Alex served as a consultant at McKinsey & Co and in various public service roles. As Director of Policy to the Ontario Minister of Finance, he helped pass two major pension reform bills, helped lay the groundwork for the recent expansion of the Canada Pension Plan, assisted in the implementation of a value-added tax, and helped shape four provincial budgets. Alex’s campaign for Toronto City Council in 2014 earned the highest vote share of any first-time challenger in the city. His volunteerism has focused on issues of education, domestic violence prevention, and public finance. A graduate of McMaster University, the University of Toronto, and Harvard Law School (where he was an editor on the Harvard Law Review), Alex grew up on Prince Edward Island and now lives with his wife and son in downtown Toronto.
Jennifer Mishory
Executive Director, Young Invincibles
Jen Mishory is the Executive Director and a founding staff member of Young Invincibles. Jen has conducted extensive research and authored numerous reports on health, higher education, and economic issues facing the Millennial generation. She has testified before Congress in both the House and Senate on the issue of financial aid and student loans, and served as a member of the inaugural Consumer Advisory Board of the CFPB. She also served as the consumer advocacy negotiator for the Department of Education’s 2012 negotiated rulemaking around student loans, and previously served as a consumer representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, where she worked with Insurance Commissioners around the country to ensure strong consumer protections in the health care industry for young people. Jen has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, and PBS, among other media outlets. Jen graduated with honors from UCLA in 2007 and received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2010, where she now teaches as an adjunct professor of law. She is admitted to the California bar. Jen hails from Los Angeles, CA, and is an avid fan of all UCLA sports teams.
Jonathan Njus
Director, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Jonathan Njus is director for family economic security at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. As director of the Family Economic Security program team, Njus provides leadership and strategic oversight for the team’s on-the-ground execution of foundation efforts that build economic security for vulnerable children and their families through sustained income and asset accumulation. In this role, he recommends proposals for funding, manages a portfolio of grants and designs and implements initiatives and projects that ensure family stability and increase workforce mobility for low-income families. He actively guides the integration of family economic security into all aspects of the foundation’s national grantmaking strategy and placed-based efforts. Prior to joining the foundation, Njus served as a senior policy advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. He was appointed to the Obama administration to advance the Department of Labor’s initiatives around clean energy, job training and worker safety, and was detailed temporarily to the Domestic Policy Council at the White House to work on labor issues. Prior to this, Njus worked for the Center for Economic Progress as the director of advocacy and co-coordinator of the National Community Tax Coalition in Chicago. Njus has a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Kalamazoo College, and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago.
Paul Osterman
Professor, MIT Sloan School
Paul Osterman is the NTU Professor of Human Resources and Management at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and the Department of Urban Planning, M.I.T. He was formerly Deputy Dean for Faculty and MBA Teaching at the Sloan School. Osterman’s books include: Who Will Care For Us? Long Term Care and the Long Term Care Workforce (Russell Sage, 2016); Economy In Society (MIT Press, 2013); Good Jobs America: Making Work Better For Everyone (Russell Sage, 2011); The Truth About Middle Managers: Who They Are, How They Work, Why They Matter (Harvard Business School Press, 2008); Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics In America (Beacon Press), 2003; Securing Prosperity: How the American Labor Market Has Changed and What To Do About It (Princeton University Press, 1999); Employment Futures: Reorganization, Dislocation, and Public Policy (Oxford University Press, 1988) and Getting Started: The Youth Labor Market. (MIT Press, 1978). He is also the co-author of Working In America; A Blueprint for the New Labor Market; The Mutual Gains Enterprise; Forging a Winning Partnership Among Labor, Management, and Government, and Change At Work, and the editor of two books, Internal Labor Markets, and Broken Ladders; Managerial Careers In The New Economy. In addition, he has written numerous academic journal articles and policy issue papers on topics such as the organization of work within firms, labor market policy, and economic development. Osterman has been a senior administrator of job training programs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and consulted widely to firms, government agencies, foundations, community groups, and public interest organizations. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T.
Nisha Patel
Executive Director, US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty
Nisha Patel is executive director of the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty at the Urban Institute. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Partnership assembles 24 of the nation’s leading voices, representing academia, practice, the faith community, philanthropy, and the private sector. The Partnership’s goal is to identify ideas for investment that could dramatically increase mobility from poverty in America. Patel has more than two decades of experience leading, developing, and implementing initiatives to increase economic opportunities for low-income families. She served in the Obama administration as director of the Office of Family Assistance within the US Department of Health and Human Services, overseeing a $17 billion annual portfolio of federal grants that foster family economic security, including the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Patel was previously deputy director of Ascend at the Aspen Institute, where she led national efforts to expand two-generation approaches to improve outcomes for children and their parents. Prior to that, Patel was a program officer in the US Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she managed a portfolio focused on increasing postsecondary success through community partnerships and policy development, as well as special initiatives. Patel previously held positions as director of programs at Washington Area Women’s Foundation and senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy. She has also been an adjunct professor at the George Washington University. Patel is a summa cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt University, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar. She holds an MSW with a concentration in social and economic development from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was a Bettie Schroth Johnson Scholar. Patel was selected as a 2015 National Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute Fellow.
Steve Patrick
Vice President, The Aspen Institute
Executive Director, The Aspen Forum for Community Solutions, The Aspen Institute
Stephen Patrick became the Executive Director of The Aspen Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute in November, 2012. He oversees work at Aspen that includes a focus on building the collective impact field, launching and implementing the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund, and lifting up successful stories of civic engagement and community change. Previously Steve served as a Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His work at Gates included managing a portfolio of grants focused on supporting disconnected youth on pathways to and through postsecondary education, along with work focused on adult education populations and education for justice involved individuals. Steve previously served as a Vice President at the Daniels Fund and as Director of Youth and Emerging Initiatives at the New Mexico Community Foundation. He is the Co-Founder of Rocky Mountain Youth Corps and spent several years leading youth programs for the San Juan Pueblo Tribe. Steve has served on a number of Boards including Grantmakers for Education, and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE). He was selected as a Next Generation Leadership Fellow by the Rockefeller Foundation and was appointed by Governor Richardson to serve as the Co-Chair of the New Mexico Commission for Community Volunteerism (AmeriCorps). In 2008, Stephen served on the Obama Transition Committee focused on Social Innovation and Civil Society. He lives on Bainbridge Island with his wife, Suzanne and sons, Jackson and Will.
Debra Plousha Moore
System Chief of Staff/EVP, Carolinas HealthCare System
Debra Plousha Moore serves as System Chief of Staff and Executive Vice President for Carolinas HealthCare System – one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive healthcare organizations. Carolinas HealthCare System provides healthcare and wellness programs at more than 900 care locations throughout North and South Carolina. In 2015, Forbes named Carolinas HealthCare System to its list of America’s Best Employers. In addition, Fortune named CHS as one of the “20 Best Workplaces in Health Care.” Diversity MBA, a national leadership organization, named Carolinas HealthCare System a “Best Place for Women and Diverse Managers to Work.” Ms. Plousha Moore was named Charlotte Business Woman of the Year in 2015 by Queens University of Charlotte. In 2014, Ms. Plousha Moore received the Leadership Excellence Award from the National Diversity Council. She also was named the recipient of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award by the Urban League of Central Carolinas. In 2013, Ms. Plousha Moore was awarded the Leadership Charlotte Legacy Award for Newcomer of the Year. She was recognized in 2012 with the Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Excellence Award, presented by the United Negro College Fund.She serves on the 2016 Executive Committee of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, as well as the boards of Fifth Third Bank, Duke Mansion, Trees Charlotte and North Carolinas Military Business and Education, CPCC Foundation Board and SAP Success Factors Strategic Advisory Council. She and her husband, Colonel John E. Moore, Jr., USAF (Ret.), have been married for 40 years.
Ida Rademacher
Executive Director, Financial Security Program, The Aspen Institute
As executive director since 2015, Ida has led the Financial Security Program into a new phase of innovation and engagement with a wide range of public and private sector leaders to explore how the rapidly evolving financial system and public policies can work together to simultaneously improve economic growth and household financial security. New initiatives under her leadership include the Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), the Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings and the Reconnecting Work and Wealth Initiative. Over the course of her career, Ida has developed a reputation for building strong partnerships and cross-disciplinary teams that produce fresh thinking and actionable ideas to expand inclusion and impact. At CFED she led groundbreaking research for the CFPB and the U.S. Department of Treasury on financial well-being, financial access and integration. She also led the creation of Upside Down, a program examining ways the U.S. income tax code generates disparate wealth building opportunities and contributes to growing levels of wealth inequality. Earlier positions at The Academy for Educational Development’s Center for Behavioral Evaluation and Research and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program focused on evaluating sectoral employment strategies and economic development impact investments. A resident of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and an avid horseback rider, Ida is the first generation in her family to attend college. She pursued postgraduate studies in economic anthropology at the University of Melbourne, Australia; holds a Master of Public Policy degree summa cum laude from the University of Maryland; and a Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, in anthropology and economics from James Madison University.
David Rolf
President, SEIU 775
David Rolf is an International Vice President of SEIU and the President of SEIU 775, and is known internationally as an innovative labor leader and thinker on the future of work and labor. He has led some of the largest worker organizing efforts since the 1930s including the successful organization of 74,000 home care aides in Los Angeles and the campaigns to win a $15 minimum wage in SeaTac and Seattle. Rolf writes and speaks frequently about alternative futures for U.S. worker movements. He is a founder of many organizations that build worker power, including the SEIU 775 Benefits Group, Fair Work Center, Working Washington, and The Workers Lab. Rolf is also the author of the book Fight for Fifteen: The Right Wage for a Working America (New Press, 2016). Born and raised in Cincinnati, OH, Rolf graduated from Bard College and joined SEIU as an organizer in 1991. He lives with his wife in Seattle.
Kelly Ryan
President and CEO, Incourage
Kelly Ryan has led Incourage in realizing its simple yet bold vision of a community that works well for all people for 20 years. To advance an inclusive and sustainable economy in its rural central Wisconsin home, Incourage has developed a holistic approach that is values-led and user-centered. As CEO, Kelly is leading Incourage in its commitment to align all forms of capital with organizational values and mission congruence, placing primary value on human potential. Named one of the 50 most influential leaders in the nonprofit sector by the NonProfit Times and a Rural Innovator by the White House, Kelly frequently speaks and writes about the opportunity for philanthropy at the intersection of people, place and prosperity. She also serves on the National Fund for Workforce Solutions Partners Council, and had the opportunity to serve on the board and sunset the Hitachi Foundation in 2016.
Jeanne Sahadi
Senior Writer, CNNMoney
Jeanne Sahadi is a senior writer at CNNMoney. Among her primary beats, she covers federal taxes, spending and debt. She also has reported on career issues – including pay and benefits, company culture and the future of work. With CNN since 1998, Sahadi has covered a wide range of policy debates during her tenure, including health reform, bankruptcy reform and entitlement reform. She also wrote about personal finance and was a columnist at Money Magazine. A graduate of Haverford College, Sahadi has been a guest on many CNN shows as well as CNN radio affiliates and outside stations, including NPR.
Marcela Sapone
Co-founder and CEO, Hello Alfred
Marcela Sapone is the co-founder and CEO of Hello Alfred, the tech-driven home management platform. Through Alfred she has worked to redefine urban living and become a staunch advocate for pro-human, pro-labor policies and was among the first founders in the sharing economy to write on the importance of meaningful work and a meaningful income for employees. As a thought leader she has worked with the Brookings Institute, the Secretary of Labor and the White House under the Obama Administration to make this a reality. Marcela has been recognized for her work and named one of Goldman Sachs’ “most intriguing entrepreneurs” and a winner of TechCrunch Disrupt SF, she was also nominated for the Financial Times’ ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Award, as well as Fast Company’s Most Creative People list and was the face of Consumer Tech for Forbes 30 Under 30. Marcela holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. Prior to founding Hello Alfred, she began her career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company before working in private equity and also co-created WHITESPACE, a seed-stage venture fund.
Tom Shapiro
Director, IASPHeller School, Brandeis University
Professor Thomas Shapiro directs the Institute on Assets and Social Policy and is the Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. Professor Shapiro’s primary interest is in racial inequality and public policy. He is a leader in the asset development field with a particular focus on race and wealth. Dr. Shapiro’s new book, Toxic Inequality, was published in the spring of 2017 to enthusiastic reviews. Robert B. Reich, “Everyone concerned about the toxic effects of inequality must read this book.” William Julius Wilson, “This is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read on economic inequality in the US.”His previous book, The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality, published by Oxford University Press, 2004 (soft cover, 2005) was widely reviewed, including by the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and others. The book was named one of the Notable Books of 2004 by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. With Dr. Melvin Oliver, he wrote the award-winning Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality, which received the 1997 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from the American Sociological Association. This book also won the 1995 C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America named it an Outstanding Book of 1996.
Jeremy Smith
Director, Retirement Savings Initiative, The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
Jeremy Smith is the Associate Director at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, where he focuses on fostering innovative policy solutions to expand savings and wealth for all Americans. Before joining FSP, he served as Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where he was responsible for developing and launching new research and advocacy campaigns. He was also Deputy Director for Government Relations at the Service Employees International Union, where he led advocacy efforts on a broad range of economic policy issues on behalf of SEIU’s members. In addition, Mr. Smith has more than a decade of experience in international affairs at U.S. Agency for International Development, with a primary focus on supporting microenterprise lending in Latin America. He holds an MBA and a MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in History. He is the co-author of Financial Access for Immigrants: Lessons from Diverse Perspectives and Making Money Transfers Work.
Joanna Smith-Ramani
Program Director, EPIC, The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
Joanna Smith-Ramani is the Associate Director at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, leading work on the Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), a neutral, first-of-its-kind initiative in the field of consumer finance designed to accelerate knowledge synthesis and problem solving among a wide cross section of experts from applied, academic, government, and industry settings working on critical dimensions of financial security. Joanna possesses over 15 years of community development, community development finance, and personal finance/asset development experience. Prior to joining FSP, Joanna served as Senior Innovation Director at the D2D Fund, leading the unit that designs, tests, and evaluates promising financial service innovations. In her role there, she developed innovations to improve savings and financial capability including: Prize-linked Savings, Tax Time Savings, Gamification, Emergency Savings, and Youth Savings. Additionally, Joanna led several federal grants, developed and sustained national coalitions, and built a network of industry partners. Joanna has led national and state legislative campaigns, resulting in the passage of a federal law and over 10 state laws expanding a savings innovation. She has been quoted in a variety of national and local media outlets including the New York Times National Public Radio, and Fox Cable News. Joanna holds a master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a B.A. in Urban Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. She serves on the Baltimore and Maryland CASH Board and has been selected for the 2017-2018 Class of Leaders for Leadership Montgomery.
Tyler Spalding
Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs, PayPal
Tyler works passionately at the intersection of business and social change. In his role on the Corporate Affairs team, he drives integration and collaboration across PayPal’s Global Communications, Government Relations and Social Innovation efforts. He also works to advance the company’s social impact agenda, thought leadership activities and global relationships strategy, and helps build PayPal’s reputation as purpose-driven company. Tyler joined PayPal from eBay Inc., where he drove strategic communications and stakeholder engagement efforts as part of the company’s first global, enterprise-level Social Innovation function. Prior to joining eBay Inc., Tyler worked in Edelman’s Business + Social Purpose practice, during which time he consulted with various multinational companies, multilateral institutions and nonprofit organizations to design and launch initiatives aimed at creating positive social and environmental impact. Tyler began his career at Ashoka, an international citizen sector organization dedicated to finding the most innovative social change projects in the world, and supporting and bringing together the entrepreneurs behind those initiatives. Tyler currently resides in San Francisco. He studied at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and speaks Mandarin Chinese. He’s a 2015 Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow, and an Advisory Board member of several financial empowerment organizations and initiatives.
Jennifer Tescher
President and CEO, Center for Financial Services Innovation, CFSI
Jennifer Tescher is the founder, president and CEO of the Center for Financial Services Innovation. CFSI is the authority on consumer financial health, leading a network of committed financial services innovators to build better consumer products and practices. As an entrepreneur, innovator and forceful voice for change, Jennifer has focused her work and career on the idea that, by aligning consumer and provider success, business can be a force for good in the lives of consumers, communities and the economy. Jennifer is a recognized thought leader, with frequent interviews and articles in both the mainstream and financial press and major speaking engagements at a broad spectrum of industry and policy conferences. In 2008 she was chosen to serve a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. Currently, Jennifer is a member of Accion’s Center for Financial Inclusion Advisory Council, and participates as an advisory board member for several of the nation’s largest financial institutions, non-profits and research organizations. She was named one of Chicago’s 40 under 40 by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2006. She serves on the board of Elevate Energy, is the past chair of the board of the Center for Economic Progress and a past board member of the Interfaith Council for the Homeless. In 2014, she was nominated to the Northwestern University Council of One Hundred. A native of Miami, Jennifer graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a combined BSJ and MSJ. She holds an MPP from the University of Chicago’s Harris School. She lives in Chicago with her husband, bestselling author Jonathan Eig, and their children, Lillian, Lola, and Jeffery.
Rick Wartzman
Director, KH Moon Center, Drucker Institute
Rick Wartzman is the director of the KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society at the Drucker Institute, a part of Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of four books, including his latest, The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America. He also writes about the world of work for Fortune magazine online and hosts a podcast on the intersection of business and society called “The Bottom Line.” Before joining the Drucker Institute in 2007, he worked for 20 years as a reporter, editor and columnist at The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.
Debra Whitman
Chief Public Policy Officer, AARP
Debra Whitman is AARP’s chief public policy officer, leading policy development, analysis and research, as well as global thought leadership supporting and advancing the interests of individuals 50-plus and their families. She oversees AARP’s Public Policy Institute, AARP Research, Office of Policy Development and Integration, Thought Leadership, and AARP International. Dr. Whitman is an authority on aging issues, with extensive experience in national policymaking, domestic and international research, and the political process. An economist, she is a strategic thinker whose career has been dedicated to solving problems affecting economic and health security, and other issues related to population aging. As staff director for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, she worked across the aisle to increase retirement security, lower the cost of health care, protect vulnerable seniors, and improve our nation’s long term care system. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Whitman served as a Brookings LEGIS Fellow to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Earlier in her career, she conducted research on savings and retirement for the Social Security Administration. She has been quoted by or appeared in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today, NBC Nightly News, CBS News, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and Politico, among others. Dr. Whitman holds master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in economics, math and Italian from Gonzaga University.
Snezana Zlatar
SVP, Product & Pricing, Prudential
Snezana Zlatar is senior vice president at Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), and a leading provider of defined contribution, defined benefit, nonqualified deferred compensation plan administration, and institutional investment and risk management services.
