Peter C. Alexander

Peter Alexander is Dean and Professor of Law at the Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale, Illinois. He joined the SIU faculty in 2003, after serving on the faculty of The Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University for eleven years. Prior to joining the faculty at Pennsylvania State, Dean Alexander was in private practice in Champaign, Illinois, for seven years. He also served as a law clerk to the Hon. Larry L. Lessen, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of Illinois, and the Hon. Harold A. Baker, U.S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois. Dean Alexander teaches in the areas of bankruptcy law, evidence and trial practice. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association and a 2002 inductee into the American College of Bankruptcy. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review.

Dr. Richard Brown

Dr. Brown is chief economist and associate director of risk analysis in the Division of Insurance and research at the FDIC in Washington, D.C. He received his Bachelor’s degree in economics from George Washington University in 1994. He is responsible for analyzing current trends in the economy and financial markets, focusing on bank risk management. Dr. Brown has served as chief of the Economic and Market Trends Section and has held research positions at the Resolution Trust Corporation, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

Tamara Draut

Tamara Draut is director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, where she oversees the research, policy and advocacy work on economic security issues. She is co-author of the recent Demos reports, Millions to the Middle: Three Strategies to Grow the Middle Class, Retiring in the Red: The Growth of Debt Among Older Americans, and Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: The Growth of Credit Card Debt in the 90s, among others. Her op-eds have appeared in many newspapers across the country, and she has appeared as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, Headline News and numerous radio shows. Before joining Demos in the summer of 2001, Ms. Draut’s previous policy, research and advocacy work focused on social and health policy issues. She worked at the Center for Population and Family Health at Columbia University and Planned Parenthood of New York City. Prior to working in public policy, Tamara worked for several years as an advertising copywriter. She holds a M.P.A. from Columbia University and a B.S.J. from Ohio University.

Dr. William Emmons

Dr. Emmons has been a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis since 1995 and has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Olin School of Business at Washington University since 1996. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. in Finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. His research interests include financial institutions and financial markets.

George Gaberlavage

George Gaberlavage is an associate director in the AARP Public Policy Institute (PPI), where he heads the Consumer Team. Under his direction, the Team conducts research in such areas as financial services and literacy, utilities, telecommunications, privacy, food safety and nutrition labeling, funeral and burial practices, and elder abuse. Prior to joining AARP in 1986, Gaberlavage held government relations and legislative positions with the National Association of Regional Councils and the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds a B.A. from the State University of New York, College at Fredonia, and a M.P.A. from the American University in Washington, D.C.

Kimberly M. Gartner

Kimberly Gartner directs the Credit Card Project of The Saint Paul Foundation. The Credit Card Project is an innovative collaboration of card issuers, consumers, credit counselors, educational institutions, foundations and regulators that are committed to helping consumers manage credit cards successfully. Gartner brings a background in strategic planning and financial/project management from her work as a consultant with the Larson Allen Public Service Group and as co-director of the Center for Economic Progress. Gartner operates an independent consulting practice, specializing in planning and project management, and also serves as a community faculty member at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches graduate courses in non-profit budgeting and organizational/policy change. She holds a master’s degree in Public Policy and a master’s in Social Work, both from the University of Minnesota. She received her B.A. in sociology, with minors in mathematics and business, from Drake University.

Karen Gross

Karen Gross has been a Professor of Law at New York Law School for the past two decades. She also serves as the President and CEO of an educational non-profit that designs, implements and studies programs to improve the financial literacy skills of consumers. A cum laude graduate of Smith College, where she was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Gross also graduated cum laude from Temple University School of Law, having spent her final year of law school at the University of Chicago. Prior to entering legal academia, she taught at the high school and college levels and practiced law in Chicago and New York. She has earned a national and international reputation as a scholar, teacher, administrator and advocate dedicated to increasing understanding of the human impact of overindebtedness and improving the lives of those less privileged. Her scholarly work has been published in leading journals, including the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Michigan Law Review and Notre Dame Law Review. Her prize-winning book, Failure and Forgiveness, was published by Yale University Press. Gross speaks frequently in the U.S. and abroad on financial literacy, consumer finance, asset building in low-income communities and bankruptcy-related issues. She is also regularly invited to speak on television and radio and in the print media on issues affecting consumers.

Kathleen Keest

Kathleen Keest has been involved in consumer credit issues for a number of years. She has worked for the National Consumer Law Center and as an Assistant Attorney General of the State of Iowa. She currently works for the Center for Responsible Lending and is the author and co-author of many important publications in this area.

Deanne Loonin

Deanne Loonin is a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center in Boston. She came to the NCLC in 1997 from Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, where she worked as a staff attorney since 1991. At NCLC, Loonin focuses on consumer issues affecting low-income seniors and immigrants, as well as student loan/higher education, credit counseling, credit discrimination and homeownership issues. She is co-author of the NCLC publications, Surviving Debt (2002) and Credit Discrimination and the author of Student Loan Law. Loonin received her B.A. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of California-Berkeley.

Sarah Ludwig

Sarah Ludwig is the executive director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, and one of the nation’s leading advocates on financial justice issues. She has helped groups develop local organizing and advocacy strategies to address redlining and lending discrimination in New York City. Sarah leads New Yorkers for Responsible Lending, a coalition of more than 100 community and consumer groups and community financial institutions dedicated to combating predatory lending practices in New York. She founded NEDAP in 1995 after serving as co-director of the Community Reinvestment Clearinghouse, and staff attorney at Inner City Press/Community on the Move in the Bronx. In 2000, she was selected as a fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Program and, in 2002, received the Union Square Award. Ms. Ludwig is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and received a joint degree in law and urban planning from New York University School of Law and Wagner School of Public Service.

Dr. Robert D. Manning

Dr. Manning is Professor and Special Assistant to the Provost, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Research Associate of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San Diego. Prior to joining RIT, he was a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Houston Law Center, Visiting Professor in Latin American Studies at Georgetown University, Senior Social Science Analyst at the Smithsonian Institution and Senior Fulbright Lecturer to Mexico. His doctorate is from The Johns Hopkins University with a specialization in Comparative International Development. He has conducted fieldwork in Mexico, Haiti and Cuba. Also the author of over 50 academic articles, book chapters and research reports, Dr. Manning’s current work focuses on the deregulation of the U.S. banking industry and the emergence of global financial services conglomerates. His recent book, Credit Card Nation, has received national and international attention including expert testimonies before the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Banking Committees, U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and the U.S. General Accounting Office. He is currently involved in two long-term projects — how international "cultural rates-of-profit" influence corporate management and investment strategies, and how international attitudes toward household saving and debt influence national consumption and foreign trade patterns.

Valerie McWilliams

Valerie McWilliams is directing attorney for the Land of Lincoln Legal Services, an Illinois provider of legal services for low-income families and senior citizens. Among her accomplishments at Land of Lincoln, she helped establish a not-for-profit car dealership to address the difficulties of welfare-to-work families in obtaining private transportation. Additionally, she served on the steering committee for the city of Champaign, Illinois. McWilliams was recently awarded the prestigious Esther Rothstein Award at the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois Annual Meeting.

Christopher Peterson

Christopher Peterson is an assistant professor of law at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law in Gainesville, Florida. He received his B.A. in philosophy and a B.S. in political science from the University of Utah. In 2001, he received his law degree from the University of Utah College of Law. He is the author of Taming the Sharks.

George Ritzer

George Ritzer, a member of the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, is a distinguished University Professor. He is the author of a number of works including The McDonaldization of Society, Expressing America, A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, and The McDonaldization Thesis: Extensions and Explorations. In these works, and others, Ritzer attempts to apply social theory to such areas of everyday life as the economy and consumption. He has also contributed to metatheorizing thought works such as Metatheorizing in Sociology. In 2000, the American Sociological Association honored him with the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award.

Elizabeth Schiltz

Elizabeth Schiltz is an associate professor of Law at St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where her research focuses on banking regulation, consumer credit laws and disability law. She has previously taught at Notre Dame Law School and has practiced at Faegre and Benson and other prominent law firms. She has her B.A. from Yale University and J.D. from Columbia.

Michael Sherraden

Michael Sherraden works on creating, implementing and studying policy and community innovations, focusing on the least advantaged, and drawing lessons from historical and international examples. Research on asset building, community and family development, service, productive aging, welfare reform, working poor households and urban education occurs at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University, which Sherraden founded and directs. With Donald Eberly, Sherraden has edited two books on youth service: National Youth Service: Social, Economic and Military Impacts (1982) and The Moral Equivalent of War: A Study of Non-Military Service in Nine Nations (1990). In 1991, Sherraden authored Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy, which proposed matched savings for the poor in Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Sherraden has served as an adviser and consultant to the White House, Department of Treasury, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Health and Human Services, Progressive Policy Institute, Carnegie Council and other organizations. His work has been funded by many foundations and government agencies, including the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Teresa A. Sullivan

Teresa Sullivan is executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at The University of Texas System and Professor of Sociology and Law at The University of Texas at Austin. She earned a bachelor’s degree from James Madison College and the Honors College of Michigan State University. She received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Chicago. She received the 1990 Silver Gavel Award of the American Bar Association for her co-authored study of consumer bankruptcy, As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America (1990). Her co-authored study, The Fragile Middle Class (2000), was awarded the 2000 Writing Competition Award of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. She is co-author of the leading textbook on the sociology of work, The Social Organization of Work (3d ed. 2002), and is the author or co-author of three additional books, 21 chapters and 50 major articles.

Diane Thompson

Diane Thompson is the supervisory attorney for the Housing and Consumer Rights Unit at the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation 's East St. Louis office. She has extensive experience in all areas of housing law, and has authored client education brochures. Thompson’s numerous community activities include outreach to neighborhood organizations and seminars on landlord-tenant laws, public housing rights, fair housing, affordable housing and home ownership. She also chairs the education and outreach committee of the board of a local fair housing organization. She serves on the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board, which advises the Board on the exercise of its responsibilities under the Consumer Credit Protection Act and on other matters in the area of consumer financial services. She supervises consumer rights litigation and works with community organizations on affordable housing and community economic development. She also supervises comprehensive homeless advocacy and homeless prevention projects in one of the poorest and most economically depressed cities in the country. She has expertise in the Truth-in-Lending and Home Ownership and Equity Protection Acts and is an experienced anti-predatory lending advocate and litigator in the St. Louis area. She is a graduate of NYU Law School and served as a Skadden Fellow.

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