CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Illinois Public Interest Research Group
Job Titles:
- America Saves Program Coordinator
Amanda joined CFA in March 2021 as a Program Coordinator for America Saves. In this role, Amanda will support America Saves programs across the board, including local America Saves campaigns and America Saves for Young Workers. She will use her experience in program management and financial literacy outreach and education to support America Saves in its research-based approach to help Americans save money, reduce debt, and build wealth.
Prior to joining CFA, Amanda worked as a community financial wellness program specialist for The Ohio State University Cooperative Extension. In this role she worked to engage Ohioans in meaningful ways around the topic of financial literacy through an organizational approach that focused on research, education, and outreach. During this time Amanda also coordinated Ohio Saves, a local America Saves campaign.
Amanda received her BFA in Fine Art Photography from Winthrop University, and her M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Tiffin University.
Job Titles:
- America Saves Communications Coordinator
Amelia Simons joined CFA in January of 2022 as a Communications Coordinator for America Saves. In this role, Amelia supports the external digital communications with our Partners and Savers, embodying the mission statement to empower all, particularly those who are financially vulnerable, to save effectively in order to reduce debt and build wealth.
Prior to CFA, Amelia launched a successful virtual assistant business supporting military spouse entrepreneurs with their social media management, podcast management, and email marketing.
Amelia is a graduate of American Military University with a BA in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management.
Job Titles:
- Director, Fair Financial Services Project, Texas Appleseed
Job Titles:
- Director of Meetings and Events
Anna Marie Lowery is the Director of Meetings and Events for the Consumer Federation of America. At CFA, Anna Marie manages planning and logistics for all of the organization's meetings and events ranging from small in-house meetings to large multi-day conferences and an annual awards dinner. In her position, she also manages the organizational database, maintaining event lists, marketing lists, and all of the organization's contacts.
Prior to joining CFA, Anna Marie worked as a catering sales manager at a hotel where she was responsible for growing the client base and executing corporate, non-profit, and government group events from beginning to end. Prior to the hotel, Anna Marie worked as a senior event manager for a catering company servicing clients at the House of Representatives, the Pentagon, the Naval Academy, and the National Defense University.
Anna Marie received a B.A. in Humanities and Communications from the Florida State University and a Master of Tourism Administration and Event Management from the George Washington University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President and COO, National Association of Federally - Insured Credit Unions
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow
- Member of the National Housing Conference Board of Trustees
Barry Zigas is a Senior Fellow at Consumer Federation of America and earlier served as its Director of Housing Policy 2008-2019. He also consults with housing and community development nonprofits and foundations on strategy, innovation and leadership through his firm Zigas and Associates LLC.
Zigas was Senior Vice President for Community Lending at Fannie Mae from 1995-2006, where he led the company's single family community lending initiatives, as well as corporate and regulatory reporting on the company's housing goals, investments in CDFIs, and support for homeownership counseling and education. He joined Fannie Mae in 1993 as Vice President for Housing Impact.
Zigas served as President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition from 1984-1993 and as Associate Executive Director of the US Conference of Mayors from 1976-1984. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Grinnell College and a 1997 graduate of the Wharton School's Advanced Management Program.
Zigas is a member of the National Housing Conference Board of Trustees and has previously served on the boards of Mercy Housing Inc, Low Income Investment Fund, Enterprise Community Partners, National Housing Trust and the Avalon Theater Project. He serves on the consumer advisory councils for Bank of America, Ocwen Financial, Quicken, Freddie Mac, the Mortgage Bankers Association and Chase. He was appointed as member of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Housing Commission in December, 2011, and previously served on the Rouse-Maxwell Task Force and the Mitchell-Danforth Task Force in the 1980's. His articles and commentary have appeared in American Prospect, American Banker, Washingtonian, and other publications, and he is frequently quoted in print and electronic media.
Areas of Expertise:
Housing
Job Titles:
- Manager
- America Saves Senior Communications Manager
- Senior Communications Manager for America Saves
Benjamin Moss serves as the Senior Communications Manager for America Saves. He manages multiple aspects of America Saves and its initiatives online presence, as well as the design and development of its websites and marketing campaigns.
Before joining America Saves in 2019, he founded a technology, design, and marketing company. Ben has worked in the roles of Senior Designer, Systems Engineer, Solutions Architect, Director of Technology, and more, during the past 20 years. He has had the privilege of working with and building solutions for organizations of all types.
Job Titles:
- Financial Justice Program Director, New Jersey Citizen Action
Job Titles:
- President / CEO, Schools First Federal Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Florida Consumer Action Network
Job Titles:
- Assistant Secretary
- Foreman
- Food Policy Institute Distinguished Fellow
- Foreman, Distinguished Fellow at Consumer Federation of America 's Food Policy Institute
Carol Lee Tucker-Foreman, distinguished fellow at Consumer Federation of America's Food Policy Institute, has an international reputation as a consumer advocate and food policy expert. For more than 35 years, she has worked at the highest levels of government and advocacy organizations to ensure that Americans have an adequate supply of safe, nutritious and affordable food. She has been called "a legend in American agricultural circles." Tucker-Foreman was CFA's executive director, 1973-77 and returned to the organization in 1999 to launch the Food Policy Institute, serving as its director until 2007.
Most recently, she was a leader of the coalition that worked with Congress to rewrite the 70 year old food safety provisions of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, shifting the Agency's focus to preventing rather than reacting to foodborne illnesses. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee and principle sponsor of the legislation, praised Tucker-Foreman's decades long advocacy for modernizing the nation's food safety laws.
Tucker-Foreman is the founder of the Safe Food Coalition (SFC), a group of consumer and public health advocates and trade union leaders that work to prevent foodborne illness and led the group's efforts to get USDA to adopt science-based process controls in meat and poultry inspection and to adopt a zero tolerance for disease causing pathogen contamination in ground beef purchased for the nation's school lunch program.
Carol Lee Tucker-Foreman served as assistant secretary of agriculture for food and consumer services during the Carter Administration and won thorny political battles, including broadening food stamp coverage for the poor, expanding the fledgling Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Feeding Program (WIC), and developing the landmark "Dietary Guidelines for Americans." She pushed through the first regulations to ban "foods of minimal nutritional value" from schools.
After leaving government, Tucker-Foreman started the public affairs consulting firm, Foreman Heidepriem & Mager, and served as its president until 1999.
She has frequently testified before Congress, been quoted by major national media and has published articles in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The American Interest and other national publications. She has published studies of and proposals for improving the regulation of genetically engineered foods and preventing Listeria monocytogenes contamination of meat and poultry products, and edited a book on government regulation, Regulating for the Future.
She has served as a director of the U.S. Commodity Credit Corporation, the National Consumer Cooperative Bank, the President's Commission on White House Fellowships, the U.S./EU Consultative Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology, the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, the USDA's Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology, the U.S. Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade, and the Food and Drug Administration's Food Advisory Committee. She also served as a director of Bread for the World, the Food Research and Action Center, the Partnership for Food Safety Education, Consumers Union, the Center for National Policy, and the Adams National Bank.
She received the "Commissioner's Special Citation" from the Food and Drug Administration and has been honored by the Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumers League and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Tucker-Foreman is an active advocate for women's health and women's rights. She was assistant director of presidential personnel during the 1992-93 transition, responsible for recruiting women to serve in high ranking positions in the Clinton Administration. She was executive director of the Center for Women Policy Studies and a legislative representative for Planned Parenthood of America.
Carol Lee Tucker-Foreman is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and received distinguished alumni awards from the university. She attended the Graduate School of Government and Public Administration of The American University, Washington, D.C.
Job Titles:
- Senior Program Manager
- America Saves Senior Program Manager
Carolyn Pemberton joined CFA in August 2018 as Senior Program Manager. In this role she is responsible for managing the Split to Save Program; assisting with the planning and implementation of America Saves Week and Military Saves Week; providing programmatic support for the America Saves for Young Workers program; and developing new strategic partnerships and alliances.
Carolyn comes to America Saves with over 25 years' experience in public relations, sales and nonprofit/association management. She received her B.A. in Journalism from Pennsylvania State University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President and CEO, Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives
Job Titles:
- Chief Marketing Officer, Summit Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Advocacy, Consumer Reports
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- President, Columbia Consumer Education Council
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- President and CEO, National Cooperative Business Association
Job Titles:
- Director of Insurance
- S Director of Insurance
Douglas Heller is CFA's Director of Insurance and is a nationally recognized insurance expert. During two decades of work on public policy and regulatory matters related to property-casualty insurance, Heller has authored op-eds, articles, and reports on auto insurance pricing in the United States, overseen regulatory challenges to insurance company rates and practices, provided expertise in insurance-related litigation, and, for nine years, served as the Executive Director of the national consumer advocacy organization, Consumer Watchdog. His work has saved policyholders hundreds of millions of dollars on insurance premiums and helped curb unfair auto insurance pricing practices. In addition to conducting research for and providing expertise to consumer rights organizations, Heller is a member of U.S. Department of Treasury's Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance, an appointee of California's Insurance Commissioner, serving as a board member of the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan (CAARP), which oversees that state's innovative Low-Cost Auto Insurance Program for low-income drivers, and he serves on the Executive Board of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
Heller holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Southern California, where he has also taught courses on Strategic Planning for Non-Profits and Public Agencies.
Areas of Expertise:
Insurance
Job Titles:
- Financial Services Counsel
Dylan Bruce serves as financial services counsel for the Consumer Federation of America, having joined the organization in 2021. His work centers on investor protection and the regulation of financial professionals, with particular focus on regulated corporate disclosures, ESG investing, and securities market regulation.
Prior to joining CFA, Dylan was a principal legal analyst covering corporate sustainability and ESG for Bloomberg Industry Group.
Dylan received his BA from the University of North Carolina - Asheville and his JD from the University of Florida's Levin College of Law.
Areas of Expertise:
Investor Protection
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Federal Consumer Program, US PIRG
Job Titles:
- Chief Compliance Officer, Navy Federal Credit Union
Job Titles:
- Director, Montgomery County ( MD ) Office of Consumer Protection
Job Titles:
- Director of Consumer Protection
Erin Witte is the Director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America. Erin leads CFA's advocacy efforts in consumer protection, including advocating for consumer protections in Congress and at regulatory agencies, communicating policy positions to the press and the public, organizing meetings with stakeholders on consumer protection issues, and providing educational tools for consumers to help them navigate marketplace challenges.
Erin has over a decade of experience fighting for consumers as a consumer protection attorney. Prior to joining the CFA, Erin was an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she litigated consumer protection cases in Virginia state and federal courts. Erin handled matters involving various abusive, predatory and fraudulent business practices, and was able to provide relief to tens of thousands of consumers. Erin also worked in private practice at Surovell Isaacs & Levy in Fairfax, VA (formerly Surovell Isaacs Petersen & Levy), where she represented individual consumer clients against used car dealers, abusive debt collectors, insurance companies, predatory lenders, subprime auto lenders, and medical providers.
Erin also has a public service history of volunteer work with various legal aid organizations, the Fairfax County Office of the Public Defender, and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. She also has presented at various continuing legal education conferences, providing training and instruction to other attorneys about consumer protection laws.
Erin is a graduate of the George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, VA, and she received her B.A. from Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. Erin and her family live in Northern Virginia.
Areas of Expertise:
Communications
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Washington Public Utility Districts Assn
Job Titles:
- Board Chairman, National Association of Housing Cooperatives
Job Titles:
- President, Virginia Citizens Consumer Council
Job Titles:
- Insurance Director Emeritus
Experience
Commissioner of Insurance, State of Texas
Member of National Association of Insurance Commissioners, serving on the NAIC Executive Committee and as the Vice-Chair, Western Zone of NAIC
President and Founder, National Insurance Consumer Organization (pro-bono)
Federal Insurance Administration (HUD), serving as:
Federal Insurance Administrator
Deputy Federal Insurance Administrator
Chief Actuary (Ran the National Flood Insurance Program and other programs)
James H. Hunt is a retired life insurance actuary who assists the Consumer Federation of America with life insurance issues from his home in Concord, New Hampshire. For more than 30 years, he has offered a service evaluating life insurance policies; in the last 15 years or so, the service has been under CFA's aegis at evaluatelifeinsurance.org. He is CFA's Life Actuary, although not a CFA employee.
Mr. Hunt achieved his Fellowship in the Society of Actuaries in 1963 while at National Life of Vermont. In 1965, he became Vermont's Commissioner of Banking and Insurance under Governor Philip Hoff. In 1968 he assisted the newly established Federal Insurance Administration in setting up a program of riot reinsurance in the states of the United States. Hunt was for a time with Aetna Life working on national health insurance issues. In 1972 he became a staff actuary with the New Hampshire Insurance Department. Later he was the Director of the State Rating Bureau within the Massachusetts Insurance Department. In 1980, Hunt joined Robert Hunter in the National Insurance Consumer Organization, which later became CFA's Insurance Group. For the last 15 years of his employed life ending in 1998, he was a staff actuary for Massachusetts Savings Bank Life Insurance.
Throughout his employment Hunt was a consumer advocate, particularly in the area of consumer credit life and health insurance. He testified or submitted testimony in about half the states on that subject. In June 2011 he was presented the Esther Petersen Consumer Service Award mainly for his work on consumer credit insurance.
Areas of Expertise:
Life/Annuities/Credit/ Disability
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group
Job Titles:
- Administrative and Advocacy Associate
Jazzmyn Peterson joined the Consumer Federation of America in June 2021 as the Administrative and Advocacy Associate. In this role, she provides administrative, research, advocacy, and social media assistance to CFA staff members.
Prior to joining CFA, Jazzmyn volunteered as a lobbyist to promote progressive policy at both the state and federal level. She also worked as a news journalist for The Arkansas Traveler, covering topics ranging from legislative policy decisions to local elections.
Jazzmyn graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies, with a minor in Arabic.
Job Titles:
- COO, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
Job Titles:
- Director, Capital Stewardship Program, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
Job Titles:
- President / CEO, Credit Union National Association
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Consumer Action
Job Titles:
- General Manager, Vermont Public Power Supply Authority
Job Titles:
- America Saves Director
- Director of America Saves
Kia McCallister-Young is the Director of America Saves, a national nonprofit committed to supporting all Americans, particularly the most vulnerable among us, with establishing effective saving habits, reducing debt, and beginning to build wealth.
Known for being a champion of no-shaming, common sense and realistic saving strategies, she has elevated America Saves position as a highly sought-after leader and trusted voice in the personal finance space.
Her role intersects creating and nurturing strategic partnerships, fundraising, forecasting current and new programming, and managing the America Saves Staff that executes daily operations that moves the organization closer towards their mission and vision.
Prior to becoming Director of the organization, she served as their Director of Communications, which is her first love. "Communication and marketing are simply just ways to connect with people. When you connect with people, you can move them to action."
Her previous positions include US Air Force veteran, Mortgage Loan Officer, Marketing Agency Owner, and Freelance Writer.
She lives in the Washington, DC area with her three children and black Goldendoodle, Loki.
Job Titles:
- America Saves Manager of Military Programs
- Manager of Military Programs at America Saves
Krystel Spell is the Manager of Military Programs at America Saves. In this role she implements programming that supports the mission of motivating the military community at-large to save successfully, reduce debt, and get on a path toward building wealth. She does this by managing the creation of content, strategies, tools and events for service members, veterans, retirees, national guard, reservists, military spouses, wounded warriors, and caregivers.
Krystel has over a decade of experience working in the digital military community. This includes building targeted military audiences, managing military focused campaigns, managing content teams, and successfully negotiating digital sponsorships. Her work combined with her own personal journey as a military spouse has given her an in-depth perspective on the unique needs of today's modern military family.Krystel lives outside the Fort Bragg, NC, area with her family.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition
Dr. Cooper holds a Ph. D. from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, previously he held the role of Director of Research. He focuses on energy, telecommunications, and economic policy analysis. Dr. Cooper is a Fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, an Associated Fellow at the Columbia University Institute on Tele-Information, and a Fellow at The Donald McGannon Communications Center of Fordham University.
He is the author of five books - Open Architecture as Communications Policy (Center for Internet and Society, 2004), Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age: Promoting Diversity with First Amendment Principles and Market Structure Analysis (Center for Internet and Society, 2003), Cable Mergers and Monopolies: Market Power in Digital Media and Communications Networks (Economic Policy Institute, 2002), Equity and Energy (Westview, 1983), The Transformation of Egypt (Johns Hopkins, 1982).
He has published numerous articles in trade and scholarly journals including recent law review articles on telecommunications and digital society issues ("Open Communications Platforms: Cornerstone of Innovation and Democratic Discourse in the Internet Age, The Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law, 2003; "Inequality in Digital Society," Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal, 2002; "The Digital Divide Confronts the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Economic Reality versus Public Policy," in B.M. Compaine (Ed.). The Digital Divide Cambridge: MIT, 2001); "Antitrust as Consumer Protection in the New Economy: Lessons from the Microsoft Case," Hasting Law Journal, April 2001; and "Open Access to the Broadband Internet," University of Colorado Law Review, Fall 2000) and energy policy "Regulators Should Regain Control to Prevent Abuses During Scarcity," Natural Gas, August 2003; "Recognizing the Limits of Markets, Rediscovering Public Interest in Utilities," in Robert E. Willett (ed), Electric and Natural Gas Business: Understanding It! (Houston: Financial Communications: 2003); "Economics of Power: Heading for the Exits, Deregulated Electricity Markets Not Working Well," Natural Gas, 19:5, December 2002.
He has provided expert testimony in over 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People's Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts and legislators in almost four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada.
Areas of Expertise:
Communications
Mel Hall-Crawford serves as a Senior Advisor. She previously held the position of CFA's Director of Energy Programs.
Ms. Hall-Crawford is responsible for CFA's energy efficiency work advocating for stronger standards that benefit consumers. She oversees CFA's campaign to increase motor vehicle fuel efficiency and decrease dependence on oil. She also advocates for more stringent home appliance and electronics efficiency standards and serves on the Appliance Standards Awareness Project steering committee. For a number of years, Ms. Hall-Crawford managed CFA's energy efficiency public awareness campaign to promote increased consumer awareness of the economic, environmental and health benefits of energy efficient products and practices. She also served on the Department of Energy's Advisory Committee on Appliance Energy Efficiency Standards and chaired the Consumer Issues Subcommittee. She also serves as CFA's membership coordinator and staffs CFA's co-op/public power working group.
Job Titles:
- Director of Investor Protection
Micah Hauptman is the director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), a nonprofit association of nearly 300 national, state, and local pro-consumer organizations. Hauptman leads CFA's investor protection work through conducting research and engaging in advocacy on investor protection issues, focusing primarily on the regulation of investment advisers, investment companies, and broker-dealers, particularly as they relate to the provision of retail investment products and services. He is also focused on restoring an appropriate balance between public and private securities markets in order to promote investor protection, market integrity, and efficiency. Prior to re-joining CFA, Hauptman served as counsel to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw, where he focused on investment management issues, examinations of investment advisers, investment companies, broker-dealers, and regulatory implementation of Regulation Best Interest. Previously, Hauptman served as CFA's Financial Services Counsel for nearly seven years. Hauptman also worked at Public Citizen on a broad range of banking and tax issues and started his career as a prosecutor for the Los Angeles City Attorney's office.
Micah graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2005, magna cum laude, and graduated from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in 2009, with distinction.
Areas of Expertise:
Investor Protection
Job Titles:
- Research and Advocacy Associate
Michael DeLong joined Consumer Federation of America in April 2020 as the Research and Advocacy Associate for CFA's Campaign for Fair Auto Insurance. In this role he conducts research on auto insurance and advocates for better, fairer, and more affordable practices that will protect consumers. He is particularly focused on combating discrimination in insurance markets.
Before joining CFA, Michael worked as a healthcare and antitrust advocate, where he organized consumer opposition to harmful mergers. He also served as a Legislative Assistant for two Maryland State Delegates.
Michael graduated from Reed College in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.
Areas of Expertise:
Insurance
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Advocacy and Government Programs, National Cooperative Bank
Job Titles:
- Financial Services and Membership Outreach Manager
- Financial Services Outreach Manager
Rachel Gittleman is the Financial Services Outreach Manager for the Consumer Federation of America. In this role, Rachel leads CFA's advocacy and outreach on high-cost lending, payday loans, and other banking and credit issues. She has successfully led legislative and regulatory campaigns, as well as CFA's High Cost Lending Summit and Advocacy Weeks. Rachel represents CFA on behalf of consumers before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, as well as other federal and state financial regulators, Congress, and state legislatures.
Prior to joining CFA, she worked as the Political Outreach Manager for the American Association for Justice, where she engaged with their membership on a variety of access to justice and consumer protection legislative issues and oversaw the organization's voter protection efforts. Rachel brings her diverse policy and campaign experience to CFA, as she previously worked for campaigns for every level of government in New Jersey and Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman's (NJ-12) office. She earned her B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago.
Areas of Expertise:
Banking & Credit
Job Titles:
- Director
- General Counsel
- Legislative Director and General Counsel
Rachel Weintraub is the Legislative Director and General Counsel for Consumer Federation of America (CFA). Previously, she was the Director of Product Safety. Rachel has worked with Consumer Federation of America since 2002. Her primary focus is advocacy on product safety issues. Ms. Weintraub represents CFA on behalf of consumers before the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Congress, state legislatures, and within voluntary standard setting organizations. Additionally for CFA, she works on civil justice, regulatory reform and financial services issues as well as with a wide range of internal legal issues.
Ms. Weintraub testifies on behalf of consumers before Congress and before the Consumer Product Safety Commission concerning numerous product safety issues. Ms. Weintraub frequently talks to the media about product safety and other consumer issues and has spoken about product safety issues at numerous national conferences. Rachel serves on the Board of ANSI and on the F 15 Executive Committee of ASTM. Rachel is a past president of the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization.
Prior to her work for CFA, Ms. Weintraub was a consumer advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the national lobbying office for the state PIRGs, from September 1999 until December 2001. While at U.S. PIRG, she represented consumers on product safety and health care issues.
In 1999, Ms Weintraub graduated from the Boston University School of Law (JD). She spent her last year of law school at the Georgetown University Law Center where she also worked as a research assistant for the Federal Legislation Clinic. In 1996, Ms. Weintraub graduated phi beta kappa and magna cum laude from Binghamton University (BA).
Areas of Expertise:
COVID-19
Job Titles:
- Coordinator, Chicago Consumer Coalition
Job Titles:
- Communications Manager
- Communications Manager and Energy Advocate
- S Communications Manager
Richard Eckman serves as the Communications Manager and Energy Advocate for Consumer Federation of America. Richard helps manage media outreach, keeping press contacts up-to-date and works on a number of CFA's public policy issues, focusing on energy efficiency issues by advocating for stronger standards that benefit consumers. He oversees CFA's campaign to increase motor vehicle fuel efficiency and decrease dependence on oil. He also advocates for more stringent home appliance and electronics efficiency standards.
Prior to joining CFA, Richard worked as a Public Relations & Research Associate with a focus on auto safety and federal fuel economy standards for light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles at Gillis and Associates and served as co-author of The Car Book from 2014 to 2020, published by the Center for Auto Safety. Richard has a B.A. in Government from Franklin and Marshall.
Areas of Expertise:
Energy
Job Titles:
- President, National Farmers Union
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Consumer Federation of California
Job Titles:
- Board Member, Center for the Study of Services
Job Titles:
- President, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety
Sara Cooper is a project director at the Consumer Federation of America, where she focuses primarily on America Saves, a campaign dedicated to helping low-income households save money, reduce debt, and build wealth. She began her career in consumer advocacy as director of public information at the National Consumers League, where she also directed the Alliance Against Fraud, and later became NCL's executive vice president. Cooper also served as executive director of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and spent a year in Bulgaria, where she worked as a consultant with the Consumer Federation of Bulgaria. She is well versed in various aspects of nonprofit, consumer advocacy work, including coalition building, legislative and regulatory monitoring, and developing effective consumer education outreach on a range of issues. Cooper received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Florida, combining a major in philosophy with a minor in journalism.
Steve Brobeck served as executive director of CFA from 1980 to mid-2018. He now holds the position of senior fellow, where he continues research and advocacy on issues including personal savings, auto insurance, burial services, and residential real estate brokerage.
From 1976 to 1979, Brobeck was a CFA board member and vice president. He has served on many advisory committees and boards, including from 1990 to 1996, the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
During the 1970s, Brobeck was a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University. Since then he has held adjunct or visiting professorships at the University of Maryland, Cornell University, and the University of Utah. He has also published research on social change, including the first annotated bibliography of the consumer movement, The Modern Consumer Movement: References and Resources, and has edited two encyclopedias of the consumer movement, Encyclopedia of the Consumer Movement and Watchdogs and Whistleblowers: A Reference Guide to Consumer Activism.
Brobeck graduated from Wheaton College (IL) with high honors and earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
Areas of Expertise:
Credit Scores/Reporting
Job Titles:
- Research Coordinator
- America Saves Senior Data and Research Coordinator
Stephen Ross joined America Saves in July of 2019. As Senior Data and Research Coordinator, Stephen supports all of America Saves' programs use of data to help people save more, reduce debt and increase wealth. His work also includes a focus on integrating behavioral science into America Saves' materials and contributing to novel research projects with external research partners.
Stephen brings his diverse policy background to the America Saves team, as he previously worked for the National Science Foundation, the British Embassy in Washington DC, and the University of California. Before joining America Saves, Stephen spent six months in Tanzania volunteering with a nonprofit that provides pediatric cancer care.
Stephen received his BA from Wake Forest University and his Master of Public Policy from George Mason University.
Susan Weinstock, is the CEO of the Consumer Federation of America. Previously, she was vice president of financial resilience programming at AARP, responsible for the overall strategic direction of AARP programs and education competencies to improve the financial security of persons age 50 and older.
Prior to AARP, Susan worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As the director of the office of consumer policy, she focused on emerging trends and the growing use of technology and data in the provision of consumer financial products and services.
Previously, she directed The Pew Charitable Trusts' Consumer Banking Project, which advocates for policies that protect American consumers and their money. As the lead on Pew's efforts to improve the safety and transparency of consumer banking products, she directed a team of researchers who identified current practices and consumer needs to inform and promote policy solutions.
Prior to Pew, Susan was the financial reform campaign director at the Consumer Federation of America, leading media, coalition, public education, and grassroots efforts to promote consumer financial protection in the Dodd-Frank Act. She has more than 20 years of advocacy, communications, research, grassroots and legislative experience working to protect consumers.
Job Titles:
- Policy Development & Integration Director, AARP
Job Titles:
- Director of Food Policy
- Member of the D.C
Thomas Gremillion is the Director of Food Policy at the Consumer Federation of America. He oversees the research, analysis, advocacy and media outreach for the group's food policy activities, and monitors food safety activities at USDA, FDA and in Congress, where he advocates for strong food safety protections for consumers. He also coordinates the Safe Food Coalition, a group of consumer, trade union, and foodborne illness victim organizations dedicated to reducing foodborne illness by improving government food inspection programs.
Prior to joining CFA in 2015, Gremillion practiced environmental law at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Public Representation, where he represented community groups and advocacy organizations in litigation against polluters and government regulators. He also served as an associate attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, NC, where he specialized in transportation and land use issues.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Gremillion is a member of the D.C. and North Carolina bars. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in mathematics, and served as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Quito, Ecuador, where he received an M.A. in International Relations from La Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar.
Areas of Expertise:
Food & Agriculture
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow, National Consumer Law Center