Alexander Ruiz is a Senior at State University College at Geneseo, where he studies Political Science. Ruiz serves as the President of the SUNY Student Assembly, the official organization by which students participate in university-wide shared governance, representing the 64 campuses of the SUNY system. Ruiz is proud to represent SUNY’s students and amplify their voices while he works to help close the achievement gap within higher education and academia at large.

Ruiz, a son of the Bronx, had the pleasure of serving the Student Association as President on his home campus of Geneseo, representing over 5,000 students and serving on numerous committees and boards. Committed to creating empowering spaces for marginalized students, Ruiz designed and financially invested (through the Student Association) in Geneseo's Multicultural Center and PRIDE lounge during his tenure. His passion has taken him to Rochester City schools where he frequently mentors young men of color. Ruiz is currently the Resident Assistant of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement for the Geneseo Residence Life Office.

Driven by telecommunications’ ability to empower communities, Ana Rua leads New York Government Affairs City & State strategy at the nation’s largest provider of shared wireless infrastructure, Crown Castle. An immigrant from Colombia, Rua has spent her career in New York paying it forward on the American Dream by working with the intention of social responsibility at public and private institutions.

Prior to her role at Crown Castle, Rua was part of the team that spearheaded the New NY Broadband Program a $500M initiative to connect the most rural and remote regions of New York State with high-speed internet access, traveling to 56 of the state’s 62 counties to facilitate the program’s implementation. Also, at Governor Cuomo’s office, she inherited a $70 million portfolio of legacy projects in dire need of management and by coordinating with utilities, establishing availability of services and ensuring minority and women-owned businesses got seat at the table, the projects are now on track and on-budget.

In her current work for Crown Castle, where she paves the way for next generation wireless infrastructure with the aim of transforming the digital landscape of the region. By educating and informing residents, influencers, municipal staff, and elected officials, she helps shape public policy and opinion, generates advocates, and builds community relationships with the objective of connecting those in disenfranchised and far-reaching communities with tools to empower themselves via telecommunications. "I get a tremendous sense of purpose because I work in this industry that has a fundamental focus to make people’s lives easier, better and more connected," she says.

Rua sits on the board of Junior Achievement and is Chair of York College City University of New York.

Professor Ann Goldweber is Director of Clinical Legal Education at St. John's School of Law as well as Director of the Consumer Justice for the Elderly: Litigation Clinic. The Clinic represents low-income older Queens residents in predatory lending, foreclosure defense, mortgage loan modifications, deed theft, foreclosure rescue scams, home improvement contractor fraud and debt collection cases. The Clinic has been invited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to provide the General Counsel with information about our cases and consumer issues affecting our client community.

Professor Goldweber is a frequent speaker at forums regarding financial abuse of older adults. She is a member of the New York City Foreclosure Task Force and serves on the Statewide Access to Justice Council. Professor Goldweber was invited to join the Working Committee of the Office of the Statewide Coordinating Judge for Family Violence cases and has also been invited to join in a community roundtable with the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding consumer debt issues.

 

 

Anthony Gaddy is a Co-Founder and President/CEO of the UpState New York Black Chamber of Commerce, the Upstate New York affiliate for U.S. Black Chambers.

Founded in February 2019, The UpState New York Black Chamber of Commerce is based in Albany and represents the Upstate New York region including the Capital Region, Central New York, Western New York and the Hudson Valley Region on behalf of Black Businesses and Underserved Communities.

Raised in Albany, Anthony is a graduate of The Albany Academies and attended The University of Chicago and The University of Southern California.

Anthony is very active in the community, having served as Vice-President of the Schenectady County Public Libraries, the NAACP and the Empire State Black Arts & Cultural Festival and several other organizations before relocating back to his native Albany.

He currently serves as Vice-President of 4th Family, an Albany-based nonprofit that focuses on teaching STEM through sports, as well as a Board Member of the Albany IDA and CRC, Capitalize Albany, Berkshire Bank Advisory Council and the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation and most recently served on the City of Albany COVID Recovery Task Force.

Barika X. Williams is the Executive Director of the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development Inc. (ANHD) a leading non-for-profit focused on creating housing and economic opportunity for all New Yorkers for nearly 50 years. Throughout her career, Barika has focused on enacting transformative changes in community development on a city, state, and national scale that serves and empowers marginalized communities and individuals.

Barika previously served as the Assistant Secretary for Housing for the State of New York under the Governor where she managed NY’s major housing priorities. She was selected to serve on the US Treasury’s Advisory Committee on Racial Equity. Barika worked at the Urban Institute and served on numerous Boards including the Capital One Community Advisory Board, Webster Bank’s Community Advisory Board, and the Board of Directors of the Urban Design Forum.

As State Director, Beth R. Finkel leads the day-to-day operations of AARP New York, the most visible and successful organization in the state advocating for New York’s 50-plus population.

During her tenure as State Director, AARP’s powerful lobbying efforts on behalf of its 2.5 million New York members and their families have led to historic NYS reforms including passage of the Secure Choice Savings Program, CARE Act, Assisted Living Protections, Anti-Predatory Lending, Paid Family Leave, Affordable Housing and Right to Counsel legislation, Master Plan for Aging, numerous bills on Kincare and – since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic – groundbreaking state legislation to improve nursing home conditions, ban utility shutoffs, allow for universal absentee voting, and expand access to on-line food ordering and delivery through the SNAP program. Beth conceived of and launched Disrupt Disparities, the first holistic approach to inequities in Health, Economic Security and Livable Communities of 50-plus populations.

Prior to her appointment as State Director, Beth was the Director of Engagement for AARP New York where she was responsible for all community programs and activities that serve the organization’s membership and engage its vast network of over 6,000 active volunteers across the state. In her role, Beth specialized in programming and advocacy for older New Yorkers around hunger, caregiving, grandparents raising grandchildren, multicultural outreach, livable communities, health care, financial security, ageism, and long-term care. 

Through her years at AARP New York, she led and developed the statewide Kincare Coalition and New York’s Older Adults Hunger Stakeholders Coalition. She convened the first Older Adults Hunger Summit to find solutions to barriers to food insecurity.  She also co-created the NYS Medicare Savings Program Taskforce, a consortium of government, public policy makers and advocates that worked to break down obstacles to enrollment of low-income Medicare beneficiaries to this group of benefits. Beth is on the NYS Secure Choice Board, which oversees implementation of the Secure Choice Savings Program, and she serves on The NYS Food Policy Workgroup, The NYS Department of Financial Services Consumer Protection Taskforce, Women and Finance Taskforce, The NYS Rx Affordability Board and the NYC Age Friendly Commission.

Beth has published numerous white papers and research reports including: Hunger Among NY State Older Adults; The State of the 50+ in NY State; Kinship Care in New York: Keeping Families Together; High Anxiety: Gen X and Boomers Struggle With Stress, Savings and Security; Countdown:  New York’s Vanishing Middle Class; Caregivers in Crisis: Why New York Must Act; and Disrupting Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Solutions for New Yorkers Age 50+ and Disrupt Disparities LGBTQ with SAGE and the newest policy report on Disrupt Disparities: Addressing the Crisis for Rural New Yorkers 50+.

A native New Yorker, Beth holds a Master of Social Work from Yeshiva University in Community Organizing and a Bachelor of Science from American University in Business Administration. She and her husband live in Manhattan.

Ms. Coffey is the Director of Litigation for Economic Justice at Mobilization for Justice, where she oversees the organization's economic justice work and supervises the Consumer Rights and Bankruptcy projects. She advocates for clients in various forums, conducts trainings on consumer law, and engages in legislative and policy advocacy. She is a graduate of CUNY School of Law.

Carolyn Fast is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation (TCF), where she works on higher education policy with a focus on consumer protection and institutional accountability.  Before joining TCF, Carolyn was special counsel at the New York Attorney General’s Office, where she investigated and brought enforcement actions against predatory for-profit colleges, student loan lenders and servicers, debt collectors, and credit reporting agencies.  Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Carolyn clerked for Judge Victor Marrero in the Southern District of New York.  She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard and her law degree from Columbia Law School.

Mr. Bell is the Programs Director for the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, where he represents CR's positions on consumer protection issues in New York and other Northeastern states. He works on a wide range of financial services issues, including credit and lending, insurance, education debt, and fintech. He holds a B.A. from Antioch University-Seattle.

Cy Richardson is Senior Vice President for Programs at the National Urban League, the nation's oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream. He is also a member of the League’s Executive Leadership Team. Cy is a recognized and respected expert on housing and community development, job creation and racial equity and is a sought-after thought leader on issues related to building a more inclusive economy. A certified urban planner, Cy has 30 years of non-profit and government experience. Prior to NUL, Cy worked as a community economic development practitioner as well as serving as a legislative analyst and researcher for various city and state agencies. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as graduate degrees in urban planning and political science from Pratt Institute, the City University of New York Graduate Center, and Georgetown University.

Ms. Benjamin is the Vice President of Health Initiatives at the Community Service Society, where she supervises health policy, health advocacy, and consumer health assistance programs. Collectively, her programs help over 100,000 New Yorkers access health insurance and low-cost health care each year. Ms. Benjamin is a co-founder of the Health Care for All New York Campaign, a statewide coalition of over 170 organizations devoted to securing affordable, quality health care for New Yorkers. She received a Master of Science degree in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.

Mr. Miranda is Executive Director of the Hispanic Federation, responsible for managing the organization’s operations, external relations, community service events, and the Hispanic Federation gala. Mr. Miranda also leads the Federation’s relief and reconstruction efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. He formerly held senior management positions in the communications field, including Director of Communications for the New York DMA TV stations WXTV Univision 41 and WFUT UniMas 68, and Deputy Press Secretary for Spanish Language Media for both the Hillary Clinton U.S. Senate campaign in 2000 and Fernando Ferrer’s NYC Mayoral campaign in 2001. He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico and an M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University.

Hasoni is an accomplished and seasoned strategist of government, policy, not for profit, higher education, and DEI initiatives. She’s the daughter of an enlisted soldier who lived all over the world and attended 17 different schools. In fact, she comes from a long legacy of servicemen dating back to the Civil War. She started her career at Deloitte in NYC. Hasoni is a founding member of Higher Heights and the national treasurer of the Higher Heights PAC. She is the former National Director of Engagement for Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign and former chief of staff in the New York State legislature. She currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Marc Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League, one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the world. Hasoni’s passion is mentoring the next generation of female leaders and helping them get elected. Hasoni has the ear of many in power and serves as a formal and informal advisor to many of them. She’s a mother of five, wife, MiMi to four grandchildren, an HBCU and Harvard graduate who lives in Brooklyn.

Mr. Inwald is Director of Foreclosure Prevention at Legal Services NYC, supervising the organization’s foreclosure prevention, anti-predatory lending, abusive mortgage servicing and fair lending practice, which encompasses a range of foreclosure prevention and affirmative litigation at Legal Services NYC’s offices across New York City. He is a statewide expert on foreclosure law and policy, regularly conducts trainings on civil procedure, foreclosure law and consumer protection throughout New York City, across New York State, and across the country, and he has played a leading role in developing and maintaining an online foreclosure practice resource used by non-profit foreclosure defense practitioners across New York State. He presently serves on the New York City Bar Association’s Foreclosure Task Force, was co-chair of the Mortgage Working Group of New Yorkers for Responsible Lending, and is a technical assistance subcontractor in New York City for the New York State Attorney General’s Home Owner Protection Program’s statewide network of non-profit foreclosure prevention advocates. He received a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. from George Washington University School of Law.

 

Joseph Canovas is Special Counsel to the New York State AFL-CIO, a statewide federation of 3,000 unions that represent 2.5 million workers and retirees, and their families. He advises on the organization's operations, lobbies the executive and legislative branches of New York State government, and oversees the organization's appellate advocacy.

Joe represents labor on the Board of Governors of the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board and the Board of Directors of the New York Black Car Operators' Injury Compensation Fund. He has also served on several Workers’ Compensation Board advisory committees. He holds a B.A and a J.D. from St. John’s University and is admitted to practice law in New York and Connecticut.

Dr. Kellan Baker is the Executive Director of Whitman-Walker Institute, the research, policy, and education arm of Whitman-Walker, a community health system in DC that is affiliated with a Federally Qualified Health Center. Dr. Baker is a health services researcher, educator, and health policy professional with wide expertise in health equity research and policy, particularly with regard to sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. He is a founding steering committee of Out2Enroll, a initiative with the White House and the US Department of Health and Human Services to connect LGBTQ+ people with health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. He holds appointments as affiliate faculty at the George Washington University and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and he received his PhD in health policy and management from Johns Hopkins, where he was a Health Policy Research Scholar and Centennial Scholar; an MPH and MA from George Washington University; and a BA with high honors from Swarthmore College.

 

Ms. Keefe is a senior staff attorney with the Consumer Finance and Housing Unit at Empire Justice Center.  She works on policy issues regarding mortgage lending, foreclosure, accountability in higher education and consumer financial issues, and directs the Anchor Partner program for the NYS Office of the Attorney General’s Homeownership Protection Program, overseeing the statewide administration of grants to non-profit organizations providing direct assistance to homeowners. Ms. Keefe is an expert on anti-predatory lending and foreclosure actions. She received a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross and a J.D. from Beasley School of Law at Temple University, where she has subsequently lectured on consumer law. She also served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand.

Lauren Saunders is Associate Director of the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit organization that works for economic justice for low-income and other disadvantaged people through policy analysis, advocacy, publications, litigation, and training. Lauren manages NCLC’s Washington, DC office and directs its federal legislative and regulatory work.  Lauren is a recognized expert in consumer protection areas including small dollar loans, predatory lending, banking, fintech and payment systems.  She is an author of NCLC’s treatise Consumer Banking and Payments Law and contributes to Consumer Credit Regulation, among other publications.

Lauren previously worked at the National Senior Citizens Law Center, Bet Tzedek Legal Services and Hall & Phillips.

Michael Calhoun is President of the Center for Responsible Lending, which is the policy affiliate of Self-Help, the nation’s largest community development lender that has provided over $6.4 billion in financing for first time homeowner loans and small business loans.  The Center for Responsible Lending is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and policy institute focusing on consumer lending issues.  Mr. Calhoun has been an active participant in consumer financial legislation and regulation, and he has more than thirty years experience in consumer lending. He has authored numerous papers on the subject and has testified often before Congress and many state legislatures.  Prior to joining CRL, he led several lending divisions at Self-Help, including the secondary mortgage market program.  He is a former member and chair of the Federal Reserve Consumer Advisory Committee.  Mr. Calhoun received his B.A. degree in economics from Duke University, and his J.D. degree from the University of North Carolina.

Mike Pierce is Executive Director and co-founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), a non-profit policy organization focused on the student debt crisis. Mike is also co-founder of the Student Loan Law Initiative at University of California, the nation’s only academic center focused solely on student debt and the law.

Mike co-founded SBPC after seven years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the lead subject-matter expert on higher education and consumer protection. He advised all aspects of the Bureau’s work related to student lending, servicing, debt collection, and oversight of for-profit colleges, and served as a Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau, leading the day-to-day operations of the Bureau’s Office for Students and Young Consumers. Prior to joining the CFPB, Mike served as a policy advisor to Congressman John Sarbanes (MD-03), where he assisted in the passage of legislation creating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and worked on the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from George Washington University, and a JD from the Marshall-Wythe Law School at the College of William and Mary.

Neha is the Supervising Attorney for the Western New York Law Center’s Small Business Legal Clinic (SBLC), where she provides legal assistance to small business owners and entrepreneurs across Western New York and New York State. She is also a consumer advocate with experience in consumer defense, foreclosure defense and bankruptcy. Her advocacy gained recognition amongst her peers and Super Lawyers, which named her to their Upstate New York Rising Stars List. Neha is also a member of the New Yorkers for Responsible Lending (NYRL), a statewide coalition of more than 160 non-profit organizations, where she lobbies with other advocates across the state on consumer rights issues. She is the co-chair of NYRL’s Insurance Working Group and Steering Committee. She received her B.A. from the University of Rochester and her J.D. from New York Law School.

Peter Kochenburger is a Visiting Professor of Law at Southern University Law Center and Managing Fellow of its new Insurance Law and Policy Institute. Prior to coming to SULC, he was the Executive Director of the Insurance Law Center and Associate Clinical Professor of Law (now emeritus) at the University of Connecticut School of Law. Along with Torts, he has taught Principles of Insurance, Liability Insurance, Insurance Regulation, and Comparative Insurance Regulation, which involved students and faculty from China, Europe and the United States. He has published in the areas of Liability Insurance and Gun Violence, Climate Change and Insurance, International Insurance Regulation, and Big Data, Insurance and Consumer Protection. He is a funded Consumer Representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, appointed to the Treasury Department’s Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance in January 2020, and to the Federal Reserve Board’s Insurance Policy Advisory Committee in January 2022. He serves on the New York DFS Consumer Protection Advisory Council and is a consumer stakeholder with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. He was appointed an Honorary Fellow in the American College of Coverage Counsel in 2022. Professor Kochenburger was elected to the American Law Institute in 2013, and is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

Bio coming soon.