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Mark Friedlander has over 30 years of experience in financial services and insurance. He is the Director of Corporate Communications at the [Insurance Information Institute (III)](https://www.iii.org/) — a New York-based nonprofit research and education organization focused on providing consumers with a better understanding of insurance — serving as a national insurance industry media spokesperson for broadcast, digital and print outlets. Before joining the III, Friedlander held senior communications roles at Main Street America Insurance, Arthur Andersen LLP and Prudential Financial. His recent contributions and appearances include The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox Weather, the Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio (NPR), NBC News, ABC News, CNBC and many more national and regional news outlets. Friedlander holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and public relations from the Ohio State University.

Deb Gordon, the co-founder and CEO of Umbra Health Advocacy, has held executive roles in health insurance and health care technology services. She authored a book titled “The Health Care Consumer’s Manifesto,” based on her research as a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Her works have been published on JAMA Network Open, Harvard Business Review blog, USA Today and RealClear Politics, among others. Gordon is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow and an Eisenhower Fellow. She was a 2011 Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree and a volunteer at MIT’s Delta V start-up accelerator, the Fierce Healthcare Innovation Awards. She earned her bioethics degree from Brown University and her MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Ethan Pew is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing and Director of the Master of Science in Marketing program at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. He specializes in consumer behavior, financial decision making, and market research. Pew is also a highly respected researcher and consultant in the financial and information technology sectors, offering strategic guidance and data-driven insights to established companies and startups. Additionally, he co-founded MarketingPhdJobs and has published research on examining differences in academic careers for men and women. Pew has held faculty positions at several universities and holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Texas McCombs.

Dr. Ijeoma Opara is an assistant professor at Yale's School of Public Health. Her research interests focuses on substance use and HIV prevention, empowerment for Black girls and women, and racial health disparities. She is also the director of The Substance Abuse and Sexual Health Research Lab, which highlights strengths-based prevention research for urban youth. Dr. Opara received her PhD from Montclair State University, her Master of Social Work from New York University and her Master of Public Health from New York Medical College. Dr. Opara holds visiting faculty and affiliate appointments at Yale University, University of Michigan, and New York University.

Professor Shinn has studied how to prevent and end homelessness for the last three decades. Her book, In the midst of plenty: Homelessness And What To Do About It, reviews evidence that people know how to end homelessness for different groups if people are willing to devote the resources to doing so.

Coty started his career in financial services about eight years ago in the insurance industry. After approximately three years with Allstate, he moved into the wealth management field, working at Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, and now, Goldman Sachs.

Dr. Longo is a Professor of Finance at Rutgers Business School. He is also a bestselling author of The Art of Investing: Lesson's from History's Greatest Traders.

Alvin Yam is a certified financial planner (CFP) with over 15 years of experience working with individuals and corporations. Before founding Paraiba Wealth Management, he was a director at HSBC and a financial consultant at Charles Schwab. Yam is MoneyGeek's expert consultant on wealth management and personal banking. Yam earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and his Master of Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University.

Ramsey Coulter has worked in the mortgage and credit industry for over 10 years. Currently a mortgage loan originator with CMG Home Loans, he specializes in helping first-time homebuyers navigate the mortgage process. Coulter is also a certified credit counselor at [Coulter Credit LLC](https://coultercredit.com/credit-repair-services/) and has been retained as an expert witness in numerous legal cases concerning credit and mortgage-related matters. His responsibilities as an expert include preparing detailed reports, participating in depositions and crafting rebuttal reports to counter opposing expert witness testimonies. Coulter holds a bachelor of science degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Kalinda Ukanwa is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern California. A quantitative modeler, Professor Ukanwa researches how algorithmic bias, algorithmic decision-making, and consumer reputations impact firms. She is the winner of the 2018 Eli Jones Promising Young Scholar Award and a finalist for the 2018 INFORMS Service Science Best Student Paper Award, 2019 Howard/AMA Doctoral Dissertation Award, and the 2020 AMS Mary Kay Doctoral Dissertation Award. In a prior life, Professor Ukanwa was an industrial engineer, financial analyst, and finance executive at Walt Disney, Citigroup, Viacom, and Kaplan.

Karen Gordon Mills is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School and a leading authority on U.S. competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation. She served in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet as the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013, and was a member of the President’s National Economic Council. She is an expert on the economic health and well-being of the nation’s small businesses. <strong>Awards, Recognition or Accolades</strong> U.S. Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award; HBS Alumni Achievement Award

Dr. Harris has an extensive background in market microstructure and financial markets. He has served as Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and as Chief Economist at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). His research appears in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Futures Markets, and the Review of Financial Studies, among others. He teaches derivatives and risk management courses at American University.