Financial literacy helps everyone.

Created by State Treasurer Tobias Read, the Financial Empowerment Advisory Team highlights financial literacy and wellness efforts statewide. The Team also helps guide Oregon State Treasury’s efforts to make financial education and empowerment tools more prevalent, relevant, and accessible when people need them.

The Team includes citizen members and technical advisors from key Oregon government agencies where financial education is part of their goals. Their quarterly meetings are open to the public.

Treasury’s financial empowerment and education priorities were established based on guidance from a citizen workgroup in 2021. Those priorities include:

• Augment and amplify financial education efforts inside and outside government;
• Raise the visibility of financial education;
• Recognize inequities and lower barriers;
• Advance public policy solutions to bolster Oregonians’ financial wellness;
• Ensure information is accessible to all; and
• Identify measurable benchmarks.

Treasury advances financial literacy and wellness statewide in conjunction with outreach for our state-administered savings programs: OregonSaves, the Oregon College Savings Plan, and the Oregon ABLE Savings Plan.

Jump to:

• Calendar and Meeting Materials
• Advisory Team Members
  
• Technical Advisors - Oregon Agencies
• Summary of Recommendations - 2021
  
• 2024 Oregon Financial Wellness Scorecard
  

Calendar and Meeting Materials

Advisory Team Members

Treasurer Read is the chair of the Advisory Team. As State Treasurer, he has prioritized efforts to help every Oregonian thrive financially, including the creation of the refundable Education Savings Credit that makes it easier than ever to save for career training and college costs. He previously served in the Oregon Legislature.

Julia is the Founder and CEO of Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group, LLC. An InvestmentNews 2020 Women to Watch honoree, Julia is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, educator and expert on the investment landscape. She was also recognized as one of Forbes’ 2018-2021 Top Women Wealth Advisors, Best in State Wealth Advisor, and a 2018-2021 Top Wealth Advisor Mom by Working Mother magazine and SHOOK Research. Julie participates in her community as a Rotary member, Chamber of Commerce member, and trustee for the Pacific Communities Health District Board. Julia works from Newport, Oregon, where she resides with her husband and their three children.

Scott Cooper has been the executive director of NeighborImpact, the community action agency serving Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, since September 2012. He is also the president of the Community Action Partnership of Oregon, the state association of Oregon’s 18 community action agencies, working together to fight poverty. With nearly 40 years of nonprofit experience, Scott is currently chair of the Crook County School Board, on which he has served for 12 years. He previously served as a county judge and city councilor. A graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, Scott and his family live in his childhood hometown, Prineville.

Margaret Doherty is the product of Portland Public Schools, and is passionate about education. She worked as a high school teacher and for the Oregon Education Association before serving in the Oregon House of Representatives from 2009 to 2020. She earned her undergraduate degree from Portland State University and her Masters from Lewis and Clark. She is an active volunteer in her hometown of Tigard, including serving as a mentor to students at Tigard High School.

George Katsinis, Jr. has spent 22 years as a vocational instructor with certification and experience in Oregon and Washington in agriculture, industrial technology, and science. He earned national certification from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE) as an Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC). His experience includes eight years working as a personal financial counselor for Army National Guard and Reserve service members and families across the United States coming off active duty, plus another five years in private practice as a personal financial counselor. For the past two years, he has worked full time as a personal financial counselor for all Oregon service members and their families.

Darby Ayers-Flood has been a resident in Southern Oregon for over 35 years. She and her wife own a home in Talent, Oregon, in the same town where Darby raised her two children. Darby believes that home ownership can lead to long term stability and financial well being

In addition to serving Talent as the Mayor since 2015, Darby is a volunteer Board President. Her day job is with Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon since retiring from her a career with a commercial development company. Darby has also been a small business owner. The notion that rural and underrepresented residents can have a fair shot at building family wealth through entrepreneurship, micro-enterprise and small scale manufacturing is what drives her career and volunteer choices.

Prem Mathew is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Development in the College of Business at Oregon State University. He oversees undergraduate curriculum; recruiting, student engagement, and scholarship processes; and career and student advising. He also established and is the director of OSU’s Center for Advancing Financial Education. Prem leads multiple K12 partnerships that target communities historically underrepresented in higher education and has established robust college-level retention and emergency-based scholarship processes. Prem holds bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania; an MBA in Finance from the University at Buffalo; and a PhD in Business Administration (Finance) from the University of Missouri.

Erin Moore, an Oregon native, graduated from Willamette University, where she cultivated a commitment of service to others. Ms. Moore joined OnPoint Community Credit Union in 2007, assuming roles that helped shape the organization’s Community and Public Relations programs. Since 2018, Moore has led OnPoint’s financial education strategic imperative, which serves OnPoint members and all citizens of Oregon and SW Washington in their journey to financial prosperity. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, travel, and camping.

Pamela Ranslam has been serving the community of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) for over 18-years. As the Homeownership Services Manager for Nixyáawii Community Financial Services (NCFS) starting in January 2021, and previously under the CTUIR Housing Department. She oversees financial and homeownership education programs, homebuyer financial assistance programs, along with providing financial coaching, and homeownership counseling. Pamela has 10-years of banking and mortgage lending experience. She’s a certified facilitator for two native education curricula: Building Native Communities for Families and Pathways Home along with being an approved contractor with National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC). A graduate of Oregon State University, Pamela’s an avid baker, enjoys traveling, the outdoors, and gardening.

Kevin Christiansen is the Senior Vice President and Government Affairs Director of the Oregon Bankers Association where he represents and advocates on behalf of the Oregon banking industry before federal, state, and local entities. He has been with the Oregon Bankers Association since 2009.
Prior to joining the OBA, Kevin served as a committee administrator during the 2009 Oregon Legislative Session for the House Education Committee and House Subcommittee on Workforce Development. Prior to that, Kevin practiced law with the law firm of Scott Hookland, LLP in Tigard, Oregon. His focus in private practice was primarily construction law, commercial law, and debtor/creditor law. During the 2003 Oregon Legislative Session, Kevin was the Legislative Assistant for Rep. Bob Jenson who chaired the House Water Committee and was a Member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Jenn Satalino is the director of The College Place-Oregon She has 30 years of experience helping students pursue higher education. In her work at The College Place, she enjoys working with a variety of students from around the state; every day is different. She holds a BA from University of Oregon and an MA from Portland State University.

Bandana Shrestha is the State Director for AARP Oregon, where she leads and supports the AARP vision of health security, financial stability, and community engagement for over 500,000 members, as well as Oregonians 50 and older and their families across the state of Oregon. During her 20+ year career as a leader in community engagement, Bandana has worked to drive people-powered solutions to affect positive social change for local, national, and international organizations. Bandana is a graduate of Linfield College and University of Oregon and lives in Happy Valley with her husband and son.

Technical Advisors

Department of Consumer and Business Services

Lane Thompson is the Student Loan Ombuds for the Division of Financial Regulation. In this role, Lane helps resolve conflicts between student loan borrowers and servicers, ensures compliance with relevant statutes, and generally supports Oregon’s 552,000 student loan borrowers. Before working at the division, she worked as a housing counselor and technical assistance provider for a low income asset building program. Lane is an alumna of Portland State University and a lifelong learner.

Craig Vattiat is a Financial Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. Craig grew up in Oregon City and was a business teacher at his alma mater, Oregon City High School, for 19 years. There, he developed and taught a personal finance course for juniors and seniors. This experience sparked his passion for financial literacy education. Craig brings this passion to his current role where he helps Oregonians to develop the knowledge and skills needed to build financial capacity and empowerment.

Department of Education

Aujalee Moore is the Standards Guidance Program Analyst at Oregon Department of Education. In her role, she coordinates and works to improve the standards program. This includes the coordination of development, revision, adoption, implementation, and professional learning related to standards. Aujalee is a graduate of University of Oregon with a Bachelor’s of Science in Political Science and Native American Studies. Additionally, she is an enrolled member of the Klamath Modoc Yahooskin tribe.

Department of Human Services

Dr. Irvin M. Brown is a Policy Advisor for the Oregon Department of Human Resources where he supports the Director's Office in fulfilling the state’s top priorities: education, homelessness, and behavioral/mental health initiatives. He earned his B.A. from Eastern University (St. Davids, PA), completed his M.Ed., at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR., and became the first African American to earn a doctorate (Education) from the University of Portland. Irvin is a Navy Veteran that has served the State of Oregon as a Legislative Director and as a State Apprenticeship Jobs Coordinator for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. As a Salem City Councilor-Elect, Irvin’s true compass is developing relationships of trust through active listening, good governance, and community engagement. He is also the Chair of Salem’s Citizen Budget Committee and Co-Chair of the Marion County Sheriff’s Advisory Board.

Department of Justice

Ellen Klem is the director of consumer outreach and education for the Office of the Attorney General. Her mission is to prevent financial harm to Oregonians, especially older adults, Oregonians whose first language is not English, and students with large education-related debts. Previously, Ellen worked at the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging in Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for research, policy development, advocacy, education and training. Ellen received her bachelor’s degree from James Madison College at Michigan State University and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Department of Revenue

A proud lifelong Oregonian, Codi Trudell has more than 18 years of public civil service working for Polk and Benton Counties and the State of Oregon. In 2021, Trudell was appointed Oregon’s first Taxpayer Advocate in the Oregon Department of Revenue, where she works to be a voice and resource for Oregon’s taxpayers. A graduate of Oregon State University with a bachelor's degree in Political Science, Trudell provides fair and equitable access to Oregonian's economic opportunities, programs and services. Before joining the Department of Revenue, Trudell served as the manager of the Disadvantaged and Small Business program for the Oregon Department of Transportation. Trudell is a native of Albany, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Higher Education Coordinating Commission

Juan Báez-Arévalo currently serves as the Director of the Office of Student Access and Completion (OSAC) for the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC), leading OSAC’s administration of financial aid and college access programs for Oregonians. Juan previously directed HECC’s Office of Private Postsecondary Education, merging the state’s licensing units for degree-granting institutions and career schools. He has led change, systematic improvements, public policy and management through diverse leadership roles in K-12 education, and workforce development.

2021 Recommendations

Formation of the Financial Empowerment Advisory Team was recommended by a separate citizen workgroup in early 2021. Treasurer Read convened the subsequent panel, known as the Financial Education Advisory Team, to consider the Oregon landscape and solutions in other states, and to help create a blueprint for Treasury financial literacy efforts.

The 15-member panel endorsed a set of interconnected, overarching priorities and action steps. The discussion and full recommendations are summarized in this report: “Elevating Financial Literacy and Confidence.”

The archived web page for the Financial Education Advisory Team can be found here.