Filene Research Institute Welcomes Cynthia Campbell As Director of Innovation Labs
Madison, Wis. (PRWEB) September 27, 2013 -- Filene Research Institute announced today that Cynthia Campbell joined the nonprofit as its director of innovation labs. In this role, Campbell will lead Filene’s new accessible financial services incubator (http://filene.org/blog/post/accessible-financial-services-incubator).
“We believe Cynthia’s something special,” said Mark Meyer, CEO at Filene (http://filene.org/about/profile/mark-meyer). “She brings a wealth of experience in serving low- and moderate-income consumers. A critical piece of innovation is execution. Cynthia’s inquisitive mindset, success in building programs from scratch and program implementation skills position her to drive meaningful change for underbanked consumers through the incubator.”
Funded with a $700,000 Ford Foundation grant, the incubator will test, package and scale financial products that benefit low- and moderate-income U.S. consumers. The goal is to commercialize at least one product among mainstream financial institutions, using credit unions to test viability and adoption.
“I grew up in a low- to moderate-income household. I was born to teen parents and my father passed away when I was ten. I understand the nuances of this demographic because I lived it,” said Campbell. “Joining Filene and leading the incubator resonates with my passion to empower people financially.”
Campbell comes to Filene from Tinker Federal Credit Union in Oklahoma City, Okla. where she served as vice president – financial empowerment program manager. While at TFCU, she developed and implemented the nationally and locally recognized Financial Empowerment Program, with nearly 20,000 financial education workshop attendees, free financial counseling, REAL solutions products, online budgeting tools and learning modules.
“Through the power of collaboration and freedom to try new ideas, we built an innovative program at TFCU aligned with the credit union’s mission ‘to help our members achieve their goals and realize their dreams’,” said Campbell. “I’m eager to continue to help underbanked consumers live the lives they want through Filene’s new incubator.”
Campbell earned her Credit Union Development Educator designation and is a Certified Credit Union Financial Counselor through the Credit Union National Association. She is currently completing her masters in education from the University of Central Oklahoma, and earned her masters in business administration and bachelors of science in business administration from Elmhurst College.
Her prior experience includes management and training, sales, and partner relations. Campbell is also a rabid volunteer, lending her expertise to organizations such as Oklahoma Council on Economic Education, Oklahoma Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, National Youth Involvement Board and YWCA.
About Filene: Filene Research Institute (http://www.filene.org) is an independent, consumer finance think and do tank dedicated to scientific and thoughtful analysis about issues affecting the future of credit unions, retail banking and cooperative finance. Filene is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Nearly 1,000 members make the Institute’s research, innovation and impact programs possible.
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Kate Lawton, Filene Research Institute, http://filene.org, +1 608-661-3758, [email protected]
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