Advisory Board

Aliyha Amani is a tax attorney for ExxonMobil (EM) and is the chief executive officer of UPLIFT, an organization focused on teaching HBCU students about the legal profession. In her role at EM, she services EM’s Global Services Company which is an international affiliate within EM’s corporate structure. Prior to joining EM, Aliyha worked as tax associate at Baker McKenzie, LLP, a world-renowned international law firm. While at Baker McKenzie, Aliyha had the opportunity to work on a diverse array of tax matters for high-net-worth individuals and multinational corporations. Aliyha earned her Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law in 2021, Master of Business Administration from the Howard University School of Business in 2021, and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Chadwick Boseman School of Fine Arts in 2017. Lastly, Aliyha earned her license to practice law in Washington, DC, in 2021.


Lorenzo “Zo” Amani is the vice president, compliance officer at Industrial Bank. Prior to joining Industrial Bank, he served as a policy advisor in the Office of Consumer Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. Zo also worked as a senior consumer compliance bank examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, community reinvestment act (CRA) coordinator at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), and analyst at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Zo is ABD status for his Ph.D. in public administration and public affairs at Virginia Tech. In addition to his doctoral studies, he earned bachelor’s degrees in consumer studies and sociology from Virginia Tech in 2012, a master’s degree in higher and post-secondary education from Arizona State University in 2014, and a graduate certificate in economic development from Virginia Tech in 2020. Additionally, Zo volunteered as a financial literacy and economics education instructor at the Federal Reserve and served as an academic coach and mentor at Virginia Tech and Arizona State University. Lastly, he served on the Board of Visitors at Virginia Tech and Board of Directors for the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA).


Aliyha and Zo met in the summer of 2018 while working at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Bradley T. Klontz, Psy.D., CFP® is an expert in financial psychology, financial planning, and applied behavioral finance. He’s an Associate Professor of Practice at Creighton University Heider College of Business, Co-Founder of the Financial Psychology Institute, and Managing Principal of Your Mental Wealth Advisors. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, author of multiple books, and a Former President of the Hawaii Psychological Association. He is a member of the CNBC Financial Wellness Council and was awarded the Innovative Practice Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association for his application of psychological interventions to help people with money and wealth issues and his innovative practice in financial psychology for practitioners across the country.

Dr. Donald (Bruce) Ross III, AFC® CFT-I™ is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky. He holds a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Science with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy and a specialization in financial counseling and financial therapy practices. He is the Current secretary and President of the Financial Therapy Association and is an Accredited Financial Counselor. Dr. Ross’ professional and research interests primarily focus on personal and family financial well-being.

Christian Sherrill is the Director of Growth & Advocacy at Next Gen Personal Finance, whose mission is to revolutionize the teaching of personal finance in all schools and to improve the financial lives of the next generation of Americans.. His work and passion are to help end the opportunity gap, specifically by guaranteeing all high school students an engaging personal finance course before they graduate from high school by the year 2030. Christian holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), in Economics and Hispanic Studies from Dartmouth College where he was the co-captain of the Water Polo team and fell in love with the great outdoors. Christian’s wife, Chelsea Hayman, MD is an Emergency Medicine Resident at NYU.

Daniel J. Kadlec is a trailblazer Modern Husband. Dan’s wife Kimberly, is the CMO CEMEA & SVP Global Marketing Solutions & Customer Marketing at Visa, Inc. Dan is an author and was a journalist for decades with USA Today and then TIME and MONEY. Kadlec has appeared on Oprah, CNN, CNBC, Good Morning America, and many other programs. He has written three books, and The New York Press Club and National Headliners have recognized his columns on the economy and investing. His focus has long been on the economy, personal finance, and other matters of individual well-being. Kadlec holds a B.A. in Communications from Marquette University.

David and John Auten-Schneider are the Debt Free Guys and hosts of the Queer Money® podcast. They help queer people (and allies) live fabulously not fabulously broke. They were the first LGBTQ+ personal finance contributors to Forbes and their work has appeared in Yahoo!Finance, CNBC, Good Morning America and more. They’ve partnered with some of the biggest companies, from Capital One to Orbitz, worked with some of the leading LGBTQ+ non-profits, from The Trevor Project to Out & Equal and spoken for employee and business resource groups, from FICO to Verizon. With their newly released LGBTQ+ money study done in partnership with The Motley Fool, they’re creating a first of its kind service that bridges LGBTQ+ workers to the financial services industry.

Ed Coambs is a Licensed Marriage, and Family Therapist, Certified Financial Therapist-Level I™, and Certified Financial Planner®. He is also the author of The Healthy Love and Money Way written for readers who desire to learn how to cultivate more financial intimacy and joy in their relationship and finances. Mr. Coambs is a Master of Arts in Christian Counseling and Master of Business Administration (Finance Concentration).

Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning and Financial Therapy. She is a financial literacy advocate and Certified Educator in Personal Finance— her areas of specialty are optimizing Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), FI/RE (Financial Independence/Retire Early), Youth Financial Literacy and Stock Investment Clubs. Champion for Diversity & Inclusion. Ms. Cummings is a repeat guest on CNBC's “Closing Bell”, author of the award winning book "Money Letters 2 my Daughter" and recognized with a Congressional Commendation for accomplishments in the field of financial literacy from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Jackie recently released her latest book: FIRE For Dummies.

Dr. Jenny Olson is an assistant professor of marketing at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. She earned her Ph.D. in business administration (marketing emphasis) from the University of Michigan. Dr. Olson’s research focuses on consumer behavior within interpersonal contexts, with specific interests in (1) consumer financial decision making and (2) social cognition and inferential processes. For example, she examines the interplay between money and couples' relationship formation and quality (e.g., how partners' bank account structure, financial infidelity, and conversations about money affect relationship and financial well-being). Her award-winning research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. Her work has also received widespread coverage in various outlets including the New York Times, PBS/NPR, Bloomberg Radio, Boston Globe, Forbes, MSN Money, and Yahoo! Finance.

Dr. Jessi Streib is an Associate Professor at Duke University. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan.

She is the author of three books. The Power of the Past: Understanding Cross-Class Marriages looks at how couples who grew up in different class backgrounds think about how to spend money, plan their careers, raise their children, and express their emotions. Privilege Lost: Who Leaves the Upper Middle Class and How They Fall explains how children enter a lower social class than their parents. The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay After College reveals the determinants of pay among recent college graduates and how students from unequal class backgrounds can receive equal pay.

Dr. Julie Heath is a national leader in economic and financial education. She is a University of Cincinnati economist and the Director of the award-winning Alpaugh Family Economics Center. The Center equips students in grades K-12 with practical economic knowledge and skills through in-school programs and teacher training, and its financial education $martPath curriculum is one of the best in the country. Dr. Heath has been a Professor of Economics for over 25 years and led the Working Group for President Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability.

Kate Mangino, PhD is a gender expert who works with international organizations to promote positive social change. She has written and delivered curricula in over 20 countries about issues such as women’s empowerment, healthy masculinity, HIV prevention, and early and forced childhood marriage. She brings her lens of social change to her debut book, Equal Partners, which introduces readers to a diverse group of men who are proud to be equal partners in the home. She draws from their examples to offer practical advice as to what each of us can do to rewrite gender norms. Kate has published in Time and Slate; Equal Partners has been featured in The Atlantic, CNN, BBC World News and The Guardian.

Matt Frey is the Communications Director and Policy Advisor for Kentucky State Treasurer Allison Ball. Before joining Treasurer Ball’s staff, he was the Executive Director of the Kentucky Financial Empowerment Commission (KFEC).

At KFEC, Frey started the Kentucky Financial Educators Network, the Kentucky Bank On Network, and the Financial Empowerment for Commonwealth Employees program. Each of these programs helps improve the financial literacy and financial education of Kentuckians.

Matt Frey has five years of experience researching financial literacy and financial education. This was done most recently with Dr. Annamaria Lusardi at the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center in Washington, D.C. Frey is a native of Melbourne, KY, and a graduate of Northern Kentucky University, as well as George Washington University.

Dr. Michael Gene Thomas is a Lecturer at the University of Georgia. He teaches Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics. His research involves understanding what factors influence financial well-being across socio-economic status and how to optimize those factors through evidenced-based interventions or therapeutic methods. Dr. Thomas has won numerous teaching awards.

Dr. Michelle Kruger CFP® holds a Ph.D. in Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics. Her dissertation was Three Essays on Financial Satisfaction and the Joint Financial Management of Couples. While studying at UGA, she was awarded the United Capital Outstanding Student Award, issued by United Capital & The Financial Planning Program in the Department of Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics.

Dr. Kruger is the author of The Psychology of Financial Planning: Practitioner Resource Guide written for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioners. She has also co-authored The Fundamentals of Writing a Financial Plan, The Case Approach to Financial Planning: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice, and Financial Planning Counseling Skills. She is currently a Senior Financial Planner at Gratus Capital and Part-Time Lecturer at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Kruger is married to Joey Fernandez and lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Mikel Van Cleve, CFP® is a doctoral student at Texas Tech University in the Personal Financial Planning program. He's a Certified Financial Behavior Specialist® and Certified Employee Benefit Specialist® with 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Mikel's academic research is focused on understanding the complex dynamics of money management within blended families. Mikel and his wife, Heather, are in a blended family, which has fueled his passion for research on an ever-increasing population segment.

Paul Sullivan wrote the Wealth Matters column in The New York Times for 13 years. He is the author of two books Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don’t and The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of The Super Wealthy and created the Money Game column in GOLF Magazine. Paul stepped away from the New York Times to start The Company of Dads to help Lead Dads feel less isolated and more confident that they have made the correct choice to take on the bulk of the parenting and family duties - or at the very least not embrace stereotypes around who does what at home. He received degrees in history from Trinity College and the University of Chicago.

Scott Glasgow is the Founder of FinMango, an international program making financial literacy and inclusion universally accessible and useful to 1,000,000+ youth per year. He has received international recognition in dozens of media articles, including a U.S. News & World Report Op-Ed, CNN, The New York Times, NBC, The Daily Beast, and TIME Magazine. He is a 2x TEDx speaker. Mr. Glasgow’s formal education includes the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education: Rethinking Financial Inclusion; an MA in Financial Economics, and BA in Biology and Community Health.

Dr. Stephen Shu is an expert in behavioral finance. He also serves as a Managing Principal at the behavioral economics innovation firm Digital Nudging Tech and has worked with organizations such as The Voya Behavioral Finance Institute for Innovation and Allianz Global Investors Center for Behavioral Finance. He is a Visiting Lecturer at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. Steve has a Ph.D. in behavioral finance from City, University of London, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Dr. Shu’s wife, Dr. Suzanne Shu, is the Dean of Faculty and Research at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and Professor of Marketing at Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management Cornell.

Shyam Pradheep currently serves as the General Manager of Zogo, having previously worked as the Head of Operations and VP of Customer Success. Since graduating from Duke alongside Zogo’s founding team, Pradheep’s prior roles have given him a holistic perspective that drives the future of not only the company but the field of financial literacy and institutional engagement at large. Since growing up in Muscat, Oman, and living in multiple countries before moving to the United States, Pradheep brings a unique viewpoint that motivates the rapid innovation and operational prowess that power Zogo. When not burning the midnight oil at the office, Pradheep can be found reading book after book to continue expanding his horizons.