Women at the Wheel

Judy Dougherty

Vice President, Financial Wellness Officer
Prudential Financial, Inc.

Judy Dougherty is vice president, Prudential Financial Wellness Officer. In this role, she is responsible for leading and delivering the firm’s holistic and integrated Financial Wellness suite of products, capabilities and services to millions of customers.

Prior to this role, Dougherty led Prudential’s Strategic Initiatives Group where she managed a broad range of strategy development and thought leadership activities for the firm’s U.S. businesses. During her tenure in that role, Dougherty was instrumental in developing the strategy for Prudential’s domestic businesses.

Dougherty has also served as vice president, finance, for Prudential’s institutional businesses and held several positions in Retirement’s defined contribution business, including vice president of new business operations and chief of staff.

Dougherty is a member of Prudential’s U.S. Operating Council and U.S. Management Council. She has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Scranton.

Alicia H. Munnell

Director, Center for Retirement Research
Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences

Alicia H. Munnell is the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. She also serves as the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Before joining Boston College in 1997, Alicia Munnell was a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1995-1997) and assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy (1993-1995). Previously, she spent 20 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (1973-1993), where she became senior vice president and director of research in 1984. She has published many articles, authored numerous books, and edited several volumes on tax policy, Social Security, public and private pensions, and productivity.

Alicia Munnell was co-founder and first president of the National Academy of Social Insurance and is currently a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Institute of Medicine, and the Pension Research Council at Wharton. She is a member of the board of The Century Foundation, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Pension Rights Center. In 2007, she was awarded the International INA Prize for Insurance Sciences by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome. In 2009, she received the Robert M. Ball Award for Outstanding Achievements in Social Insurance from the National Academy of Social Insurance. In 2015, she chaired the U.S. Social Security Advisory Board’s Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods.

Alicia Munnell earned her B.A. from Wellesley College, an M.A. from Boston University, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.

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Janice Co

Chief Strategy Officer, Workplace Solutions
Prudential Financial, Inc.

Janice Co is chief strategy officer for Workplace Solutions, which is comprised of Prudential Retirement and Prudential Group Insurance, business units of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU).

Prudential Retirement is a leading provider of defined contribution, defined benefit, nonqualified deferred compensation plan administration, and institutional investment and risk management services. Prudential Group Insurance produces and distributes a full range of group life, disability, voluntary, and corporate and trust-owned life insurance.

Prior to her current role, Janice was vice president and head of Marketing & Strategy at Prudential Retirement and led the Marketing Center of Excellence, including Strategy, the Innovation Lab, as well as the Customer Experience teams.

Janice served as the senior vice president of Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer for IFG Companies, a small, privately held insurance company, where she established the marketing, communications and sales discipline needed to drive the company’s transformation. Prior to that role, she served as senior vice president and Chief Marketing Officer for Tower Group International, and vice president of Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer for the Small Business Insurance division of The Hartford. Earlier in her career, she held various leadership roles for A.T. Kearney, CNA Insurance Companies and GAB Business Services.

Janice holds an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Featuring

Farnoosh Torabi, personal finance expert, author, and host of the award winning SoMoney podcast

Farnoosh Torabi full biography   Opens in a new window

Maggie Germano, certified financial education instructor and women’s financial coach

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Cindy Hounsell, President of WISER, the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement

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Moderated by Salene Hitchcock-Gear, president, Prudential Individual Life Insurance.

Seth Frotman

Executive Director
Student Borrower Protection Center

Seth Frotman is the nation’s leading expert on the intersection between higher education finance, consumer protection, and public policy. Seth previously served as Assistant Director and Student Loan Ombudsman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he led a government-wide effort to develop consumer-driven policy reforms and protect millions of Americans with student debt.

Seth joined the CFPB as part of the Treasury Implementation Team as Senior Advisor to Holly Petraeus, Assistant Director for Servicemember Affairs. He has also worked on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Rep. Patrick Murphy (PA). Prior to his work on federal policy, Seth served as counsel for the New Jersey State Senate, where he worked on state-level consumer protection legislation.

Seth’s work on behalf of student loan borrowers has appeared in national print publications and broadcast media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and The Washington Post. Seth received his JD from Indiana University School of Law and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.

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Joanna Smith-Ramani

Managing Director
Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program

Joanna Smith-Ramani is Managing Director of the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, a leading national voice on Americans’ financial health. She is responsible for conceptualizing, planning, and overseeing the program’s research, convenings, and programs, aimed at furthering FSP’s mission to illuminate and solve the most critical financial challenges facing American households and to make financial security for all a top national priority.

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Also on the panel Kiera Carter, and Jim Mahaney, Vice President, Prudential Strategic Initiatives

Amanda Clayman, Prudential's financial wellness advocate and financial therapist

Financial literacy wasn’t the problem. I knew better, I just didn’t know how to do better. What was worse, the shame I felt about money made all of my other professional and personal achievements feel like a lie. One day, facing down tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, I hit a wall.

As I explored the dynamics that drove my own financial behavior, I saw how internal processes and struggles often show up in the ways we think about and use money. That’s not to say that structural issues aren’t important factors as well. The number one cause of bankruptcy isn’t mindset, it’s a major medical event.

But it’s precisely because financial challenges are inevitable that we need to develop a healthy way to manage them. In learning to assess options, make values-based choices, set loving boundaries, and align behavior with intentions, we can shift money from a “problem to be solved” to a source of empowerment.

In 2006, I partnered with The Actors Fund, a national human services organization, to pioneer a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)-based Financial Wellness Program integrating financial education, psychoeducation, and supportive counseling/coaching. In addition to working as a practitioner I'm also an author, speaker, consultant, and workshop leader.

Stress and shame (or shut-off notices, overdue credit cards, or collection accounts) are often the catalysts that get us to sit up and re-evaluate the way we've been approaching money. But they’re just the beginning of the process. For over a decade I've been helping people move beyond shame and frustration, to find opportunities for personal growth embedded in the financial challenges they face.

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