Workplace Financial Education
A Seminar for Human Resource Professionals
September 21, 2007
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in Partnership with the Texas Society of CPAs

Financial success requires more than just a good income. Managing and building assets is the key to wealth. This seminar provided research and showcase resources for workplace financial education. Whether you are a company president or a human resources or communications professional, you can bring these resources to your employees and help them negotiate today’s increasingly complex financial choices.

According to recent research:

• The No. 1 cause of stress in the workplace today is personal financial problems.
• 30 percent of Texas workers spend six or more hours each week at work worried about or dealing with personal finances.
• One-fourth of American workers are seriously distressed about their financial situation.
• 80 percent of financially distressed employees spend time at work dealing with financial issues.
• 40 to 50 percent of financially distressed employees say their health is negatively impacted.

Topics Include:

• An update on the Texas economy by a Federal Reserve Bank economist.
• A panel of employers incorporating personal finance education into their employee benefits.
• A variety of free resources you can use to start providing this benefit to your employees.

Keynote Speaker

“Financial Literacy and Workplace Productivity”
Dr. E. Thomas Garman
President, Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation
Professor Emeritus and Fellow, Virginia Tech University

A renowned author, advisor and academic, Garman is a fellow and distinguished professor emeritus of Virginia Tech University, where he founded the National Institute for Personal Finance Employee Education. He directed award-winning research that links the financial fortunes of corporations with the financial health of their employees. Garman is the author of more than 30 books and 200 academic research articles. He is also the president of the Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation. He holds a doctorate in economic education from Texas Tech University.

Agenda

Speakers

Brett Bunce
Human Resources Director
H-E-B Grocery Co.
Waco
As director of human resources at H-E-B, Bunce provides coaching and guidance to management and HR leaders across the functional areas of human resources. A certified Senior Professional in Human Resources, his work focuses primarily on leadership development and operational consulting. He began his HR career in the transportation industry as both a corporate and field generalist. He joined H-E-B in 2000. Bunce holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Baylor University.

Cindy Duck
Citibank at Work Relationship Manager
Dallas Southwest
As a relationship manager for the Citibank at Work program, Duck organizes financial education and money management solutions for employees at their work site. In addition to promoting financial literacy programs to external companies, she ensures effective delivery of the Bank at Work financial education objectives internally to Citigroup employees in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. She has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry and a proven track record of leadership in organizational objectives.

Dr. E. Thomas Garman
President
Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation
Summerfield, Florida
In addition to being founder and president of the Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation, Garman is professor emeritus and fellow at Virginia Tech University, where he directed the National Institute for Personal Finance Employee Education. He has authored books, conducted academic research, and published numerous studies and articles on the connection between the financial fortunes of employers and the financial health of their employees. The Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation’s mission is to educate employers on the bottom-line benefits of workplace financial education that improves financial literacy and personal financial behaviors. Garman holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Denver and a doctorate in economic education from Texas Tech University.

Julie Gunter
Senior Community Affairs Advisor
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Since joining the Dallas Fed Community Affairs Office, Gunter has been involved in writing the new and expanded edition and CD-ROM version of Building Wealth, a personal financial education resource. In addition, she writes for the Bank’s community affairs publications and produces conferences and events in Dallas and throughout the Eleventh District. Before joining the Bank, Gunter was a banker for 12 years and director of the Dallas office of The Enterprise Foundation (now Enterprise Community Partners), a provider of loans, grants and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations involved in building and revitalizing low-income neighborhoods.

Celia Hagert
Senior Policy Analyst
Center for Public Policy Priorities
Austin
Hagert joined the Center for Public Policy Priorities in 1998. She works on food and nutrition policy, privatization of social services and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance program. Before coming to the center, she was a policy specialist for the Texas Department of Human Services and a health and human services policy analyst for a private consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Columbia University and a Master of Arts from the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Leilani Lim-Villegas
Financial Education Coordinator
Texas Department of Banking
Austin
Lim-Villegas promotes financial literacy to Texas youth, adults, senior citizens and immigrants for the Texas Department of Banking. She collaborates with financial institutions, federal, state and local agencies, minority groups, companies, financial literacy groups and nonprofit organizations on a wide range of financial literacy initiatives. Before assuming her present position, Lim-Villegas was public information officer for the Texas Residential Construction Commission, a special audits administrator for the Texas Department of Banking and a program specialist in the International Relations Office at the Texas Department of Transportation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in international affairs from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Cynthia E. Nevels
Statewide Coordinator
Texas Saves
Executive Director
Jr. Finance Literacy Academy
Dallas
Nevels was appointed in 2004 to coordinate Texas Saves, a social marketing and asset-building campaign affiliated with the America Saves campaign. She is founder and executive director of Jr. Finance Literacy Academy, a nonprofit provider of financial education, investor education and personal financial management certificate courses to youth and adults. She is also chairman of African American Leaders of Tomorrow, a Texas nonprofit economic development and political awareness coalition. Nevels teaches continuing education courses in management and recruiting at Mountain View College in Dallas. She has written numerous professional and training guides for human resource management and recruitment and is a columnist for The Financial Report. Nevels, a certified Professional in Human Resources, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and business management from Texas Woman’s University and attended the Graduate Marketing Program at Southern Methodist University.

Alfreda B. Norman
Assistant Vice President and Community Affairs Officer
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
As head of the Dallas Fed’s Community Affairs Office, Norman is responsible for supporting the Federal Reserve System’s economic growth objectives by promoting community and economic development and fair and impartial access to credit. Norman was one of the first neighborhood development officers hired by Bank of America in Texas in 1992. Responsible for developing a strategic community development plan to extend credit to low- and moderate-income communities, she went on to assume statewide Community Reinvestment Act responsibilities with Bank of America’s mortgage lending group. In addition to banking, Norman has been a supervisor in the city of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs and held management positions at The Container Store headquarters in Dallas. Norman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University and is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Graduate
School of Retail Banking.

D’Ann Petersen
Associate Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Petersen works in the Research Department’s regional group, where she conducts research on regional economic issues and produces articles for various Dallas Fed publications, including Southwest Economy. Petersen also contributes economic articles and timely updates on economic data to the Dallas Fed’s web site. Other responsibilities include tracking the real estate and construction sectors for the regional group, briefing the Bank’s president on economic conditions and contributing to the Eleventh District Beige Book, the Bank’s anecdotal survey of regional economic conditions. Petersen received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Texas A&M University and a Master of Arts in applied economics from Southern Methodist University.

James A. Smith
Chairman
Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants
Managing Director
Smith, Jackson, Boyer & Bovard, PLLC
In his 35 years of professional accounting experience, Smith has worked with a wide range of companies, from large multinationals to small, closely held corporations. He has appeared as a featured commentator on all of the Dallas–Fort Worth network news stations, including over three years with the local NBC affiliate. He has also been featured on the Texas Society of CPAs statewide television program and various radio shows. Smith has conducted seminars on tax and financial planning for the TSCPA’s Dallas chapter, stock brokerage firms and life insurance companies, and on marketing and practice management for the TSCPA, other state CPA associations and the American Institute of CPAs. Currently chairman of the state organization, Smith has served in numerous capacities since the early 1990s and is a former chairman of the Dallas chapter. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting and economics from Southern Methodist University.