Three Leading Financial Education Experts Join Community Financial Education Foundation Board

Three leading financial education experts have been appointed to the Community Financial Education Foundation (CFEF) Board of Directors, announced Miranda Harwell, executive director of CFEF. Blake Allison, BJ Carson and David Castaneda Diaz will assist the non-profit foundation in its mission to educate Americans in underserved communities, teaching meaningful financial life skills, encouraging positive financial behaviors and providing access to outcome-based, educational resources over the long-term.

"Since launching CFEF two years ago, we have provided more than $100,000 in financial education services to American families in underserved communities," said Harwell. "Blake, BJ and David's expertise in financial literacy, business, fund raising and education will enable us to continue to teach the American public meaningful financial life skills helping them to not only survive the current economic climate, but also achieve positive financial behaviors that last a lifetime."

Blake Allison is chief executive and president of Financial Education & Literacy Advisers (FELA), an independent, Washington, D.C.-based financial education services company. FELA designs, develops and delivers turnkey financial wellness programs for businesses, schools, financial institutions, and community partners. Allison is very active in the financial education community and continues to provide leadership to help advance financial education in communities around the country. Allison currently serves on the Maryland State Department of Education Advisory Board for Financial Education. He was recently appointed to the Board of Directors for the Greater Washington Jump$tart coalition. He also participates in the Department of Labor (Women's Bureau) Wi$eUp financial education initiative and is an active participant in the Bank on DC working group. Allison has a Master in Business Administration from the College of William & Mary and received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from James Madison University.

BJ Carson specializes in comprehensive financial planning for individuals, with an emphasis on investment management and insurance planning. As a consultant for The Warner Companies, Carson advises on the design and implementation of executive and employee benefit programs for corporations of varying size across the country. Carson serves on the Board of Director for several non-profit boards in the Washington, D.C. area and is the fundraising chair for the Carson Scholars Fund, a scholarship program awards students who have embraced high levels of academic excellence and community service with $1,000 college scholarships. He received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Tufts University.

David Castaneda Diaz has more than 20 years of non-profit management experience, is a certified "English as a Second Language" instructor, business professor and consultant with more than 10 years of domestic and international expertise in non-profit organizations. He has successfully managed a portfolio of federal grants totaling more than $18.3 million, in addition to teaching finance, marketing, computer technology, and advanced courses in business math, accounting, entrepreneurship, economics and political science at the Graduate School of Business of Northeastern University. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in strategic planning at the Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

"CFEF is proud to welcome Blake, BJ and David to our board," said Mark Curry, president of CFEF's Board of Directors. "We think their leadership experience in the financial literacy community will help continue to position our foundation as an important resource for our non-profit partners and the communities we serve.”

Launched in 2008, the Washington, D.C.-based Community Financial Education Foundation (CFEF) is the leading provider of innovative, outcome based financial education resources. The non-profit organization developed the web-based financial education program, MyStartingPoint to provide underserved individuals with the tools needed to begin, continue and complete an online financial literacy program that allows them to define and achieve their financial goals. The foundation also advocates for financial education programs in America’s public schools and awards grants nationwide to community organizations and students who promote financial literacy in their communities. For more information, visit www.CommunityFEF.org.