Alumni Spotlight: Celebrating the Women Shaping Financial Health

Twenty years ago, the Financial Health Network was founded to drive technological innovation to connect more people with safe, affordable banking. Since then, we’ve evolved our mission to focus on improving financial health for all – building a powerful cross-sector movement across financial services, employers, research, policy, and other sectors that share our vision. The impact that we’ve made on millions of financial lives would not have been possible without the bold individuals that make up our Financial Health Network team. 

As we reflect on the first 20 years of financial health and honor Women’s History Month this March, we’re turning the spotlight on two women who have been an important part of our journey and have continued to advance financial health at other organizations.

Years at the Financial Health Network: 2013-2022
Previous Role at the Financial Health Network: Senior Director, Research
Current Role: Associate Director at the Urban Institute

Then
Thea Garon led the Financial Health Network team that developed the FinHealth Score®, a holistic measurement framework that more than 100 companies have used to measure and improve the financial health of their customers and employees. She also launched and led the Financial Health Pulse®, a national research study that provides ongoing snapshots of financial health across the United States. Since 2018, the Pulse has become recognized as a trusted data source that policymakers and business leaders use to understand the financial health of the country and their constituencies. 

For Thea, friendships and relationships are what stand out the most as she reflects on her time at the organization. 

“The team includes some of the smartest, nicest, and most creative people around,” she says.  

That appreciation extends to the Financial Health Network’s funders, partners, and Members, who were critical in helping to advance the Financial Health Pulse and other initiatives during Thea’s tenure. 

“[They] are wonderful people, united by a shared commitment to improve the financial health of those they serve,” she says.  

Now
Thea is currently an Associate Director in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute, where she focuses on financial well-being and economic security research. She also leads the Financial Well-Being Data Hub, a new Urban Institute initiative designed to inform evidence-based solutions to advance equity and improve financial well-being. Through rigorous research, nuanced policy analysis, and ecosystem engagement, the Hub contributes to a future where people have the financial security to provide for their children, invest in their future, and live a life of dignity.

Thea’s time at the Financial Health Network allowed her to appreciate the many ways that private-sector actors can take meaningful steps to improve people’s financial well-being. Through various research and consulting endeavors, she learned how business decisions are made and how essential the role of data is when making those decisions. 

“I’ve carried this perspective with me in my work,” she says. “[At the Urban Institute, I] seek to engage financial service providers and other private actors as essential stakeholders in the wider ecosystem of changemakers who can meaningfully advance financial equity and inclusion.”

Years at the Financial Health Network: 2006-2015
Previous Roles at the Financial Health Network: Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships; Senior Vice President, Advisory Services
Current Role: Enterprise Sales and Head of Partnerships at Prism Data, Co-Founder and Advisor of Canary

Then
Kimberly Gartner’s early days at the Financial Health Network were largely focused on building the Innovators Roundtable and the Responsible Credit Roundtable – groups that laid the foundation for the organization’s Member network. These roundtables gathered leaders and innovators to discuss alternative credit data and how to ensure underserved populations had access to high-quality credit. 

One unforgettable moment came in September 2008, when Kimberly was facilitating a combined meeting of the roundtables while 8 months pregnant. One by one, the banking executives around the dinner table started getting pages. Washington Mutual had failed. Within months, she says, the financial system was “upside down.”

“Lenders didn’t know how to assess credit risk. The following years were poignant for the Financial Health Network,” she recalls. “Chris Bisko, then at Omidyar Network, told us we were the team that was built for this moment. We were able to be hands-on with our network to help ensure the financial health of underserved consumers was a focus during and post-crisis.”

Later, Kimberly launched the Financial Health Network’s consulting practice and supported the development of high-quality products and services with large financial institutions, credit unions, and fintechs. 

“Cultivating champions was a critical aspect of our strategy,” she says. “I am proud that so many people who were part of those early roundtables and consulting projects continue to be financial health champions and industry leaders.”

Now
After an impactful nine years at the Financial Health Network, Kimberly went on to co-found Canary, a third-party employee relief fund, with two other Financial Health Network alumni, Rachel Schneider and Aliza Gutman. The three women brought the first underbanked segmentation study to life, in partnership with their industry funders, and established Canary to help employers give money to employees during times of financial hardship with dignity and efficiency. Kimberly continues to be involved in Canary as an advisor.

Kimberly currently leads enterprise sales and partnerships at Prism Data, which is pioneering automated cash flow underwriting. The company’s technology platform translates raw deposit data into CashScores® and trended attributes that enable banks and lenders to approve more customers, in particular thin-file and no-file consumers that are otherwise shut out of mainstream credit. 

Kimberly’s come full circle, as the first Innovators Roundtable that she organized was focused on alternative credit data and providing lenders with ways to access data outside of traditional credit reports. 

“It’s exciting to work with lenders and cultivate partnerships to help make this capability available at scale,” she says.