The demand for a global financial health platform that supports meaningful business investment is there. We just need the collaboration to make it happen.

The road to financial health for all is long, and Financial Health Network President & CEO Jennifer Tescher has been walking it for almost two decades. In that time, she’s learned that lasting change requires diverse ideas and voices. She started EMERGE Everywhere with that vision, and over the past year, she’s hosted finhealth visionaries making change across sectors. Listen to this special solo episode to hear Jen’s thoughts on the progress of financial health – and her hopes for the year ahead.

Dr. Bechara Choucair grew up in Beirut in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, raised by parents that created stability in an otherwise unstable time. What he learned then informs his current work as Senior Vice President and Chief Health Officer for Kaiser Permanente: Stable environments create better, more equitable outcomes. In this episode, Dr. Choucair explains how health systems can promote health by fighting back against financial insecurity, which he sees as the next great health crisis.

In 1992, John Hope Bryant brought a bus full of largely White corporate leaders to witness the disinvestment in South Central LA. This was the first big move for Operation HOPE, Inc., a nonprofit that John founded to empower underserved communities through financial literacy. In this episode, John and Jennifer discuss everything he’s learned in the 30 years since that first bus tour – including the importance of financial inclusion and building Black wealth.

Tom Spann is no stranger to helping people tackle financial challenges without judgment. He founded Accolade in 2007 to help working Americans navigate their health benefits, then moved on to co-found employee financial wellness company Brightside in 2017. He did so to shed light on what he sees as a critical, yet underserved, part of health equity: financial health. In this episode, Tom and Jennifer discuss the role employers can play in improving financial well-being and using behavioral science to make managing money easier.

A longtime finhealth champion in the credit union industry, Gigi Hyland has spent her career empowering credit unions to work within their communities to address today’s unique financial health challenges. In this episode, Gigi and Jennifer discuss how credit unions can better serve their members' financial needs, technology's role in building financial well-being, and the deeply intertwined relationship between physical health and financial health.