A discussion dedicated to building financial capabilities of community college students

The Regional & Community Outreach Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston works to promote economic growth of low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. One of our strategies for doing this is to build the financial capabilities of LMI residents. We've identified community colleges as a potential collaborator in this work due to the students they serve and the challenges their students face. While strengthening students' ability to manage personal finances cannot eliminate all obstacles that may interfere with their journey through higher education, we do believe that enhanced financial capabilities can help them to more effectively manage financial challenges, which are a barrier for many community college students.

Building upon the momentum of a previous convening of Massachusetts-based community colleges, this event brought together representatives of all community colleges in New England for a recap of what we learned last year and the efforts launched as a result, a presentation of a new Resource Handbook on building financial capabilities of  community college students, and keynotes from experts in community college leadership and excellence.

Agenda and Presentations

9:30 – 10:00 am  Registration and Continental Breakfast
10:00 – 10:10  Welcome

Richard C. Walker, III
Senior Vice President and Community Affairs Officer
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
10:10 – 10:20         

Recap of June 2013 Convening, Interim Progress, and Program Overview

Sol Carbonell
Assistant Vice President
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
10:20 – 10:40  

Overview of the Handbook and Community College Collaborative Pilot

Sarah Savage
Senior Evaluation and Learning Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
10:40 – 10:55       Break
10:55 – 11:25  

Keynote: Re-conceptualizing the Way We Educate Students

Joi Lin Blake, Ed.D.
Vice President of Student Services
Skyline College
11:25 – 11:55          

Panel: Student Perspective and Partnering Pathways

Moderator:

Monnica Chan
Director of Policy and Research
New England Board of Higher Education

Panelists:

Doris B. Arrington
Dean of Student Services
Capital Community College

Entela Naska
Student
Capital Community College

Massiel Astacio
Student
Capital Community College

12:00 pm
 

Luncheon
12:10 – 12:45  

Keynote: Community College Excellence: Lessons from the Field

Josh Wyner
Vice President and Executive Director, College Excellence Program
The Aspen Institute
12:45 – 1:30     Interactive Session:  Facilitated Assessment Exercise

1:30 – 1:50      
 Feedback from Participants
1:50 – 2:00  

Closing Remarks

Prabal Chakrabarti
Vice President
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
2:00  Adjourn

About the Presenters

Doris B. Arrington
Dean of Student Services
Capital Community College

Doris Arrington has served as Dean of Student Services at Capital Community College since 1990.  She has also held various other administrative positions at Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts during her thirty five year tenure in higher education. Dean Arrington is currently a doctoral candidate at Nova Southeastern University, and possesses a Master Degree from Springfield College, a Management Certificate from Wellesley College, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut.

Doris B. Arrington is former Commissioner for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and a member of the inaugural Board of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Community College Advisory Board. She has also served on the National Community College Student Success Project., and is a past member of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education Student Affairs' Think Tank. Dean Arrington is a nationally known presenter often speaking on higher education access, student success, and assessment. Ms. Arrington is the Broad Chair of the Conference of Churches, past Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, the Village for Families and Children; President Emeritus of Family Life Education; Former Member of the YMCA MAP Steering Committee and Chair of the Program Committee; President of the Greater Hartford Links; an active member of Hartford Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; and a member of Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church, serving as assistant superintendent of Sunday School.

Dean Arrington has been recognized by numerous community based organizations, such as the City of Hartford Women's Commission, CT Board of Higher Education, the Connecticut Association of Educational Opportunity Program's Outstanding Alumni Award, the Greater Hartford YMCA, InRoads, the Hartford Public Schools, CONNTAC/EOC, and the CT African-American Parade Committee, for her many civic contributions to the community. Doris B. Arrington is a Connecticut native who currently resides in Windsor with her husband Edward. Their daughter Candace a graduate of Spelman College is currently enrolled at Suffolk Law School.

Massiel Astacio
Student
Capital Community College

Massiel Astacio is a Liberal Arts & Science Major at Capital Community College. She attended the Financial Literacy Workshops offered at Capital. These sessions peaked her interest and now she plans to take a Personal Finance course at the college during the summer. She is motivated to learn and be educated about finance as she strives to be a well-rounded woman who can assist the people around her. Massiel is committed to helping her community, and she has accomplished this in part through her church as the youth director. In this position she organizes programs to mentor the youth within the community. During the next year she plans to continue improving her leadership skills through her work towards induction into The National Society of Leadership and Success. Massiel's long term goal is to obtain her Masters in Prosthetics and Orthotics in order to help people in their journey to look beyond their disability and into the possibilities.

Dr. Joi Lin Blake
Vice President, Student Services
Skyline College

Dr. Joi Lin Blake has over 26 years of progressive administrative and leadership experience in Instructional and Student Services programs. She currently serves as the Vice President of Student Services at Skyline College in the San Mateo County Community College District. Her administrative and leadership positions have included, Dean of Student Development and Matriculation at San Diego Mesa College, Policy Assistant for the U.S. Department of Education, in the Offices of the Under Secretary, Dr. Martha Kanter, and Vocational and Adult Education, Interim Dean of Instructional Support Services, Interim Staff Development Coordinator, and Academic Senate President at Southwestern College. In addition, she has successfully served as Professor/Counselor, and Personal Development Coordinator and has represented Student Services faculty in local and statewide arenas. Dr. Blake currently serves on the Board of the California Community Colleges Chief Student Services Officers.

Dr. Blake's leadership skills and qualifications include experience developing and implementing innovative programs for diverse traditional and nontraditional student populations in credit and non-credit programs. The scope of responsibilities has included providing leadership for the development, implementation and evaluation of key components of instruction and student services. Dr. Blake is a progressive leader using organizational strategyas an essential tool needed to transform the institution and achieve institutional outcomes. She has provided leadership for national, district and campus-wide strategic planning. This has involved working closely with campus constituents to ensure programs and services are strategically and systematically aligned with the institutional priorities outlined in the district and campus strategic plan, accreditation rubrics, education master plan, student learning and service area outcomes and program review. She has experience using research-based frameworks such as Completion by Design (CBD) and Voluntary Framework for Accountability (VFA) as models to develop and implement district-wide and campus initiatives.

Sol Carbonell
Assistant Vice President, Regional & Community Outreach
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Sol Carbonell joined the Regional and Community Outreach Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 2010. At the Bank, Carbonell directs the Financial Capabilities Group, which focuses on increasing household financial stability of low- and moderate-income communities.

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Carbonell has more than 15 years of experience working across sectors. Prior to joining the bank, she served as Associate, National Priorities, for a national consumer education organization based in San Francisco, California. In this role, she developed strategic partnerships with organizations such as the National Council of La Raza, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, presenting at their annual conventions and collaborating with affiliates/members. Carbonell has trained hundreds of non-profit, bank and government representatives on issues related to credit and banking, managing in-state train-the-trainer financial education efforts in collaboration with Capital One, American Express and Bank of America. She has spearheaded a number of coalitions and helped draft legislation to protect consumers against predatory practices. She thrives at engaging diverse groups of stakeholders and promoting participatory initiatives that address social and economic needs.

Carbonell holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Wisconsin. She has received executive education certificates from various institutions, including MIT's Sloan School of Management. In 2005 Carbonell won the Wisconsin Idea Fellowship for her work with the Bureau of Consumer Protection. She has been a Fellow of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, The Partnership Inc., and a graduate of the Leadership Development Program offered by the Center for Creative Leadership. She has served as board member and advisor to a number of regional and local non-profit organizations focused on financial education, microlending and small business development. She is currently the VP of Women of ALPFA and is active in organizations promoting Hispanic leadership. Carbonell has received numerous awards for her community contributions, including recognition by former Congresswoman Hilda Solis, volunteer of the year by the National Association of Hispanic MBAs, "Top 40 under 40" by In Business Magazine and "Emerging Leader" by the Boston Business Journal. She enjoys reading, dancing, visiting loved ones in Argentina and going on adventures with her husband Rafael, her children Sofia and Sebastian, and her dog Sani.

Prabal Chakrabarti
Vice President
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Prabal Chakrabarti is Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the Regional and Community Outreach department, which focuses on economic growth for low and moderate income people. He has published and presented research on community development topics such as affordable housing, venture capital in secondary cities, and urban business development. He plays a key leadership role in a prize competition to revitalize smaller cities called the Working Cities Challenge. He has edited volumes on the future of the Community Reinvestment Act and on addressing challenges from foreclosed properties.

Previously, Prabal was at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, where he led a research effort under Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter to measure economic competitiveness in America's inner cities. Prabal previously served in the U.S. Treasury in economic policy and he co-wrote a UNDP report Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor.

Prabal holds graduate degrees from MIT and Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a B.S. from the University of Illinois, where he was a Truman Scholar. He serves on the Marshall Scholarship Selection Committee and on the board of directors of the Children's Investment Fund. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two daughters.

Monnica Chan
Director of Policy and Research
New England Board of Higher Education

Monnica Chan is the Director of Policy and Research at the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE).  NEBHE is a nonprofit, congressionally authorized agency that promotes greater educational opportunities and services for New England residents.  In her role, Monnica oversees NEBHE's Policy and Research unit, which focuses on synthesizing education and demographic data into compelling regional analyses with public policy implications.

Her primary areas of interest include the relationships between affordability and college access as well as the connections between postsecondary institutions and economic development.  Prior to joining NEBHE, Monnica coordinated the Bonner AmeriCorps Leaders Program at Burlington County College where she initiated the college's service-learning program while strengthening campus resources for civic engagement and community service.  She holds a bachelor's degree from Barnard College and a master's degree in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Entela Naska
Student
Capital Community College

Entela Naska is a Nursing student at Capital Community College. She currently works as an
administrative assistant for the Career Development Center. In this position she develops effective working relationships with students, staff, faculty and employers. She attended all Financial Literacy workshops and she was part of the team that maintained and organized the events. This includes announcements on the Website, College Facebook, posters and handouts given directly to students on the day of the event.

In 2013 she was officially inducted as a member into The National Society of Leadership and
Success, which is an honor society. As a way of giving back to the Society and to Capital
Community College, this year she participated as a member of the Society's executive board at
Capital Community College. As an executive board member, she coordinated and facilitated the meetings, recruited and provided orientation for new members, and assisted new members with achieving their academic goals. For her contribution she was awarded a certificate for Excellence in Service to Students Award.

She has been a Dean's List student from Fall 2011 to Spring 2014.

Sarah Savage
Sr. Evaluation & Learning Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Sarah Savage has been with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston since February 2013. Sarah is a Senior Evaluation and Learning Specialist within the Financial Capabilities Group in the Regional & Community Outreach Department. Her efforts focus on building the capacity of practitioners and institutions who are working to strengthen financial capabilities of low- to moderate-income residents of the region. She works to disseminate evaluation practices aimed at enhancing program delivery and practitioners' ability to demonstrate effectiveness, to help in the translation of research and theory into practice with attention on the practical uses for practitioners, and on the development of tools and techniques to guide practitioners through the process of program clarification. Additionally, Sarah is working with community colleges to pilot efforts aimed at empowering students to manage their personal finances effectively and co-authoring a resource handbook on building the financial capabilities of community college students.

While in graduate school at the University of New Hampshire, Sarah worked at the Carsey Institute in an evaluation and research capacity. She worked with a senior faculty member to conduct evaluations of local nonprofits serving low- to moderate-income residents of NH. Sarah also co-authored fact sheets and policy briefs on topics such as rural child poverty and the New Hampshire Healthy Kids program. More recently, before joining the Boston Fed, Sarah worked in research settings in the fields of substance abuse treatment at the University of Georgia and criminal justice at Boston-based Community Resources for Justice, where the emphasis was on understanding adoption of and increasing readiness for the implementation of evidence-based practices.

Sarah completed her undergraduate work at Babson College in 1997 and earned a PhD in Sociology from the University of New Hampshire in 2009.

Richard C. Walker, III
Senior Vice President
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Richard Walker has over three decades of experience in business and community development in Boston. For the last 24 years, he has worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where he is currently Senior Vice President and Community Affairs Officer of the Regional and Community Outreach Department. Previously, he served in executive positions at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, the Lincoln Filene Center for Citizenship and Public Affairs at Tufts University, and the Greater Roxbury Development Corporation. He has been instrumental in developing the Boston Business Collaborative, a project that links major corporations with existing minority businesses and let to the formation of the Initiative for a New Economy. Richard was an initial participant in the formulation of the Black/Jewish roundtable with American Jewish Committee. He was also participated in the working groups which helped form the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation and Massachusetts Community and Banking Council. In September 2000, the Governor of Massachusetts appointed Richard to the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and in 2007 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Bunker Hill Community College. Richard serves on numerous other boards and is actively involved in promoting fair and equal access to finance and credit through a variety of approaches.

He is the executive producer of the award-winning video To Their Credit: Financing Women Owned Business, which was first broadcast on KQED in San Francisco in July 1999. He was also responsible for the video Lesson from a Storm: Banking for Safety. Richard was instrumental in the development of the Federal Reserve Bank's widely distributed publication Closing the Gap: A Guide to Equal Opportunity Lending, designed to help banks avoid possible discriminatory lending practices. And he produced the popular consumer video Identity Theft: Protect Yourself and its companion publication, Identity Theft. Currently, Richard is leading an innovative project for the Bank called the Working Cities Challenge. The Challenge is a pilot grant competition funded by Living Cities, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership designed to encourage collaborative leadership and systems change in the Gateway cities. Richard resides in Waltham and has a summer home on Martha's Vineyard.

Joshua Wyner
Vice President and Executive Director, College Excellence Program
The Aspen Institute

Joshua Wyner is the Vice President and Executive Director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute, which aims to strengthen practice and develop leadership that substantially improve college student success.  Started in early 2011, the Program's first two initiatives are the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, which strives to reward and shine a spotlight on community colleges that deliver exceptional student results and stimulate replication of successful campus practices and the New College Leadership Project, which works to strengthen efforts to recruit and professionally develop college presidents who are driven by - and capable of - substantially improving student success.

Josh has spent the past two decades as a nonprofit leader, initiating organizations aimed at improving educational outcomes and urban policy. From 2001-2009, Josh led the design and implementation of programs as Executive Vice President of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. There, he established national scholarship and grant-making programs for - and conducted original research about - high-achieving low-income students from elementary through graduate school. From 1995 to 2001, Josh was founding Executive Director of the DC Appleseed Center, which analyzes and actively seeks to resolve problems affecting the daily lives of those who live and work in the Washington, DC area. During his tenure, DC Appleseed led successful efforts to resolve Washington, DC's $5 billion unfunded pension liability and alter the structure of the DC Board of Education.  Josh spent his early career as an organizer and policy analyst with Citizen Action, a program evaluator at the US Government Accountability Office, and an attorney with Beveridge & Diamond.

Josh has authored numerous reports, op-eds, and other publications about education and urban policy, including a 2014 book, What Excellent Community Colleges Do: Preparing All Students for Success (Harvard Education Press).  He has a B.A. in History from Vassar College, holds a Master's in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and is a cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law.  Josh lives in his home town, Washington, D.C., with his wife and two teenage sons.

 
Related Links

Financial Capabilities in Community Colleges, June 2013
Financial Education in New England: A Survey of Needs, Challenges and Practices