Fall 2023 Speakers

Dr. Craig Lemoine, CFP®

Craig is the Director of the Financial Planning Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He serves as an Associate Clinical Professor, teaching courses in risk management, retirement and financial planning. Craig earned his PhD from Texas Tech University in 2013 and currently holds the Certified Financial Planner ™ and Master Registered Financial Consultant™ designations.

Mark Friedenthal

Mark is the Founder and CEO of Tolerisk, a software solution for Investment Advisors which provides a two-dimensional risk tolerance assessment for clients. Mark is also the CIO of Friedenthal Financial, a Fee-Only SEC Registered Investment Advisory firm. Previously, Mark was responsible for capital markets and risk management departments at Citigroup, PHH, and GE Capital. Early in his career he served as an analyst with the Federal Reserve.

Dr. Ajamu Loving, CFP®

As the first black Ph.D. recipient for Personal Financial Planning in the profession, Dr. Loving has dedicated his life to making financial planning more accessible and to diversify research. He serves as Assistant Professor of Finance at The University of North Texas at Dallas. He is responsible for teaching finance courses in the fields of Investments, Fundamentals of Finance, Financial Liquidity, and Financial Markets and Institutions.As the first black Ph.D. recipient for Personal Financial Planning in the profession, Dr. Loving has dedicated his life to making financial planning more accessible and to diversify research. He serves as Assistant Professor of Finance at The University of North Texas at Dallas. He teaches finance courses in the fields of Investments, Fundamentals of Finance, Financial Liquidity, and Financial Markets and Institutions.

Kevin R. Keller, CAE

Kevin is Chief Executive Officer of CFP Board, the professional body for personal financial planners in the U.S. Kevin joined CFP Board in 2007 after serving 16 years with the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). At AFP, he held the position of senior vice president and chief operating officer for the prior 7 years, managing programs and services for the 16,000-member organization. Before CFP Board, Kevin held senior staff positions at several associations, earning the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential in 2000. He holds a B.S. in agriculture and an M.S., both from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Tapiwa Sigauke

Dr. Sigauke is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Financial Planning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has experience studying and teaching personal finance and working with students from all backgrounds.

Johnny Poulsen

Johnny is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Income Lab. Prior to co-founding Income Lab, Johnny spent over 20 years in financial services distribution and executive management. He has led large teams focusing on income, trust, and legacy planning, portfolio strategy, market research, and digital distribution.

Kellan Brown

Kellan is the Chief Growth Officer at Income Lab. Across three different industries she has experienced a dynamic difference in culture, personality, and strategy. Utilizing these experiences and being able to shift in this everchanging world, has given her an advantage to build effective, purpose-driven organizations, with partnerships that have elevated each company and executive team she has worked with. Her proven success is attributed to her ability to build effective networks while also mentoring the next generation of great minds.

Tyrone Ross Jr.

Tyrone is the CEO of Onramp Invest, founder of 401STC, a storytelling consultancy. He was recognized by Investment News 40 under 40 (2019), and WealthManagement.com as a top ten advisor set to change the industry in 2019. FinancialPlanning.com named him as one of 20 people who will change wealth management in 2020. Recently, he was named to Investopedia’s Top 100 Financial Advisors.

Arman Hezarkhani

Arman is the CEO and Founder of Parthean. Their mission is to unlock financial freedom by making financial information universally accessible. Informed actors are a requirement for efficient and ethical market dynamics, and they believe that this is the primary, but not exclusive, path towards a meaningful close in the wealth gap.

Emily Binder

Emily is an entrepreneur, speaker, and consultant, focusing on marketing, branding, and emerging technology. After a decade of launching multi-channel marketing campaigns for companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500s, she created Beetle Moment Marketing in 2017. In 2020, she founded the SaaS startup WealthVoice, the #1 voice marketing platform for financial professionals. She helps great companies share their voices and market their brands for today and tomorrow.

Cody Garrett, CFP®

Cody is an advice-only financial planner passionate about helping families refine their path to financial independence (FI) as DIY investors. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, he specializes in comprehensive financial plan development, topic research, and personalized financial education. He believes that truly comprehensive financial advice can provide the clarity and confidence necessary for families to implement their own well-informed decisions.

Caitlin Cook

Caitlin Cook is Head of Communications and Marketing at Hxro Labs. After starting her career in traditional asset management at Deutsche Bank, Caitlin transitioned to crypto in 2020 to spearhead the creation and development of crypto education platform Onramp Academy. At Onramp, Caitlin oversaw content creation and presentation development for RIAs, family offices and other institutional allocators to help bridge the educational gap between traditional and decentralized finance. In June 2022, Caitlin became Head of Communications and Marketing for Hxro Labs – a Bermuda-based web3 development company and a core contributor to Hxro Network.

Morningstar Mo

Mo is a digital research assistant that uses the power of the Morningstar Intelligence Engine to put Morningstar’s research just a question away. 

Dr. Preston Cherry, AFC®, CFT-I™, CFP®

Dr. Cherry is the Founder & President of Concurrent Financial Planning, Head of the Financial Planning Program, and Director of the Charles Schwab Center for Personal Financial Planning at the UW – Green Bay. Preston specializes in empowering individuals to share stories that inform their financial resources and life’s design to achieve financial wellness and freedom that cultivates life wholeness.

Dr. Charles Chaffin

Dr. Charles Chaffin’s work encompasses a broad range of fields, from educational psychology to financial planning to life in the Information Age. His research and teaching focuses on learner cognition in a variety of formats, including various delivery methods and learning styles as well as the client behaviors and attitudes within financial planning. Most recently, he has written and spoke regarding one of the biggest issues of our time: information, most notably how we manage it, retain, and use it in all aspects of our lives.

Marie Swift

Marie Swift is President and CEO of Impact Communications, a full-service marketing communications firm serving a select group of independent financial advisors and allied institutions. Impact Communications works solely within the financial services industry. The firm has two service lines – one for highly successful independent advisors and one for the institutions that support independent advisors.

Dr. Angela Lyons

Dr. Angela Lyons is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, a Presidential Fellow in the President’s Executive Leadership Program (PELP) within the University of Illinois System, and a Faculty Fellow at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). She is also the Director for the Center for Economic and Financial Education. Her work focuses on emerging issues in development and behavioral economics, with emphasis on economic and financial inclusion, financial and digital literacy, poverty and inequality, and the economic empowerment and protection of vulnerable populations.

Dr. Michael G. Thomas Jr.

Michael G. Thomas Jr., Ph.D., is an Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) and a lecturer at the University of Georgia. His research focuses on financial empathy, data visualization’s effects on financial behavior, and the connection between brain function and money.

Dr. Matt Goren, CFP®

Dr. Goren is a financial educator and psychologist working to improve the competency of the financial planning profession. Each year, over 10,000 current and future financial planners receive industry-leading education from CeriFi. Collectively, those folks go on to provide financial advice and planning to millions of people around the world.

Ailie Elmore

Ailie is an Instructor in the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois. Ailie teaches courses in investments and working with small businesses. She has experience with agribusiness and commodities contracts.

Randy Bruns, CFP® RICP®

Randy is the founder of Model Wealth and a Senior Financial Planner with the firm. He has served as President of the Financial Planning Association of Illinois (FPA-Illinois), has been a guest lecturer for the University of Illinois’ financial planning program, and writes as a guest contributor for various media outlets.

Alex Offerman, CFP®

Alex is co-founder of Model Wealth and a Senior Financial Planner with the firm. He serves as the point person and lead planner for a great deal of the project work done on behalf of the clients at Model Wealth.

Donovan Sanchez, CFP®

Donovan Sanchez is Director of Education and a Senior Financial Planner with Model Wealth. In addition to his work at Model Wealth, Donovan is a full-time instructor at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign where he teaches financial planning.

Anna Thornburg

Anna is the Director of Operations at Model Wealth. She keeps the operation running like a well-oiled machine, enabling the team to give their clients the focused attention they deserve. She’s an administrative whiz who gets a thrill from making a plan and following it through to the end.