Sharon chairing plenary session at the Global Financial Literacy Summit in Washington, D.C.

Leaders in the financial sector from 11 different nations will gather in Washington, D.C. on June 17 for the HOPE Global Financial Literacy Summit. The day long conference will be keynoted by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair, and aims to create conversation amongst top officials on how to address financial literacy here in the U.S. and across the globe. Over the course of the day several plenary sessions will be held to discuss various aspects of financial literacy from lending practices to progressive policy to financial literacy empowerment. From 11:15-12:30, Sharon will Chair the plenary session on Financial Literacy Empowerment. Under her direction the session and several distinguished speakers will tackle how to energize supporters for financial education and the ways to capitalize on it. The Summit will frame the issue of financial literacy, possibly for the first time, not as a soft and ancillary economic tool, nor as an option, but as an essential, core ingredient to mid-to-long-term economic recovery and stability. The Global Summit will make a strong business case for financial literacy itself, and seek to reshape the debate around financial literacy away from its definition by some as a simple, narrowly focused math class, towards a more robust, practical, and aspirationally relevant strategy to ground consumer confidence in a core competency. Sharon will play a key role in helping shape the policies and new ideas at the Summit that will begin to propel financial literacy to new levels.