AFCPE Member Awards: Mary Ellen Edmondson Educator of the Year Award
The Mary Ellen Edmondson Educator of the Year Award honors an individual who has provided exceptional service to teaching and or outreach through the design or use of creative and innovative programs. Award recipients make a profound impact on, or provide an exceptional service to the profession of financial counseling and education and AFCPE. Award recipients are a mentor who gives back to students or are committed to educating clients.
Congratulations to the 2025 Mary Ellen Edmondson Educator of the Year recipient, José Medina DBAc, MBA, CPFC, CEPF, CCFP.
The winner of this award receives $500.
Celebrating Our Educator of the Year Award Winners
2025: José Medina DBAc, MBA, CPFC, CEPF, CCFP
José Medina is a financial educator with over three decades of experience helping individuals and communities transform their relationship with money.
As Founder of Finanzas al Máximo, he has created innovative programs such as SAFE (Financial Wellness for Employees) and developed the Certified Personal Finance Consultant certification program, both implemented in credit unions and nonprofit organizations. He has trained 618 certified financial coaches and has impacted thousands through his workshops, mentorship, and social media platforms. He is also the founder of the first Institute of Personal Finance.
2024: Dr. Virginia Solis Zuiker, AFC®
An Associate professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Solis Zuiker has dedicated her career to personal and family finance education, teaching over 8,300 students and contributing significantly to financial research. Her commitment to advancing the field and fostering financial understanding has impacted individuals and families nationwide.
2023: Dr. Christopher Sneed
Dr. Sneed has offered financial and consumer education through The University of Tennessee (UT) for almost two decades. With his research, program development, trainings, and grant procurement, Dr. Sneed has provided exceptional service and profoundly impacted Cooperative Extension and the field of financial education.
2022: Dr. Axton Betz-Hamilton, AFC®
Dr. Betz-Hamilton is an Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator of Consumer Affairs in the School of Health and Consumer Sciences at South Dakota State University, where her primary research focus is financial abuse within families, including familial identity theft. She received a PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from Iowa State University.
Axton is an exemplary educator in the field of financial counseling and planning. Her innovative program and curriculum development in the areas of financial counseling, taxation, communication in financial planning, housing, and familial identity theft has made positive impacts on students in the Consumer Affairs program at South Dakota State University as well as the general public.
2021: Jennifer Wilson, MS, AFC®
Jennifer Wilson, MS, AFC®, is a faculty instructor and Assistant Director of the Personal Finance program within the School of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University. Before Texas Tech, she served three years in AmeriCorps throughout the country, focusing on financial education, counseling, and resource development. Jennifer has extensive experience working with diverse audiences delivering financial awareness presentations, providing one-on-one financial counseling, and teaching financial counseling at the college level.
From AmeriCorps to teaching, Jennifer loves volunteering in the community and bringing her prior work experience into the classroom. She has worked with 500+ students on service-learning projects that have helped raise financial awareness throughout the city of Lubbock. Jennifer is extremely excited about the direction of the PFI Program as she launches a new personal finance course that focuses on teaching students how to use Excel while learning to get their funds up.
2020: Dr. Katherine (Kate) S. Mielitz, AFC®
Dr. Katherine (Kate) S. Mielitz has over 18 years’ combined experience in Collections, Bankruptcy, Fraud, and Financial Counseling and Education. Dr. Mielitz has provided financial counseling and education to members of our Armed Forces and their families, recovering substance abusers, men transitioning into work-release from prison, families experiencing homelessness, and members of a medium-sized state credit union.
From her research, she developed and wrote financial education curriculum for the Georgia Transitional Centers. She has published primary data research in respected journals and has presented her research at annual conferences for the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE), the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI), the American Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), and the Southern Criminal Justice Association (SCJA). She earned her Ph.D. in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University in 2018.
2019: Kathy Sweedler
Kathryn Sweedler has provided outstanding education and mentorship during her 13 years with the University of Illinois Extension as a Consumer Economics Educator. Sweedler has recently co-authored Financial Planning for Young Adults, as well as All My Money: Change for the Better. Sweedler also created and manages the Financial Wellness for college students program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Center, using the train-the-trainer model. Sweedler also started a Money Mentor program in Champaign and Vermillion Counties in Illinois. She currently oversees approximately 50 volunteers mentoring low to mid-income individuals. When Sweedler isn’t mentoring or working on curriculum development, you can find her leading the charge for social media education. Sweedler co-started one of the first ever research based educational blogs on personal finance education called “Plan Well, Retire Well” which she just reached her 11th year blogging on. Sweedler also enjoys sharing education through Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Podcasts as well as Twitter where you can find her @morethancoupons.
2018: Holly Chase
Holly Chase serves as a Financial Education Officer with the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Ms. Chase has been committed to financial education in practice and as a profession for nearly two decades. In that time, she has trained nearly 2,000 financial education and counseling professionals, social workers, and case managers on different curricula, financial capability core competencies, effective delivery of financial education in group and one-on-one settings, building appropriate money communication skills, and program design in order to expand the reach of financial education. Through her outreach efforts, she has strengthened and enhanced the personal financial knowledge and skills of nearly 2000 consumers. Of special note has been her service as the creator of the agency’s flagship financial education program started in 2012 – Building Your Financial House. She also served as lead author of the Capital Region Ex-offender Support Coalition Reentry Financial Toolkit (top ten financial issues that re-entrants face upon reentry and in their journey to financial stability). Holly’s greatest passion is delivering comprehensive financial education to at-risk audiences. She believes that regardless of one’s current financial circumstances, all people possess the ability to take control of their money and move forward to a solid financial future.
2017: Paul Gobel
In Fall 2005, Paul Goebel was hired by the University of North Texas to transform the concept of financial education into a center for student success. Through his leadership as both an educator and practitioner, the UNT Student Money Management Center became a reality in just one short semester. The program model Paul established at the university represents a national best practice and one of the first dedicated financial education programs on a university campus serving all students regardless of their degree or college affiliation. Paul’s direct impact as an educator can be seen in the faces of the 14,607 students who have sought out coaching services and emergency loan support from Paul and his center to identify creative solutions to the financial obstacles endangering their enrollment. Since establishing the center, more than 96,000 students and community members have become empowered through personal financial education workshops and events offered by the center. Each academic year, Paul and his team offer students more than 200 educational programs. Paul believes his role as an educator is not confined to his campus. Rather he serves to provide exceptional service as an educator to his campus, community, and the nation, including AFCPE®.
2016: Andrew Zumwalt
Andrew Zumwalt — known to clients and colleagues as the “tax man” — is an instructor in the Department of Personal Financial Planning at the University of Missouri and an Assistant Extension Professor at MU Extension, where he teaches personal income taxation and leads a hands-on VITA program that has helped students and regional volunteers prepare over 70,000 returns across eleven years, saving low-income clients millions in preparation costs. Through coaching students who go on to earn high praise from employers, supporting Extension specialists statewide with training and tax law guidance, and collaborating with colleagues across the country to build and refine curriculum, Andrew has made financial education accessible to communities that might otherwise go unserved.
2015: Ryan Law
Ryan Law has taught financial counseling and planning at the University of Missouri for the past 5 years. During that time he has taught more than 3000 students to better handle their finances through his courses. While heading up the University of Missouri’s Office for Financial Success, the center reached over 22,000 students through workshops and counseling appointments.
Ryan is first and foremost a teacher. He loves being in the classroom educating students on how to be better stewards of their money. Ryan mentors about 15 students per year, helping students become effective financial counselors. As one of these students said, “Ryan doesn’t just care about us as financial counselors – he invites us to his home and we become part of his family.” Ryan has used his teaching skills to provide guidance and materials to help others start student money management centers nationwide.
2014: Alena Johnson, AFC®
Alena Johnson’s passion for financial education has touched students, professionals, and communities on a remarkable scale — growing her Family Finance course at Utah State University from 80 students to 500 with a waiting list, and earning it the title of second most favorite class on campus in 2007. Her involvement with AFCPE® spans decades, including twelve symposium presentations, leadership on the Certification Task Force, and her work as an AFC® Webinar Review instructor, where she has guided countless candidates — including FINRA Foundation Military Spouse Fellows — through the certification process, while also contributing to exam and study guide development. Beyond the classroom and conference room, her widely used publications — including the Step-Down Principle, the Financial Checkup, Financial Remedies, and Financial First Aid — have equipped financial counselors, educators, therapists, social workers, and extension agents across the country with practical tools to help individuals improve their financial lives.
Our Members Earn this Recognition From Their Peers. Join AFCPE.
AFCPE membership connects you to a diverse and inclusive network of financial professionals, researchers, practitioners, and educators — along with exclusive access to awards, grants, and professional development opportunities.
AFCPE endeavors to make our awards process accessible to any and all users. If you require assistance regarding the accessibility of the application, or if you would like to request an accommodation to participate in the application process, please contact us at awards@afcpe.org.
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