the blue AFCPE star and description of the Putting it into practice award

AFCPE Symposium Awards: Putting It into Practice Award

The Putting It into Practice award winner, selected by the review panel and approved by a dedicated committee, has shared research outcomes or created a seminar with practical tools and recommendations that could drive a significant, enduring change for the industry. Congratulations to 2025 recipients Carl Windom and Letania Gonzalez for “Heir Property and Generational Wealth: What Every Financial Counselor Should Know.”

Celebrating Our Putting It into Practice Award Winners 

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2025: Carl Windom AFC®
Letania Gonzalez MPA, AFC®

Carl Windom and Letania Gonzalez created “Heir Property and Generational Wealth: What Every Financial Counselor Should Know”, which delivers actionable insights and strategies to help financial counselors better serve clients navigating the complexities of heir property and its impact on generational wealth building.

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2024: Amelie H. Riendl, AFC®, Mil Money Coach and Financial Coaches Network

Helping clients change behaviors around their spending, saving, and debt habits takes more than just a friendly voice and good advice. Tracking client cashflow and monitoring behavior manually is difficult and inefficient. “Utilizing Advances in Technology to Improve client outcomes and coach efficiency.”  is a presentation that will share how recent advances in software can be used to track client cash flow behaviors and communicate with clients to help them stay accountable to their goals without requiring hours of the counselor’s time.

Headshot of Miguel Quinones, an award-winning presenter, looking confident in from of a multi-colored background wall wearing a professional suit.

2023: Miguel Quiñones, University of Minnesota 

As the country’s demographic makeup continues to shift, there’s a buzz around crafting “culturally relevant” financial education. But what does this actually mean, why is it important we get it right, and how can these ideas be meaningfully integrated into your practice? “What Is “Culturally Relevant” Financial Education, Really? Bridging Theory and Practice” by Miguel Quiñones bridged theory and practice by delving into theoretical approaches to “cultural relevance,” highlighting lessons learned from teaching a novel financial education course designed for first-gen and BIPOC students, and identifying ways to engage hard-to-reach populations in personal finance matters.

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2022: Luke Erickson
University of Idaho Extension

Mobile apps are widely accessible and potentially very powerful money management tools. Luke Erickson’s session “Money Ninja Warrior: An extension program designed to teach youth how to manage their money using apps on their smartphones and tablets” demonstrates how youth can improve their awareness, confidence, and ability to use mobile apps to successfully manage their finances. The theories behind program creation will be discussed along with strategies for local implementation, and program impacts.


2021: Amy Durrence and Hye Sun Kim
FreeFrom

Amy Durrence enthusiastically joined FreeFrom in January of 2019 and serves as the Director of Systems Change Initiatives. In her role, Amy leads FreeFrom’s work to advocate for the passage of survivor wealth-centered policies across the U.S. and to expand the ecosystem of support for survivors by making banks, employers, credit card companies, and others part of the solution to ending GBV in this country.

Hye Sun is a 1.5 generation Korean-American immigrant who found home in Southern California. She is committed to racial and social justice.  Hye Sun joined FreeFrom in March of 2021. In her role, Hye Sun develops and implements strategies to create collaborative systemic changes that are centered on survivors of gender-based violence.

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2020: Sasha Grabenstetter
University of Illinois Extension

Sasha Grabenstetter is a Consumer Economics Educator working for the University of Illinois Extension. Sasha’s programming focuses on financial well-being and helping consumers make good financial choices.

Sasha has co-authored on two different curricula including “Apple Seed – A Student Guide to Pro Bono Financial Planning” with Dr. Dottie Durband as well as “All My Money: Change for the Better” with her Consumer Economics colleagues at the University of Illinois Extension.

Sasha is currently a member of the Regional Advisory Committee with the University of Illinois Extension and a member of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE) Research to Practice Task Force. Previously Sasha had also been Chair for the AFCPE Symposium Task Force for five years.

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2019: Katherine Sauer
NEFE

As Vice President, Research and Programs for the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), Katherine Sauer’s responsibilities include philanthropic, research, evaluation and education initiatives of the foundation. Sauer brings over a decade of expert economic literacy experience from teaching, conducting and overseeing research, developing and implementing projects, and managing programs.

Katie won for “Helping Adult Learners Understand What Drives Their Financial Decisions”. The session introduced attendees to the LifeValues Quiz and explaining the 4 inner values that drive financial behaviors and teaching how to utilize this resource with adult learners.

Katie generously donated the monetary portion of the award to the AFCPE Strategic Impact Fund.

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2018: Lucia Reed and George Reuter
Compass Working Capital

Lucia Reed and George Reuter of Compass Working Capital won for “Delivering Financial Counseling to Families with Low Incomes through the Federal Government’s Largest Wealth-Building Program for Families with Low Incomes.”

Their presentation explores the organization’s model for the FSS program, the tools and practices that the organization has developed to provide financial counseling to families with low incomes, its partnerships with housing providers, and the process of engaging an outside evaluation partner to conduct a rigorous program evaluation to measure the impact of this type of program.

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2017: Carmina Lass
Credit Builders Alliance

As the Director of Training and Consulting, Carmina Lass leads the development, marketing, coordination and delivery of CBA’s education, training and consulting services. She also provides support to CBA’s Reporter and Access team creating innovative and entrepreneurial services to meet CBA’s client and partner needs and carrying out CBA’s mission. Carmina has over seven years of experience as a non-profit practitioner through which she focused on economic empowerment, financial capability, and lending among low-income and underserved communities. Most recently, Carmina was the Director of Homeowner Services at Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity in Colorado Springs, CO. Carmina has a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University where she concentrated on intercultural conflict resolution, dialogue and reconciliation among divided communities, and microfinance strategies for poverty alleviation.

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2016: Dr. Barbara O'Neill

Dr. Barbara O’Neill is a Distinguished Professor at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and is Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s Extension Specialist in Financial Resource Management. She is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC®), Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®), Certified Housing Counselor (CHC®), and Certified in Family and Consumer Sciences (CFCS®). Dr. O’Neill has held various leadership roles in state and national professional associations and served as Board President of the AFCPE in 2003. She is the author of two trade books, Saving on a Shoestring and Investing on a Shoestring, and co-author of Money Talk: A Financial Guide for Women. She has also written three financial case study textbooks, an online Guidebook to Help Late Savers Prepare for Retirement, and six book chapters. Dr. O’Neill received her Ph.D. in family financial management in 1995 from Virginia Tech and holds a master’s degree in consumer economics from Cornell University and a B.S. in home economics education from the State University of New York at Oneonta.

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