Joanna Smith-Ramani is the Associate Director at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program and Director of the Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), a neutral, first-of-its-kind initiative in the field of consumer finance designed to accelerate knowledge synthesis and problem solving among a wide cross section of experts from applied, academic, government, and industry settings working on critical dimensions of financial security. Joanna possesses over 15 years of community development, community development finance, and personal finance/asset development experience. Prior to joining FSP, Joanna served as Senior Innovation Director at the D2D Fund, leading the unit that designs, tests, and evaluates promising financial service innovations. In her role there, she developed innovations to improve savings and financial capability including: Prize-linked Savings, Tax Time Savings, Gamification, Emergency Savings, and Youth Savings. Additionally, Joanna has led national and state legislative campaigns, resulting in the passage of a federal law and over 10 state laws expanding a savings innovation. She has been quoted in a variety of national and local media outlets including the New York Times, National Public Radio, and Fox Cable News.
