Alejandra Magaña Gamero
Co-Founder
Latinas Talk Dinero
Dr. Alejandra Magaña Gamero is a proud Mexicana, daughter of immigrants, and first-generation college student and entrepreneur. She is passionate about fostering positive change through community engagement. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of collaborating with diverse stakeholders, including nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and corporate entities, to develop and implement innovative community engagement and social impact strategies. Alejandra is currently an Institutional Engagement Manager for Excelencia in Education, the leading national non-profit advocating for Latino student success in higher education. In her free time you can find her hiking, camping, at the beach, or spending time with her dog Sporty.
Raylene Hernandez
Co-Founder
Latinas Talk Dinero
Raylene Hernandez was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a fierce advocate for the financial stability of BIPOC communities. She utilizes her Bachelor's degree in Public Health and Women's & Gender Studies as a lens to critically think about strategies to increase community members' ability to build wealth. Raylene is specifically invested in financial stability as a tool to combat domestic violence within our communities. Raylene is currently the Director of Resource Development and Strategy at Somos Mayfair, an organization that supports children, organizes families and connects neighbors to uplift the dreams, power, and leadership of the community and address systemic inequities. She also is getting her Master's degree in Organizational Development at the University of San Francisco.
Melissa Lambarena
Senior Writer
NerdWallet
Melissa Lambarena is a Senior Writer on the credit cards team at NerdWallet. She has enthusiastically covered credit card-related topics for over seven years. Her prior experience includes nine years as a content creator for several publications and websites. Through her work, she aims to help readers extract value from credit cards to meet financial goals like stretching their budget, building credit, traveling to dream destinations, and paying off debt. She explores these topics in the Millennial Money column featured in The Associated Press. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Yahoo Finance, among others. Melissa has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Mallory Russell
Health Education Generalist
UCSB Department of Health & Wellness
Mallory Russell is one of the advisors for the Food, Nutrition, and Basic Skills Program with the Department of Health and Wellness. She majored in Landscape Architecture and loves to learn new ways of connecting to nature. She has worked in a variety of culinary worlds: educational farms, catering, school gardens, commercial kitchens, health clinics, and teaching pop up cooking classes. These experiences drove home the power of food in identity, healing, and community. In her freetime she can be found outside, searching for the best breakfast burrito, gardening, and hanging with her two little nieces.
Gianna Zeno
Undergraduate Student
UC Santa Barbara
Gianna Zeno is a third year Biological Sciences major and a Food, Nutrition and Basic Skills Intern with the Department of Health and Wellness. She values promoting sustainable eating and lifestyles through education and peer involvement. In her free time, she enjoys getting outside and celebrating culture through cuisine!
Joyce Marter
Principal
Joyce Marter Enterprises, Inc.
Joyce Marter is a licensed psychotherapist, entrepeneur, global keynote speaker, and internationally published author. She founded, built, and successfully sold a multi-million-dollar mental health comapny. She is a contributor to Psychology Today, MoneyGeek, Choosing Therapy, and more. She is the author of The Financial Mindset Fix: A Mental Fitness Program for an Abundant Life, which has been published in four languages and received eight book awards. She is renown globally as a mental health thought leader, specializing in the psychology of money and cultivating holistic success.
Christina Nguyen
Career Counselor & Coordinator
UCSB Career Services
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ucsb-career-services/
Christina Nguyen is a Career Counselor and Coordinator at UCSB Career Services. She's a first-generation Vietnamese American woman who is the proud duaghter of immigrant parents. Christina completed her Master's degree in Counseling and works to create equity and awareness of resources for the students here at UCSB. She's been at UCSB for nearly four years, and primarily works with students headed toward STEM career paths. Christina enjoys working with all UCSB students as they navigate careers during and after college, particularly when it comes to helping first-generation students.
David and John Auten-Schneider
Founders
The Debt Free Guys
David and John Auten-Schneider are The Debt Free Guys and hosts of the Queer Money® podcast. They help queer people (and allies) live fabulously --- not fabulously broke. They were the first LGBTQ+ personal finance contributors to Forbes and their work has appeared in Yahoo! Finance, CNBC, Good Morning America, and more. They’ve partnered with some of the biggest companies, from Capital One to Orbitz, worked with some of the leading LGBTQ+ non-profits, from The Trevor Project to Out & Equal, and have spoken for employee and business resource groups, from Prudential to Verizon. Most recently, they’re the co-authors of two LGBTQ+ money studies conducted in partnership with The Motley Fool.
Giovanna Gonzalez
Founder & CEO
The First Gen Mentor
Giovanna "Gigi" Gonzalez is a TikTok influencer, financial educator, and author of the bestselling book Cultura and Cash. During the Great Resignation, she quit her 10-year corporate career to pursue her true passion: teaching financial literacy to young adults.
Gigi teaches personal finance and career navigation for First Gen at various organizations and on her TikTok account @thefirstgenmentor. She was named "40 Under 40" by the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement, "Latinx to Watch" by Hispanic Executive Magazine, and Top 25 Creator by Fast Company.
Dan Sheeks
Founder
SheeksFreaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-sheeks-0ab489106?trk=public_post_feed-actor-name
Dan Sheeks is the author of the new book, First to a Million: A Teenager’s Guide to Achieving Early Financial Freedom, and the accompanying workbook, published by BiggerPockets. Tailored toward the Gen Z demographic, Sheeks works toward introducing them to early financial freedom strategies, concepts, and mindsets so they can live their best lives as young adults.
In addition to being a published author, Dan has been a high school business teacher for twenty years, as well as a personal finance advocate, an early financial freedom achiever, and a real estate investor. Based in Denver, Colorado, Dan has been a guest on well over fifty podcasts and is considered by many as the quintessential expert on early financial freedom education for Gen Z.
Dan launched SheeksFreaks in late 2019, an app-based community dedicated to helping young people learn money management skills, start investing in real estate, and pursue early financial independence. The SheeksFreaks community aims to help Gen Z use specific methods of saving, earning extra income, and investing to set them on track to achieve financial independence at a young age.
Dan and his wife have a variety of real estate investments, including multi-family, single-family, short-term rentals, and out-of-state “Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat” (BRRR) properties. They currently have seventeen units in Colorado and Michigan.
