About Us

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job.  Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

Jessica has an undergraduate degree in finance, spent four years teaching math at a Brooklyn public high school, loves scouring the internet for interesting things to learn, and has a real soft spot for spreadsheets: It's as though this position at NGPF was created just for her. A graduate of Bank Street College of Education, she considers learning personal finance to be a matter of social justice and views the work perpetually through that lens. Having spent the previous six years as a school leader, Jessica misses the daily interaction with teachers but is glad she no longer has to monitor hallways.

After graduating with a statistics major at UC Davis, Abby set off to Massachusetts to teach algebra 1 and geometry and enjoyed working with the curious and creative minds of high school students. She is passionate about helping students recognize and develop their strengths and leadership skills. She was instrumental in taking the high school cheer team to regional competitions, as well as elevating school spirit and pride through creating unity amongst the study body and educators. Back in the Bay Area, Abby is excited to work with other educators to build and share content to enhance the teaching experience in applied math and finance.

Amanda joins the NGPF Team with 18 years of experience teaching personal finance. During that time, she led her students to hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships, won multiple awards, and most importantly, impacted the financial lives of thousands of high school students. Amanda prides herself on being an educational leader and is constantly looking for innovative ways to make the classroom relevant, rigorous, and fun. She is a passionate advocate for financial education and has been a long time member of the NGPF community. Fun fact - Amanda was NGPF’s first teacher account! When Amanda isn’t working, she enjoys cooking, gardening, and traveling with her husband and two children.

Making a difference in the lives of students through financial capability is Brian’s greatest passion. He comes to NGPF after fifteen years of public school teaching where he was the ‘11 Ohio Department of Education recipient of a Milken National Educator Award, the CEE Forbes Award winner, and a Money Magazine/CNN "Money Hero". He served on the working group for President Obama's Advisory Council on Financial Capability. He has private school experience as a Trustee for the Cincinnati Country Day School and was a past Ohio Jump$tart President. Brian holds a BBA and M.Ed. When Brian isn’t working alongside his NGPF teammates he is likely spending time with his wife, three children, and dog; hiking, or watching Ohio State football.

Christian comes to NGPF from the world of classroom instruction, where he was a teacher for three years at a public middle school in El Sobrante, California. After leaving the classroom, he joined math tutoring company, Zeal Learning, to help grow their educator-facing sales and marketing efforts. He's no stranger to making a dollar stretch - while living in the Bay Area on his teacher salary he paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years. He's thrilled to share those lessons with teachers and students around the U.S.

After ten years in New York at a design agency, Ellie made the move to San Francisco to make more of a social impact with her design skills. Since then, she’s been the principal designer at two national nonprofits and, after completing the mission at EducationSuperHighway, she found NGPF to make it her third. When she’s not designing, you can find her illustrating the funny things her daughter says, baking (mostly bread), or creating bespoke infusions for cocktails.

Prior to joining NGPF, Eugenie tackled numerous administrative, compliance and operational responsibilities at Blue Danube Wines, a bay area wine importer and distributor. Born and raised in Paris, France, Eugenie majored in Japanese studies and lived in Japan before moving to the U.S. to raise her family. She is the mother of three daughters, and lives in Palo Alto. Having witnessed, first-hand, the deficiencies of the current curricula to prepare kids to deal with financial responsibilities, she wishes her kid had access to the NGPF program. She’s proud to help make personal finance stress-free for future generations. During her off time, you can find her hitting the trails and backpacking with friends, playing pickleball, or attending lectures on the Stanford campus.

After graduating with an education degree and spending 7 years in an elementary classroom, Laura made the switch to the non-profit world and loves interacting with students, educators and business professionals across the country.   She is passionate about all students having access to high quality education and views personal finance education as one way to ‘level the playing field’. When Laura is not locating or creating high quality educational resources, you can find her mountain biking or searching for the best ramen in town!

After graduating from UCLA with a Master's in Education, Mason spent 5 years as a science educator in a South Los Angeles public high school. He is committed to supporting the holistic growth of all students and empowering them to live a life of relational, academic, and financial success. Now settled in the Bay Area, Mason enjoys facilitating professional developments and partnering with educators as they prepare students for a bright financial future. When Mason is not building curriculum or planning a training, he can be found cycling, trying new foods, and exploring the outdoors.

Ren has been working part-time at NGPF since 2014, interning through high school and college. With his knowledge growing alongside NGPF, after graduating from college in 2020, he joined the team to work full time with a focus on teacher onboarding. He is also the editor of the NGPF podcast and makes sure it is accessible to teachers on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play Music. During his free time he likes to try out coffees from different roasters across the world and try out new brewing methods, even though personal finance gurus tend to caution against buying a cup of joe.

Rita has gained a lot of experience wearing many hats from working in various industries (web design, commercial real estate, mobile electronic accessories). She enjoys the challenge of organizing chaos and simplifying complex problems. Some of Rita's hobbies include travel, baking, photography, volleyball, and fitting square pegs into round holes.

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!

After graduating from the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications in 2011, a documentary internship on master teachers led Tori into education.  She taught English Language Arts for five years receiving high test results and accolades like Teacher of the Year. In 2017, Tori left the classroom and moved to the Bay Area to focus on helping school districts utilize technology to improve classroom instruction. While training educators on how to use learning management systems and educational software Tori discovered a passion for facilitating professional developments. This passion led her to Next Gen Personal Finance where she is excited to help spread financial literacy to teachers and students all over the country.

Born and raised by Dominican, immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Yanely is a proud product of NYC public schools. She graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in 2007 before going on to receive her bachelor's degree at Brown University in 2011. As a Teach For America corps member, Yanely taught third and fourth grade in Canarsie, Brooklyn. She received her master's degree from Relay Graduate School of Education in 2013. In her spare time, she posts videos about personal finance on her YouTube channel, MissBeHelpful. Yanely also loves to listen to audio books and podcasts, dance, sew, paint, and babysit her 8 nieces and nephews!

After graduating from Homestead High School, Ansh is now attending UC Santa Barbara. He loves going on walks and playing video games. He learned briefly about personal finance through his Principles of Business class and now and wants to make sure other students learn even more than he did!

Melody is attending Homestead High School and has lots of experience teaching others. She's always loved kids and is working to study education in college. She has been in student council for the past 3 years, and uses her leadership experience to help the team (and learn some personal finance strategies along the way)! During her free time, she likes to hang out with her friends, listen to music, and snuggle with her cats.