A tribute to The work of CFPB

Written By Amy Heymans

Helping to inspire financial hope and improve financial wellbeing have been a passion of mine ever since we decided to put a focus on it at Mad*Pow. Not only is it a social determinant of health, but financial literacy, financial behaviors and financial choices can affect the trajectory of a person's life, from where they live, to home ownership, to employment, to parenting, to retirement, to accomplishing their goals and living out their dreams. With over half of American's not being able to afford a $400 emergency, to inflation, high interest rates, and the high cost of home ownership, many people struggle to make ends meet and can find themselves in a financial crisis.

A young family friend recently found himself in a financial crisis. He had a lapse in employment so his car got taken back and auctioned. He then owed the dealership the difference between the loan and what he got at auction. That combined with an ambulance bill put him on the brink of bankruptcy. I gave him some advice on how to handle the situation, including to check out resources at http://www.cfpb.gov.

Mad*Pow did some great work for CFPB.gov and so I am familiar with their offering. We designed a tool to teach personal finance concepts to new military recruits so that they wouldn't fall prey to the predatory lending practices that occur at car dealerships near military bases, for example. The previous financial training was a bit boring and could lead to the material not being fully digested, so we turned it into a video game style interaction where their player would seek to avoid financial disaster and build wealth, building their financial literacy along the way.

When I found out the CFPB site was down and they were asked to stop all of their work, as the next victim of governmental chaos, I found myself sobbing. I believe in this government resource to help American's gain valuable knowledge and fight back against being taken advantage of by large corporations, credit bureau inaccuracies. To be sure the organization is not perfect, as no org is, but what are folks going to be left with? What organization will fill this necessary role?

Amy Heymans

Amy is a humanity-centered strategist who believes purpose driven and participatory design methods can guide us to envision and enact transformational change. As the founder and CEO of Beneficent, she focuses her passion for whole health, financial wellbeing, social impact, and sustainability to help organizations to clarify their purpose, craft a bold vision, and transform their organization in the direction of that vision. Amy is a big believer in learning and the power of community and networks to drive change and so is dedicated to life-long learning, teaching, inspiring people through events, connecting people through collaborations and sharing her inspirational message of designing a better world.

Most recently, Amy served as Chief Design officer of United Healthcare, where she lead of team of 100 to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. Before joining United Healthcare, she co-founded Mad*Pow in 2002 and nurtured its growth for 20 years to become a leading global strategic design consultancy focused on delivering positive social impact and business outcomes. At Mad*Pow Amy served as Chief Experience Officer, executive board member and head of growth. Her board leadership includes her contribution to An Orphan’s Dream as Vice President of the board.

Her work empowering human-centered innovation with companies across the health and finance ecosystem has helped improve the experiences they deliver both inside and outside of the organization. She founded Mad*Pow's Health Experience Design Conference in 2011 with the vision of connecting a community to discuss important topics and inspiring motivation in the direction of positive change. The Center for Health Experience Design that Amy founded in 2016 served as a continuation of that objective in forging partnerships between large organizations with shared objectives and crowdsourcing innovation in exciting possibility areas.

Amy was honored to be named one of Mass High Tech's Women to watch in 2009, BBJ and MedTechBoston “40 Under 40” in 2014, PharmaVoice Magazine's "100 Most Inspiring People" in 2018, and as an "Outstanding Woman in Business" by NHBR in 2022. As a speaker, Amy shares her vision at conferences around the world and she serves as an assistant professor in Massachusetts College of Art's Masters Program for Design and Innovation Leadership.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyheymans
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