Board of Directors

Rev. Ronald E. Braxton (left) welcomes (from left) CAAB's Linda Easley Stroman, Director of Financial Education, Maurita Coley, Executive Director and CAAB Board members, Diana Meyer, Te-Mika Warner, Julius Ware II, Latresa McLawhorn Ryan, Steve Pearlman, Kathyrn R. Clay and Nancy Register to Metropolitan AME Church. Citigroup's Diana Meyer presented CAAB with a $200,000 check at the church during The CAAB/Moneywise Financial Empowerment Tour on Nov. 5. (Photo by Mignonette E. Dooley)

Steven W. Pearlman

Steve Pearlman, President of the CAAB Board, is the Senior Director – Corporate Compliance for Freddie Mac. He is a lawyer and compliance professional with extensive experience in banking and borrower protection regulation. He has served on the Board of Directors of Shelter House and as a member of the Consumer Bankers Association’s Fair Lending Committee.

Te-Mika Warner

Te-Mika Warner, Vice President of the CAAB Board, is an Associate General Counsel on the policy team for the Administration's Making Home Affordable Program at Fannie Mae. Prior to her work with Fannie Mae, she was a corporate associate at Hogan & Hartson LLP, where she advised clients on general corporate governance matters and federal securities laws. She is a member of the Greater Washington Chapter of the National Bar Association, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development.

Nancy Register

Nancy Register, Treasurer of the CAAB Board, is the associate director of the Consumer Federation of America. She is the director of America Saves, a national social marketing campaign that encourages low- and moderate-income households to save money, reduce debt, and build wealth. In 2001, she was one of twenty community leaders honored with a community leadership award given by Levi Strauss and the Washington Post. She received the UPN 2000 Women of the Year Award and is a 1992 graduate of Leadership Washington. In addition to founding and serving on the board of Bright Beginnings—a developmental daycare center for children of homeless families in Washington, DC, she is the past-President of the District of Columbia Library Foundation Board.

Pamela Banks

Pamela Banks, Secretary of the CAAB Board, is the Senior Policy Counsel, Financial Services, for the Consumers Union, the non-profit that publishes the popular “Consumer Reports” magazine. She is experienced in government (Federal Home Loan Bank Board, U.S. Department of Treasury), on Capitol Hill (both House and Senate side, including the Senate Judiciary Committee) and in corporate America (Fannie Mae), managing a variety of financial services issues and advocating for consumer rights and protections. Her special areas of expertise include credit card reform, bankruptcy fraud, rent-to-own, payday lending, check cashing and overdraft protection legislation.

Kathryn R. Clay

Kathryn Clay, a native of Atlanta, Ga., has 33 years of commercial banking experience, 17 years of which has been spent in community development. In her current capacity as Vice President in the Greater Washington Area, Community Development Banking Division for PNC Bank, Kathryn is responsible for managing the Banks’ Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) service initiatives. This includes managing community and public/private partnerships such as those with area housing authorities, area “Bank On” initiatives, Community Development Corporations (CDC’s), area non profit organizations and faith based organizations.

During her banking career Kathryn has provided training and technical assistance on a variety of issues which impact individuals or communities. Kathryn serves the Greater Washington community directly via her service on various community non-profit boards including The Women’s Community Development Corporation, H Street Community Development Corporation, DC Promise Neighborhood Initiatives Capacity Building Task Force and the Affordable Housing Conference of Montgomery County.

Lee Davenport

Lee Davenport, Director of Strategic Initiatives, One Economy

Anna Flores

Anna Flores, is Vice President of Consumer and Community Affairs at American Express. In this capacity, she serves as an advisor to senior management on consumer policy issues. In addition, she oversees the development of consumer educational initiatives, and provides consultation to internal business units on product and service development. Ms. Flores is also the company’s primary liaison with national and state consumer advocates, public officials, and special interest groups.

Ms. Flores currently serves on the boards of directors of the National Consumers League, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, and Nueva Vida – A Support Group for Latinas with Cancer. She also serves as a member of the Leadership Development Program at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. She has also served as a past board member of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business, Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Greater Washington, the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women, and Hispanics in Philanthropy.

A native of Buffalo, New York, Ms. Flores received an undergraduate degree in communication from Canisius College. She currently resides in Maryland with her husband Daniel and their two sons.

Marcella Harshbarger

Marcella Harshbarger is a corporate attorney with a global telecommunications company. Her nonprofit experience includes credit counseling, teaching credit management classes, and Latino outreach. She has practiced corporate law with law firms in New York and Washington, DC, and is a member of the Duke University School of Law Young Alumni Board, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Hispanic Bar Association of DC, the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association, and the Society for Human Resource Management. Her practice includes corporate governance, employment law, data privacy law, and technology agreements.

Marcus Johnson

Marcus Johnson, With the commercial and Billboard chart success of his NAACP Image Award nominated CD, “Poetically Justified” (#4) in his rearview and having been included among the ranks of contemporary jazz greats such as Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride, and Vanessa Williams, for that nomination, Marcus Johnson released his 12th CD titled, “This is How I Rock”, on July 27th which reached No. 11 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz charts. This album boldly signifies an evolution: Johnson’s deliberate crossing into the pop/rock genre with a jazz spin, inspired by some of pop music’s most celebrated songs, songs that remained a significant influence in the life of the award-winning keyboardist, composer and producer and motivated his desire to pay tribute to some of the greatest pop hits.

With an MBA and JD from Georgetown University, Johnson’s educational background compliments his career success story as both an artist and entrepreneur which led him to establish Marimelj Entertainment Group comprising Three Keys Music and Studio 8121. Johnson recently teamed up with Tarara Winery to create the FLO…™ Wines Series, a private wine label under his new company, FLO…™ Brands, LLC.

E. Francisco Lopez

E. Francisco Lopez has led and executed civic, workforce, and economic development strategy, strengthen management and organizational capacity, and coordinate advocacy and policy development for more than 20 years both domestically and internationally. His core principle strengths are grounded in leading and introducing innovative and long-lasting approaches; improving management operations and outcomes; aligning and strengthening partnerships, and building capacity to produce successful outcomes in any setting.

A US Army veteran, Mr. López also spent time as consultant, legal counsel and advocate, a non profit leader, and as an advisor to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. Mr. López graduated from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell, and also pursued a joint Masters Program at the Cornell’s Johnson School of Management and Institute for Public Affairs. He later also received a JD from Howard University School of Law, and completed the Innovations in Economic Development Executive Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

He has also travelled and worked in the Latin American and Caribbean region, and has a passion for people, food, music, and soccer.

Latresa McLawhorn Ryan

Latresa McLawhorn Ryan, The McLawhorn Firm

Diana Meyer

Diana Meyer, State Director, Community Development, Citigroup

Karen Murrell

Karen Murrell is founder and president of Higher Heights Consulting and Training, a privately-held firm that works with the financial services industry to develop programs and products that improve the financial well-being of all Americans. Previously, Ms. Murrell served as a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, where she explored policy solutions to improve financial services and financial education, and held leadership positions at Fannie Mae, where she launched initiatives to increase homeownership for low- and middle-income Americans. Ms. Murrell is also co-author of You and Your Money: A No Stress Guide to Becoming Financially Fit.

Julius Ware II

Julius Ware II, Cleo's Brothers Electric