2011 - 2012 Board of Directors

Teresa Mauldin, President

Dr. Teresa A. Mauldin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Housing and Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia. She has been a member of the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) for over 30 years. During those years she has served on its Board of Directors twice, from 1993 to 1995 and from 2007 to 2010. Most recently she was the Board liaison for Awards.

In addition, Dr. Mauldin has served on many ACCI committees, including the Nominations Committee, AARP's Public Policy Institute Financial Services and Older Consumer Award Committee, the International Consumer Affairs Committee, and the Dissertation and Master's Thesis Awards Committees. She was editor of the Consumer Interest Annual in 1993 and 1994, served as a reviewer for the Journal of Consumer Affairs and is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Dr. Mauldin teaches in the areas of family and consumer economics. Most of her current research focuses on savings behavior of low and moderate income households.

She graduated with a B.S. and M.Ed. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and earned her Ph.D. in Family Resource Management at The Ohio State University in 1985. Prior to earning her Ph.D. she taught at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland.

Debby Haynes, President-Elect

Debby Haynes is an Associate Professor of Consumer Economics at Montana State University. She is also a faculty member in the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance, Family Financial Planning master's program.

Dr. Haynes graduated from Cornell University with a Ph.D. in Consumer Economics. She also holds an M.S. in Family Resource Management from the University of Nebraska--Lincoln and a B.A. in Home Economics Education from the University of Montana.

She has been an ACCI member for over thirty years and is also a member of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, and American Association of University Women.

Michael Finke, Past-President

Cynthia Jasper, Secretary - Treasurer

John Burton, Board Member

Elizabeth Dolan, Board Member

Margaret Fitzgerald, Board Member

Margaret Fitzgerald is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at North Dakota State University. She received her Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1997. Dr. Fitzgerald teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in financial planning and public policy and is also a faculty representative to the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (Great Plains IDEA). She teaches and advises graduate students in the on-line Great Plains IDEA graduate programs in Family Financial Planning and Gerontology and was named a Great Plains IDEA Faculty Fellow in 2011.

Dr. Fitzgerald is a member of the Family Business Research Group (NE-167/NC-1030 regional research projects) and has been studying family businesses for the past several years. Her research interests include copreneurs, or husbands and wives who own and operate businesses together, gender and management issues, business social responsibility and community vitality. Dr. Fitzgerald has published in journals such as the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Family Business Review, the Journal of Small Business Management, Marriage and Family Review, and the Journal of Applied Gerontology. In addition to ACCI, she is a member of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, the Financial Therapy Association, the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and the International Family Enterprise Research Academy. She is the Board Liaison for awards for ACCI and also serves on the Board of Directors for the Prairie Family Business Association.

Sandra Huston, Board Member

Member, Editorial Board for Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2010 to present; Member, Committee for ACCI Applied Economics Award, 2010. Best Paper Award, Academy of Financial Services, 2009. Board Member, Coalition of Community Assistance Volunteers, Inc. - Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, Lubbock, TX, 2008-present. Thesis Award Committee Chair, American Council on Consumer Interests, 2008-2009. Member Thesis Award Committee, American Council on Consumer Interests, 2006-2008. Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education Outstanding Journal Article Award, 2006. Conference Exhibits Chair, American Council on Consumer Interests, 2004-2006. Certified Financial Planning Board's American Council on Consumer Interests' Financial Planning Paper Award Member, Faculty Council on College Policy Committee, University of Missouri, 2003-2005.

Hyungsoo Kim, Board Member

Hyungsoo Kim is Associate Professor of Family Studies at the University of Kentucky where he teaches Family Economics and Family Resource Management. He is also Affiliate Faculty, Graduate Center for Gerontology, College of Public Health, at the University of Kentucky. He received her B.S. in Food Science and Technology from Chungang University, Korea 1983 and his Ph.D. in Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics from Kyoto University, Japan in 2000 and joined University of Kentucky in 2002. He spent 2000-2002 at the University of Georgia as a Post-doctoral researcher, and Fall 2009 at Columbia University as a visiting scholar.

Kim's research focuses primarily on issues in financial security of older adults. His work has covered a wide range of topics including: retirement savings, chronic health conditions and dissaving, savings behaviors of low-income families, and self-regulation and savings. He is currently pursuing two lines of research. One is an investigation of the impact of health shocks on consumer debt and its direct and indirect effects through our of pocket medical expenses at mid-aged and older adults. The other line of study is on self-regulation and wealth accumulation.

Jinhee Kim, Board Member

Jinhee Kim is an Associate Professor and Family Finance Extension Specialist for University of Maryland Extension at College Park. She also teaches courses in personal and family finance. She received B.S. and M.S. from Seoul National University in Seoul Korea and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. The University of Maryland recently honored Kim with the George F. Kramer Outstanding Practitioner Award and Outstanding Faculty Woman of Color.

Prior to joining University of Maryland, she was director of research to Virginia Tech's National Institute for Personal Finance Employee Education and directed research and published articles in academic and professional journals on workplace financial education. While at Virginia Tech, she served as co-editor of the journal Personal Finances and Worker Productivity. Research from her doctoral dissertation won a national award for excellence from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. She has also provided the leadership for the Personal Finance Seminar for Professionals won the Outstanding Educational Program of the Year Award from the AFCPE.

She has published refereed journal articles in Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Research Report of Human Sciences, Journal of Compensation and Benefits, Financial Counseling and Planning, Journal of Consumer Education, Journal of National Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Compensation and Benefits Review, Journal of Personal Finance, and Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Kim is on the national boards of American Council on Consumer Interests, Jump$tart Coalition, and National Consumer League, and Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation. Her research interests are financial socialization, intergenerational transfer, financial well-being, and workplace financial education.

Irene Leech, Board Member

Irene E. Leech is an Associate Professor at Virginia Tech where she teaches in the Consumer Studies Program. Her students are active in the America Saves social marketing program. An involved consumer advocate, Irene works on pocketbook consumer issues in the regulatory and legislative environments at the state and federal levels. Recent areas of involvement include predatory lending, energy, telecommunications and food safety. She is currently president of the board of the Consumer Federation of America and is active on other boards including the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education.