Named Lectures Speakers

Linda Golodner

Colston Warne Lecture 2016

Linda Golodner has dedicated her professional career advocating for consumer rights in healthcare, food and product safety focusing her work on corporate social responsibility, fair labor standards, and ethical behavior in the marketplace. Formerly President and CEO of the National Consumers League from 1985 to 2007 she is now the Principal of Consumer Initiatives, advising and consulting with government, nonprofit, and for profit organizations on consumer issues. Golodner received the American Pharmacists Association’s Hugo H. Schaefer Award.  The Food and Drug Administration gave her its highest public honor, the FDA Commissioners Special Citation. She was also honored by the United Nations Association/NCA for her work in human rights, and ANSI gave her its meritorious service award. The National Consumers League presented her with its Trumpeter Award for her years of consumer advocacy and education of consumers in the United States and abroad. NCL also provides a fellowship in her name for her work in nutrition and food safety. Previously, Golodner worked for the U. S. House of Representatives for former Congressman James G. O’Hara of Michigan. Golodner was commissioner and chair of the Fairfax County (VA) Commission for Women. She graduated from the University of Maryland summa cum laude in 1975. Read more HERE.

Rhoda H. Karpatkin

Esther Peterson Policy Forum

Rhoda H. Karpatkin is President Emeritus of Consumers Union of United States, Inc., the non-profit product-testing and consumer advisory organization that publishes Consumer Reports Magazine and Consumer Reports Online.

Before joining Consumers Union in 1974, Ms. Karpatkin was a lawyer specializing in consumer and education law. Under her leadership, CU built its National Testing and Research Center in Yonkers, NY, creating 50 state-of-the-art product-testing laboratories, and its auto test track in Connecticut, greatly expanding the amount of information provided to consumers.

In the 27 years of her presidency, CU’s advocacy on consumer issues expanded in Washington DC and grew in many directions, with new advocacy offices in California and Texas, and a policy research institute in Yonkers. CU also expanded its advocacy on safety, health and trade issues, and on issues affecting low and moderate income consumers. Ms. Karpatkin served two terms as President of Consumers International, an independent organization linking more than 220 member organizations in more than 100 countries.

Currently, Ms. Karpatkin serves on the Steering Committee of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, a consortium of consumer organizations in the US and European Union, formed to provide input to the two governments on trade and consumer policy, and on the US Government Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Board of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger in New York City, and on the Public Stakeholders Committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Division and the Community Advisory Board of public television stations WNET/Thirteen/WLIW.

Ms. Karpatkin received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University in 1998, the Alumna of the Year Award from the Brooklyn College Alumni Association in 1996, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 from The American Lawyer. She is a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School.

Vera Rita de Mello Ferreira

Rhoda Karpatkin Consumer International Award Lecture 2016

Dr. Ferreira has been working as a public policy consultant and teacher in economic psychology and financial education, specializing in the areas of economic behavior, decision-making and choice architecture. Her background is in psychology [originally psychoanalysis], and she holds a doctorate in Social Psychology, with a dissertation on economic psychology. Work assignments have included the Brazilian National Strategy for Financial Education, the Central Bank of Brazil, the World Bank, the British Embassy among other institutions. Since the mid-1990’s, her concentration has been on introducing economic psychology and its potential applications in the country, and for the past few years, She has been bringing behavioural issues into the debate around financial capability both in Brazil and abroad. Publications include the first books on economic psychology in Brazil. Currently, she is a member of NEC, the Behavioral Studies Centre, at CVM-the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil and of INFE-International Network for Financial Education Research Committee at OECD-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.