Michael Liersch is head of Advice and Planning for Wealth and Investment Management, which is responsible for developing and propagating research-based methods to help advisors and clients most productively collaborate around their money decisions.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Michael worked at JPMorgan Chase where he served as managing director and global head of Wealth Planning and Advice. Prior to his role at JPMorgan Chase, he served as head of Behavioral Finance and Goals-based Consulting at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, and as head of Behavioral Finance at Barclays Wealth, Americas. He was also a faculty member at New York University, where he taught management and organizational analysis.

Michael earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with honors from Harvard University and earned his doctorate in Cognitive Psychology from University of California, San Diego. His perspectives have been featured in media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg and USA Today. Michael is also published in academic and industry journals for his research on human behavior.

Michael resides in Connecticut with his wife and daughter where they enjoy time with family and friends.

Julie Rovner is Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News and host of the all-women panelist podcast, KHN’s “What the Health?”

Prior to joining KHN in 2014, she spent 15 years as health policy correspondent for NPR, specializing in the politics of health care. Rovner served as NPR's lead correspondent covering the passage and implementation of the 2010 health overhaul bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

A noted expert on health policy issues, Rovner is the author of a critically-praised reference book Health Care Politics and Policy A-Z. Rovner is also co-author of the book Managed Care Strategies 1997, and has contributed to several other books, including two chapters in Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, edited by political scientists Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann.

In 2005, Rovner was awarded the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress for her coverage of the passage of the Medicare prescription drug law and its aftermath.

Rovner has appeared on television on the PBS NewsHour, CNN, C-Span, MSNBC, and NBC Nightly News. Her articles have appeared in dozens of national newspapers and magazines.

Prior to NPR, Rovner covered health for National Journal’s CongressDaily and before that for the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, specializing in health care financing, abortion, welfare, and disability issues. She has been a regular contributor to the British medical journal The Lancet, and her columns on patients' rights for the magazine Business and Health won her a share of the 1999 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.

Rovner has a degree in political science from University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

As the Managing Editor of Next Avenue and the editor of its Money and Work & Purpose channels, Eisenberg, also a frequent blogger for the site, aims to help people manage their personal finances, find jobs, switch fields, volunteer and find purpose in their lives.

“Whether geared toward our readers, their older parents or their millennial children, I’m interested in trends, new laws and new programs, preferring to cover them in a holistic way,” says Eisenberg.

A graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Eisenberg has been working in the spheres of work and personal finance for decades. His first job out of college was as a fact-checker with Money magazine. Eisenberg made his way up the ranks, eventually being named executive editor. He remained at Money for 19 years, went on to become the money and special projects editor at Good Housekeeping and then the front-page finance editor for Yahoo!

The author of two books: How to Avoid a Midlife Financial Crisis and The Money Book of Personal Finance, Eisenberg is an avid reader with interests ranging from novels to nonfiction.

Eisenberg and his wife, Liz Sporkin, live in New Jersey and are parents to two talented sons; Aaron, 31, a screenwriter, actor and comedian, and Will, 29, a director and screenwriter. The pair, who live in Los Angeles, are screenwriting partners.

With a goal of encouraging Next Avenue readers to find their purpose, Eisenberg has clearly discovered his own.

“I’ve never been interested in stories about making rich people richer,” he says. “I like to find ways to help people manage their money and make their careers better. And I want to help them be happier.”

Ina Jaffe is a veteran NPR correspondent covering the aging of America. Her stories on Morning Edition and All Things Considered have focused on older adults' involvement in politics and elections, dating and divorce, work and retirement, fashion and sports, as well as issues affecting long term care and end of life choices. In 2015, she was named one of the nation's top "Influencers in Aging" by PBS publication Next Avenue, which wrote "Jaffe has reinvented reporting on aging."

Jaffe also reports on politics, contributing to NPR's coverage of national elections since 2008. From her base at NPR's production center in Culver City, California, Jaffe has covered most of the region's major news events, from the beating of Rodney King to the election of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She's also developed award-winning enterprise pieces. Her 2012 investigation into how the West Los Angeles VA made millions from illegally renting vacant property while ignoring plans to house homeless veterans won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists as well as a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media. A few months after the story aired, the West Los Angeles VA broke ground on supportive housing for homeless vets.

Her year-long coverage on the rising violence in California's public psychiatric hospitals won the 2011 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award as well as a Gracie Award. Her 2010 series on California's tough three strikes law was honored by the American Bar Association with the Silver Gavel Award, as well as by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Jaffe was the first editor of Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, which made its debut in 1985.

Born in Chicago, Jaffe attended the University of Wisconsin and DePaul University, receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy, respectively.

Ryan Lufkin is the Senior Director of Product Marketing for Canvas in Higher Education at Instructure. Ryan has been working with colleges and universities in the educational technology space for over 20 years, beginning with Utah-based start-up Campus Pipeline, the first html portal for higher education. He has worked for large ERP solutions like SungardHE and Ellucian helping evolve those systems to the Cloud, driven mobile adoption in teaching and learning technology, and developed curriculum for both corporate and higher education institutions. Ryan has helped lead Canvas’ evolution from an LMS to a full learning management platform to support the challenges facing colleges and universities of all sizes.

Mitchell is an Associate Professor of Education at Stanford, where he serves as Faculty Chair of the Education Enterprise initiative. An expert on the organization and politics of academic evaluation, he is the author of Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites. With Stanford’s Mike Kirst, he developed a robust research program on the organizational ecology of higher education in the US, represented in such publications as Remaking College: The Changing Ecology of Higher Education, & “Research Universities and the Future of Work.” He oversaw development of a first-in-the world protocol for the free and open sharing of learner data produced in digitally mediated instructional environments. He also assembled serial international convenings regarding the ethical use of educational data through the project “Responsible Use of Student Data in Higher Education.” He is Co-Director of the Carta Lab, which develops a systematic science of academic consideration & choice.

Steve Cole is a genomics researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  His research utilizes molecular genetics and computational bioinformatics to analyze the pathways by which social and environmental factors influence the activity of the human genome, as well as viral and tumor genomes.  He pioneered the field of human social genomics.  Dr. Cole is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.  He is also a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Norman Cousins Center, the UCLA AIDS Institute, and the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute.  Cole collaborates with >400 other scientists worldwide through his role as Director of the UCLA Social Genomics Core Laboratory.

Thomas Rando is Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford where he is the Director of the Glenn Laboratories for the Biology of Aging. He is also Chief of Neurology and Director of the Rehabilitation Research & Development Center of Excellence at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. He is a founding director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at the Stanford Medical Center. Research in the Rando laboratory  focuses on tissue-specific stem cells in aging and disease, and on pathogenetic mechanisms and gene therapy for muscular dystrophies. His research on aging has demonstrated that it is possible to identify biochemical stimuli that can induce stem cells in old tissues to repair injuries as effectively as in young tissues, and this work has broad implications for the fields of regenerative medicine and stem cell transplantation.

He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Neurological Association. He is a former Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar in Aging awarded by the American Federation for Aging Research and a former Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Aging. In 2005, he received an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for his groundbreaking research in stem cell biology. He received a BA from Harvard College, MD from Harvard Medical School and PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University.

Dr. John Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Previously, from 2000 until his retirement in late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations. Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1988 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Rowe was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. Dr. Rowe has received many honors and awards for his research and health policy efforts regarding care of the elderly. Currently, Dr. Rowe leads the MacArthur Foundation’s Network on An Aging Society.

Dr. Rowe is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He. served on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Chair of the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School and the Board of Trustees at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Dr. Rowe is a former Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

Börsch-Supan holds a diploma in mathematics from Bonn, Germany, and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T. He was Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University 1984-1989, then Professor for Macroeconomics and Public Policy at Mannheim University.Since 2011, he directs the Munich Center for the Economic of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy in Munich and holds a professorship at the Technical University of Munich.

He leads the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), is member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg and the Austrian Academy of Sciences; and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. His policy consulting includes: Council of Advisors to the German Economics Ministry (chair 2004-08), two German Pension Reform Commissions, ministries in Germany, other governments in EU, EU Commission, OECD, and World Bank.

Marc Freedman is President and CEO of Encore.org.  He is the author of five books, including most recently, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the enerations—#1 on the Wall Street Journal’s list of best books on aging well for 2018.  Freedman was named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation and the World Economic Forum.  He co- founded Experience Corps to mobilize people over 50 to improve the prospects of low-income elementary school students, and the Purpose Prize, an annual award for social innovators in the second half of life.  A former visiting fellow at Stanford University, King’s College, London, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, he holds an MBA from Yale University.  He lives with his wife and three children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Twitter: @marc_freedman

Scott Frisch is executive vice president and chief operating officer for AARP. He is responsible for all enterprise-wide operational and financial matters including human resources, information technology, real estate and facilities management as well as data and analytics performance management.

Since his appointment as COO, Scott has helped guide AARP through a period of dynamic change, reengineering the operational functions of the organization to maximize efficiencies and increase operating reserves.  He established a $40 million investment fund that spurs innovation in health and wellness as well as a $60 million investment vehicle to accelerate research into cures for all types of dementia including Alzheimer’s.  Scott oversaw the comprehensive renovation of AARP’s 500,000 square foot national office headquarters in Washington, DC to provide the latest in technology and environmentally-friendly and innovative workspace. He is widely respected at all levels of the organization for his acute business acumen and fiscal discipline.

Prior to his appointment as COO, Scott served as senior vice president and chief financial officer for AARP Services, Inc. (ASI), the for-profit subsidiary of AARP. He provided strategic guidance and expertise in all areas of ASI’s financial management.  He had previously served as chief financial officer and treasurer at AARP Financial, Inc.

Prior to joining the AARP enterprise, Scott held a variety of management positions at Columbia Management Group, NATIXIS Asset Management Services, Inc., Putnam Investments and KPMG.

Scott graduated from Villanova University. He is a certified public accountant and previously held Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Series 6 and 63 licenses. Scott is a Board member on the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Treasurer and Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee of the Downtown DC Business Improvement Council and is on the Board of Advisors of CBC Realty Investments, LLC.  He also sits on the Wall Street Journal CFO Network, the Executive Committee of the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging Business Council, and is a Malcom Baldrige Executive Fellow.

Lisa Banes is an American actress. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1984 for Isn't it Romantic? and won a 1981 Theatre World Award for her performance as Alison Porter Off-Broadway in Look Back in Anger. In film, she has appeared in Cocktail (1988), Freedom Writers (2007), and Gone Girl (2014). She’s also appeared in the 2016 film A Cure for Wellness as the character Hollis.

Banes is an alumnus of The Acting Company and a graduate of Juilliard.

Ken Stern is the chair of the Longevity Project. He also leads the creative and business teams at Palisades Media Ventures, focusing on creating new and innovative programming for digital platforms and television.

Stern is the author of “With Charities For All: Why Charities Are Failing and A Better Way to Give” (Doubleday 2013).  He is also a frequent contributor to publications such as The Atlantic, Slate, the Daily Beast, the Washington Post and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Prior to launching Palisades, Stern was the CEO of National Public Radio. During his tenure, NPR’s radio audience more than doubled, from under 13 million weekly listeners to more than 26 million weekly listeners. Revenues during his nine years at NPR grew from $75 million to $210 million. Stern also launched NPR’s world class digital efforts which included two satellite channels, its mobile and podcast services, NPR Music and oversaw the successful expansion of NPR.org. During a period of significant retrenchment and downsizing at major news outlet, Stern led the dramatic expansion of NPR News, both domestically and abroad, and its evolution as a key daily news source to tens of millions of people.

Prior to joining NPR, Stern was a senior executive in American International Broadcasting. Earlier in his career, he held positions in Democratic politics. He began his media career with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich. Stern, a lawyer by training, holds degrees from Haverford College and Yale Law School. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife Beth Cooper and their son Nate.

Andrew Scott is Professor of Economics at London Business School and a consulting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity.

His research, writing and talks focus on the macro trends that shape the global environment. His special focus is on longevity and ageing and how individuals, corporates and governments need to adapt to seize the opportunities of long and healthier lives.

Andrew’s 2016 book “The 100 Year Life” on this theme became an award winning global best seller, translated into 15 languages. His next book, “The New Long Life” is out in May 2020 and will look at how the twin forces of technology and longevity are set to change how we live our lives.

He has been an advisor to a range of corporates and governments on a broad range of economic issues and an award winning public speaker combining insight, clarity, humour and a motivation to action for anyone who hears him.

He previously held positions at Harvard University, London School of Economics and All Souls, Oxford University. He is currently on the advisory board of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility, a member of the Cabinet Office Honours Committee (Science and Technology) and co-founder of The Longevity Forum and Encore Fellows (UK).

Srinivas D. (Sri) Reddy is senior vice president, retirement and income solutions at Principal Financial Group®. He is responsible for the Income Solutions businesses, which includes Retail Annuities, Individual Savings, Pension Risk Transfer, Principal Bank and our Trust and Custody business. 

Prior to joining Principal, Reddy was the head of the investments and retirement income businesses for Prudential Retirement. Before that, he led all the product lines for USAA’s investment management and life insurance companies and held several roles at ING where his experience ranged from managing wholesale and direct distribution groups to product development in both the defined contribution business as well as the rollover & retirement income business. Previously, he served as a consultant with Ernst & Young. 

Reddy has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Baylor University and a master’s degree in International Management from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He has also completed his coaching certification through the NeuroLeadership Institute. Reddy is a frequent contributor to national media outlets and an expert resource on a range of retirement and financial security topics. He has served on various industry and regulatory groups including as chair of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Advisory Council at the United States Department of Labor (2018-2019). 

Paul Irving is chairman of the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging and distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology. Irving also serves as chairman of Encore.org, a director of East West Bancorp, Inc. and Pharos Capital BDC, Inc., and an advisory board member at USC, Stanford University, the Global Coalition on Aging, and WorkingNation. He previously served as the Milken Institute’s president, an advanced leadership fellow at Harvard University, and chairman and CEO of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, a law and consulting firm. Author of “The Upside of Aging: How Long Life Is Changing the World of Health, Work, Innovation, Policy, and Purpose,” a Wall Street Journal expert panelist and contributor to PBS Next Avenue and Forbes, Irving is involved in initiatives at the National Academy of Medicine and the Bipartisan Policy Center, and was a participant in the 2015 White House Conference on Aging. He was honored with the Janet L. Witkin Humanitarian Award by Affordable Living for the Aging, the Life Journey Inspiration Award by Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, and the Board of Governors Award by Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. PBS Next Avenue named Irving an “Influencer” for his work in aging and longevity.

Martha Deevy joined the Stanford Center on Longevity in January, 2009 and serves as Associate Director and Senior Research Scholar. While at the Center, she has led the financial security research program which has focused efforts on retirement readiness, working longer and the detection and prevention of fraud. Prior to joining Stanford, Martha had a long career with Silicon Valley firms.  She has held positions in business development, strategic planning, finance, product development and IT and held senior executive positions at Apple, Charles Schwab and Intuit.  She has served on the boards of directors of a number of publicly traded and non-profit organizations and is currently the vice-chair for the SPOON Foundation, which serves nutritionally underserved children. She received an M.B.A. in Finance and Management Information Systems from University of Minnesota and a B.A. in Economics from University of Illinois

Laura L. Carstensen is Professor of Psychology and the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy at Stanford University where she serves as founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. Her research has been supported continuously by the National Institute on Aging for more than 25 years and she is currently supported through a prestigious MERIT Award. In 2011, she authored the book, A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health, and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity. Dr. Carstensen has served on the National Advisory Council on Aging and the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society. In 2016 she was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine. She has won numerous awards, including the Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the Master Mentor Award from the American Psychological Association. She received a BS from the University of Rochester and PhD in clinical psychology from West Virginia University.