Free Event at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland, November 5 at 7 p.m. to feature NPR's David Greene, Yuki Noguchi
Facing first-time loans as a college student or a new mortgage as a third-time home buyer both come with risks, opportunities and, of course, questions. To help Pennsylvanians navigate these complex decisions, 90.5 WESA joins NPR to bring NPR Presents: Family Matters to Pittsburgh for a candid conversation about personal finance at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum on November 5 at 7:00 PM. Tickets for the free event are available here.
In collaboration with NPR Member stations, NPR Presents:Family Matters is a live national events series that connects regular people with financial experts for invaluable conversations around money. Led by NPR Morning Edition host David Greene and Business correspondents Yuki Noguchi and Sonari Glinton, these live (and lively) events are driven by an audience ready to talk strategy: from accumulating debt and amassing wealth; to saving for college, home ownership, retirement and even fitting in a midlife extravagance, or two.
In Pittsburgh, Greene and Noguchi will be joined on stage by personal finance experts Louis Barajas, founder and chief wealth and business manager at LAB Financial Life Solutions, and Saundra Davis, a U.S. Navy Veteran and financial coach who works alongside community-based organizations that empower low income Americans with tools to build and grow assets. Together they will leave audience members with greater confidence in their financial futures.
The public can follow and participate in these conversations with #NPRFamilyMatters.
Through reporting projects that have taken them to the living rooms, banks and offices where people are making big decisions about money, Greene and Noguchi each have unique perspectives on the specific pressures families face today. Greene has been hosting Family Matters events in communities across the country since 2013. In the Morning Edition series ‘Family Matters: The Money Squeeze’, he joined three families to explore the financial challenges of the "sandwich generation” – those balancing elder-care costs, college-bound kids and post-employment retirement plans. Noguchi regularly reports on workplace issues – from abusive working environments, to idiosyncratic cubicle culture – and national stories that strongly affect working Americans, such as the housing market meltdown and wage disputes.
NPR Presents: Family Matters is made possible by TIAA-CREF, which —for nearly 100 years—has helped millions of Americans pursue their financial dreams, and by a collaboration between NPR and NPR Member station 90.5 WESA, in Pittsburgh, P.A.
ABOUT NPR
NPR is the leading provider of non-commercial news and entertainment programming in the U.S. More than 27 million people listen to NPR programs each week via 800+ public radio stations throughout the country. In partnership with Member stations, NPR strives to create a more informed public – one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures. As a digital innovator and a leader in the public media community, NPR assures that the unique mission of nonprofit public media is not only preserved, but grows.
About 90.5 WESA
90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR news station, is a local, wholly-owned subsidiary of independent public radio station 91.3 WYEP /Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corp. 90.5 WESA can be heard on 90.5 FM in Pittsburgh; 92.3 FM in New Baltimore; 100.5 FM in Johnstown, 104.1 FM in Ligonier and Somerset, and online at wesa.fm.
About The Panelists
David Greene -- Co-Host, Morning Edition
David Greene co-hosts NPR’s #1 newsmagazine Morning Edition alongside Renee Montagne and Steve Inskeep. David has interviewed everyone from presidents to pop stars, but he believes that everyone, whether famous or not, has a compelling story to tell – it just takes listening.
David has brought home human interest stories from places like North Dakota, as Americans grapple with the issue of same-sex marriage, and Crimea, where uneasiness around geopolitical unrest and national identity is perennial and complex. Prior to stepping into the host chair, David spent two years abroad as an NPR international correspondent based in Moscow. During the Arab Spring, David spent a month reporting from Libya as NATO bombs fell on Tripoli, for which he was honored with the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize.
David also spent four years covering the G.W. Bush administration; a position that led him to five continents, to NPR’s “spacious” booth in the basement of the West Wing and aboard Air Force One, as President Bush first surveyed the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and afterward met with affected New Orleans residents. David reported deeply on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and, after President Obama took office, spent three months driving across America documenting how the recession was affecting the lives of regular Americans.
David was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun for nearly seven years before he joined NPR in 2005. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a degree in government.
Yuki Noguchi -- NPR Business Desk Correspondent in Washington, D.C.
As NPR Business correspondent, Yuki Noguchi regularly reports on workplace issues – from abusive working environments, to idiosyncratic cubicle culture – and national stories that strongly affect working Americans, such as the housing market meltdown and wage disputes.
Following Reddit CEO Ellen Pao’s lawsuit alleging gender discrimination by Pao’s former Silicon Valley employer, Yuki reported on how startups are using tech to fight workplace bias. She’s similarly synthesized other evolving workplace dynamics, such as Zappos’ “holocratic” employee structure, Amazon’s inclusion of peer reviews in staff evaluations and a 2015 federal law requiring public companies to disclose ratios comparing their CEO’s compensation to their workers’ median pay.
Since joining NPR in 2008, Noguchi has reported deeply on business and economic news and in recent years has covered the housing market meltdown, unemployment during the Great Recession, and the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Her coverage interests are wide-ranging, and have included things like entomophagy and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Yuki began her career in journalism at the Washington Post, where she reported on business and technology and later became an editor.
Yuki lives with her family in the Washington, D.C. area. She has a degree in history from Yale.
Louis Barajas defies the traditional concept of financial and business expert. Louis connects with people through their hearts, their dreams, and the often-difficult realities of their lives. He’s not just about numbers. Rather than fixating on the size of the client’s bank balance, investment portfolio, or retirement account, his approach has always been to show people how to use their resources to live better lives today, tomorrow, and in the future. His humanity-based financial and business advice works well for people making $25,000, $250,000, or Millions, because most everyone has a deep desire to want to make a difference in their lives.
Louis is the author of 5 books: Small Business Big Life for Women – 7 Secrets for Designing A Business to Help You Live Your Best Life; My Street Money – A Street-Level View of Managing Your Money From the Heart to the Bank; The Latino Journey to Financial Greatness – 10 Steps to Creating Wealth and Happiness for You and Your Family; Small Business – Big Life; and Overworked Overwhelmed and Underpaid.
Louis is one of the first Latinos in the United States to receive the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) designation. He was named as one of the Top 100 Financial Advisors by Mutual Funds Magazine. Money Magazine also named Louis as one of America’s Top Advisors. He was also chosen by People en Español as a person making a difference in the lives of Americans.
Louis has been featured in regional and national publications such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, People en Español, Hispanic Business, and Senior Market Advisor. He has provided his financial and business insights to national news programs such as CBS Sunday Morning, CNN’s Your Money, CNBC, The Willis Report on Fox Business News, Aqui Y Ahora on Univision, ABC News, and National Public Radio’s Tell Me More.
Saundra Davis is a US Navy veteran, financial coach, educator, and consultant who is nationally recognized as an expert in the financial coaching field and for her work with community-based organizations that focus on asset building for the working poor. Ms. Davis is the founder and Executive Director of Sage Financial Solutions, a San Francisco-based organization that develops comprehensive financial capability programs for low- and moderate-income communities in California and throughout the United States. Her innovative approach to financial capability was recognized in 2008 when she was selected as an Echoing Green semifinalist and, most recently, via special invitation to attend President Obama’s 2014 White House Summit5o Working Families.
Ms. Davis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management and a Master’s degree in Financial Planning from Golden Gate University where she is currently an adjunct professor in the Personal Financial Planning program. She has previously served as an adjunct professor and as a member of the Financial Planning Program Advisory Committee at the University of California Berkeley.
