Investopedia Financial Review Board

​Somer G. Anderson is an Accounting and Finance Professor with a passion for increasing the financial literacy of American consumers. She has been working in the Accounting and Finance industries for over 20 years.

Anthony Battle is a financial planning expert, entrepreneur, dedicated life long learner and a recovering Wall Street professional. He has been working in the finance industry for 15+ years and is a fierce advocate for including financial literacy as a basic educational requirement in public education. Anthony is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. He has earned the Chartered Financial Consultant® designation for advanced financial planning, the Chartered Life Underwriter® designation for advanced insurance specialization, the Accredited Financial Counselor® for Financial Counseling and both the Retirement Income Certified Professional®, and Certified Retirement Counselor designations for advance retirement planning.

Michael Boyle is an experienced financial professional with more than 9 years working with financial planning, derivatives, equities, fixed income, project management, and analytics. Highlights from his career in the securities industry include implementing firm wide technology migrations, conducting education for financial planners, and becoming a subject matter expert on regulatory changes.

Thomas Brock is a well-rounded financial professional whose investment experience includes oversight of a $4 billion portfolio for an insurance group; varied finance and accounting work includes credit analyses, the development of multiyear financial forecasts, and the evaluation of capital budgeting proposals and investment opportunities.

Dr. JeFreda R. Brown is a financial consultant, educator, entrepreneur, and researcher. She has 20+ years of professional finance experience across federal, nonprofit, corporate, and academic sectors. She is extremely passionate about helping others become financially literate, develop strong financial skills, and establish lasting financial health and wellness.

Tom Catalano holds the coveted CFP® designation from The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in Washington, DC, and is a Registered Investment Adviser with the state of South Carolina. In a professional career that spanned over 30 years in the Information Technology industry, Tom held a variety of executive leadership positions in sales, product development, business development, marketing and strategic planning in the Fortune 25 arena.

Marguerita M. Cheng is the Chief Executive Officer at Blue Ocean Global Wealth. Prior to co-founding Blue Ocean Global Wealth, Marguerita was a Financial Advisor at Ameriprise Financial and an Analyst and Editor at Towa Securities in Tokyo, Japan. Marguerita is a spokesperson for the AARP Financial Freedom Campaign and a regular columnist for Kiplinger. She is a CFP® professional, a Chartered Retirement Planning CounselorSM, a Retirement Income Certified Professional®, and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst.

Marguerita studied at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, and earned her B.S. in Finance and her B.A. in East Asian Language and Japanese Literature from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a recipient of the Ameriprise Financial Presidential Award for Quality of Advice and the prestigious Japanese Monbukagakusho Scholarship.

Doretha Clemons, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, has been a corporate IT executive and professor for 34 years. She is a Real Estate Investor and principal at Bruised Reed Housing Real Estate Trust, a State of Connecticut Home Improvement License holder.  She advises on real estate wealth building for retirement, home buying, consumer debt, credit repair, HUD/FHA, VA and USDA mortgage funding programs with down payment assistance and tax savings on properties in HUD opportunity zones and enterprise zones.  Certified by the State of California to teach Accounting and Finance, she is an adjunct professor at Connecticut State Colleges & Universities, Maryville University and Indiana Wesleyan University.

Amy Drury is an investment banking instructor, financial writer, and a teacher of professional qualifications. She has been inspiring Wall Street professionals and authoring textbooks for 20 years.

Eric is an Independent Insurance Broker, licensed in Life, Health, Property & Casualty insurance. His time is spent helping his client base prepare for the unexpected.  His background in tax accounting has served as a solid base supporting his current book of business.  Eric primarily services the NJ area, though he is licensed in several other states. Eric is passionate about financial education, entrepreneurship, and balancing a healthy mindset toward business. He has been working as a business professional 13+ years, whether that be in accounting or insurance. He is committed to understanding the needs of his clients, while educating them so they are able to understand the products that will protect them when needed most. Eric's specialities include life insurance, business insurance, and home insurance.

Ebony Howard is a certified public accountant and credentialed tax expert. She has been in the accounting, audit, and tax profession for more than 13 years.

Peggy James is a CPA with over 9 years of experience in accounting and finance, including corporate and nonprofit environments. She has a wide variety of experience that includes budgeting, journal entries, bank reconciliations, expense management, human resources, and payroll. She has also conducted personal finance training for several hundred undergraduate college students and over one hundred faculty and staff. She most recently worked at Duke University and is the owner of Peggy James, CPA, PLLC, serving small businesses, nonprofits, solopreneurs, freelancers, and individuals.

Robert Kelly is a graduate school lecturer and has been developing and investing in energy projects for more than 35 years. He is an expert in developing new energy technologies and securing corporate/private equity capital to finance their development.

Khadija Khartit is a strategy, investment, and funding expert, and an educator of fintech and strategic finance in top universities. She has been an investor, an entrepreneur and an adviser for 25 + years in the US and MENA.

David is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and an expert in the fields of corporate financial accounting, individual & corporate tax strategy, and financial statement preparation and analysis. During his 6+ year career, David has assisted complex multimedia, manufacturing, rental & realty, and digital marketing companies in the development and management of their budgeting, accounting, finance, and tax strategies to ensure the financial growth and operational success of the businesses. He has also worked with thousands of individual, corporate, nonprofit, and trust and estate clients in the planning, preparation, and execution of tax strategies designed to minimize tax burden and increase wealth retention. David has assisted numerous individuals with retirement planning and long-term investing strategies to preserve and grow wealth.

Julius' business experience is dynamic and includes leading the finance and operations management teams of companies in multiple industries which include real estate, logistics, financial services, and non profit organizations.

Within the realm of finance, Julius' experience includes corporate finance, supply chain finance, equities research, and academia, serving as a Lecturer at King Saud Universiy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Charles is a nationally recognized capital markets specialist and educator who has spent the last three decades developing in-depth training programs for burgeoning financial professionals. He has spent over three decades as a financial educator, where he developed specialized classes for investors, traders, IT executives, legal/compliance officers, and various types of specialized operations groups. These classes have included topics concerning the real-world issues revolving every day in the worlds of equities, fixed income and derivatives, as well as discussing and dissecting economics, market intelligence, and the ever-changing effects that technology has in those markets.

Troy is a 20-year institutional equity and prop trading veteran turned Vietnam Angel Investor, now nonprofit Founder/CEO and social entrepreneur. He has spent significant time abroad working for both American and international Investment Banks, always in trading.

Erika Rasure, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Business and Finance at Maryville University. She is an expert in personal financial planning and practices as a financial therapist. She has spent the past six years teaching and has included FinTech in personal finance courses and curriculum since 2017, including cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Globally-recognized as a leading cryptocurrency subject matter expert and educator, she helped create a FinTech curriculum track within the Management and Information Systems degree plan at Maryville University, where she developed and teaches the Digital Assets course.

Brandon is a financial planner with expertise in retirement, investing, and taxes. He has a well-rounded perspective on personal finance as an academic, practitioner, and writer.

His professional certifications include the Certified Financial Planner designation, Retirement Income Certified Professional, and Enrolled Agent.

Charlene Rhinehart is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Dividend InvestHER. She’s been a CPA for over a decade and has served as the Chair of the Illinois CPA Society Individual Tax Committee.

Tyrone is the founder 401stc, and Director of Community at Altruist where he also hosts the Human Advisor Podcast.

Gordon Scott has been an active investor and has provided education to individual traders and investors for over 20 years. He is a licensed broker, an active trader, and proprietary day trader. He was the managing director for the Chartered Market Technician (CMT)® program offered by the CMT Association. 

Gordon had an additional seven years of experience as a trading coach at Beacon Learning Group. Gordon's career also includes 10-years with International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), where he developed instructional materials and business process refinement. He also was an Adjunct Instructor at Brigham Young University–Organizational Strategy and Leadership department.

Michelle P. Scott is a New York attorney with extensive experience and expertise in taxation, corporate governance, financial and nonprofit law, and federal and state government relations. She has practiced tax law with private law firms in Washington, D.C. and New York City and served as legislation counsel for the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress. For almost two decades, she was Vice President andCorporate Counsel of an international financial services firm, responsible for significant investment transactions and tax planning. She also has served as General Counsel of operating nonprofits engaged in conservation, healthcare and insurance research, and international development, and has written and lectured extensively.

Samantha Silberstein is a Financial Consultant and Financial Literacy Coach. She is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ currently based out of Northern California. She provides financial education and advice through 1:1 sessions, customized workshops and personalized webinars. Her day to day is filled with 1-on-1 conversations about 401ks/403bs, ERISA guidelines, IRAs, student loans, tracking spending, creating budgets, debt repayment strategies, pretax/Roth contributions/savings, and other non-retirement saving options/vehicles.

Andy Smith is a self-employed consultant, Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), licensed realtor and “pracademic” (combining practical experience and the ability to teach those concepts). He has 35+ years of diverse experience across federal, corporate and academic sectors; and is an expert on personal finance and investing, corporate finance and real estate. After advancing through the ranks from analyst to CFO, Andy shifted gears to academia and working with students and clients one-on-one. At heart he is an educator, and enjoys assisting clients in meeting their financial goals, no matter how large or small their resources. 

Chip Stapleton is a Series 7 and Series 66 license holder, CFA Level 1 exam holder, and currently holds a Life, Accident, and Health License in Indiana. He has 8 years experience in finance, from financial planning and wealth management to corporate finance and FP&A. He has experience with case design, product knowledge, investment analysis, investment recommendation, portfolio construction, asset management, financial statement analysis, business planning, and business exit strategies.

Lea Uradu, J.D. is graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, a Maryland State Registered Tax Preparer, State Certified Notary Public, Certified VITA Tax Preparer, IRS Annual Filing Season Program Participant, Tax Writer and Founder of L.A.W. Tax Resolution Services. Lea has worked with hundreds of federal individual tax clients and expat tax clients. Lea is also a contributing member (weekly) of Millionacres, where she writes about tax law as it relates to real estate. 

Ethan Vera is an entrepreneur and builder in the cryptocurrency mining ecosystem, co-founding Luxor Technology and Viridi Funds. Luxor is a mining software and services company that works with institutional mining farms. Luxor is one of the largest mining pools globally, mining a few percent of the Bitcoin network. In addition, Luxor is responsible for the mining data website, hashrateindex.com. In 2021, Ethan helped cofound Viridi Funds, a crypto mining-focused investment manager. Viridi Funds launched their first product a few months later, a crypto mining ETF.

Peter Westfall is a professor of statistics at Texas Tech University. Professor of statistics at Texas Tech University. He has more than 30 years of statistics experience including teaching, research, writing, and consulting. He specializes in using statistics in investing, technical analysis, and trading. He achieved Associate, Full, and Horn Professor ranks at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University, as well as honorary fellowships in learned societies. He has also received several awards for his statistical writings, including a Distinguished Technical Communication award from the Carolina Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication.