Jennifer Santos Esperanza, Ph.D.

I am currently Vice President of Organizational Strategy for Coopera Consulting, a consulting firm for credit unions, where I've been for 5 years total. In this role for the past year and a half, I provide direct strategic initiatives for credit unions in better serving underbanked communities. I advise based on data and research on best practices for what resonates with consumers who might feel too embarrassed to go into a bank or credit union and talk about their ruined credit score, or what marketing materials could better reach folks whose first language is not English. My background in anthropology, specifically as a cultural anthropologist with research in economic anthropology, gives me insight on theory - how people use money differently, how different cultures think about money differently - and that translates into the practice of what I do in my consulting work day-to-day. Before this career, I was a college professor for 17 years, achieving full tenure and eventually becoming chair of the anthropology department at Beloit College. I made the transition to financial services in 2021 during the pandemic when my kids were older and I was in my late 40s. While I loved my career in teaching, I'm always somebody who is looking at what else can I learn, what else can I do, what other impact I can make. I wanted to be a leader and serve wider communities, broader communities, so I took that leap into a bigger space.