Speakers

Smart Slider 2 - widget

Smart Slider 2 – widget

Swindles, Scams and Schemes: Exposing the Elder Financial Abuse and Exploitation Epidemic Speakers

Andrea Luquetta, JD

Policy Advocate, California Reinvestment Coalition, featured in ”Fleeced”
Andrea Luquetta, JD, is policy advocate and attorney at the California Reinvestment Coalition, where she fights against predatory consumer financial products and practices. Andrea joined CRC after several years as a litigator at Western Center on Law and Poverty. Andrea graduated UCLA School of Law’s Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy where she also completed a Concentration in Critical Race Studies.

Annette Smith

Tenant Organizer, Lyn Roc Tenants Association, featured in “Fleeced”
Annette Smith is a tenant organizer with the Lyn Roc Tenants Association in Rocklin. She is also a bank customer featured in the film “Fleeced.” Annette testified before of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in 2013 about the effects of payday loans on older Americans.

Carmen Chu

Assessor-Recorder of San Francisco
Carmen Chu is the Assessor-Recorder for the City and County of San Francisco, and is Chair of the City’s Budget & Finance Committee. The office of the Assessor-Recorder helps generate over one-third of the City’s General Fund revenue, which is used to fund crucial services like fire, police, neighborhood improvements, and health & family support services. Since taking office, Chu has prioritized customer service and office efficiency. Beginning in 2013, she implemented e-Recording, which allows submitters to record documents from the convenience of their office or home. Chu has secured resources to address the increase in workload generated by historic highs in assessment appeals. This additional funding will allow the Assessment Appeals Board to schedule and hear appeals cases more quickly and ensure a more timely resolution for taxpayers. She has also begun the process of digitizing historic real property records currently maintained only in hard copy. This project will ensure that vital assessment details and property files are available for staff when valuing both residential and commercial properties.

Carrie Moulton, Esq.

Director of Fiduciary Services, Institute on Aging
Carrie Moulton, Esq. is Director of Fiduciary Services at Institute on Aging in San Francisco. For the prior 12 years, she practiced as an elder law attorney with Hallisey and Johnson, PC in San Francisco, where she litigated a number of elder financial abuse cases; and Camp Rousseau Montgomery, LLP in Oakland, where she represented family members and professional fiduciaries in conservatorship, probate, and trust matters. She is a 2001 graduate of University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Claire McDonnell

True Link, Founder, Head of Product & Operations
Claire McDonnell is the Co-Founder of True Link Financial, a financial technology company dedicated to helping boomers protect their older loved ones’ financial well-being and independence. True Link enables older adults to spend their money safely without falling prey to scams, misleading marketing, or outright fraud via a caregiver-managed spending monitor, mobile alerts, and debit card. At True Link, Claire leads product and operations with a focus on user-centric design. Prior to True Link, Claire founded Awardly, a mobile wellness rewards platform. Earlier in her career, she was a Runway Entrepreneur focused on new product development at Innovation Endeavors, Eric Schmidt’s venture capital firm, a management consultant with The Bridgespan Group, Bain & Company’s social sector affiliate, and a member of the marketing and operations teams at Teach For America. Claire founded True Link because of her family’s challenges with this issue as her grandmother aged.

David Baer, Esq.

Trust and Estates Litigation Attorney
David Baer is the head of the litigation section at Hartog & Baer, an 8-attorney East Bay law firm devoted exclusively to practicing in the area of trusts and estates. David has been litigating cases through trial and appeal (usually the other side’s) for almost 35 years. He presently sits on the Board of Directors of the East Bay Trust and Estate Lawyers, a specialty bar association, and serves as its delegate to the Conference of California Bar Associations. David has a particular interest in legislation and mediation and frequently serves as a mediator in cases being litigated in Probate Court. He has written extensively on trust and estate litigation and is the author of the chapter on prosecuting and defending trust contests in the California Trust Litigation practice guide, widely regarded as the definitive resource on this topic.

Dr. Jonathan Canick, PhD.

Neuropsychologist, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, CPMC, Assistant Clinical Professor, UCSF
Dr. Jonathan Canick has practiced Psychology/Neuropsychology over 25 years. He is a member of the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at California Pacific Medical Center and an Assistant Clinical Professor, University of California, San Francisco. In addition to providing neuropsychological, capacity evaluations for hospitalized CPMC patients, he lectures about normal aging, cognition, elder abuse, and the assessment of capacity. Dr. Canick’s outpatient practice includes neuropsychological assessment, forensic consultations and counseling/psychotherapy. He provides continuing education to many professional audiences and trains Residents in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry.

Jill Nielsen, LCSW

Adult Protective Services Program Director, Department of Aging and Adult Services, City and County of San Francisco
Jill Nielsen, LCSW, is Director of Adult Protective Services (APS) of the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Aging and Adult Services. She co-chairs the Protective Services Operations Committee of the California County Welfare Directors Association. Jill earned her MSW from the University of California at Berkeley.

Kathryn Stebner, Esq.

Trial Lawyer, Stebner & Associates
Kathryn Stebner, JD, has focused on elder abuse and medical malpractice litigation since 1985. In addition to her legal practice, she is a frequent speaker and author on elder abuse litigation. Ms. Stebner has tried jury cases in a wide array of civil litigation areas early in her career, but now handles elder law litigation exclusively.

Lisa Nerenberg, MSW, MPH

Chair, California Elder Justice Coalition; Instructor, City College of San Francisco
Lisa Nerenberg chairs the California Elder Justice Workgroup, which was formed in 2009 by participants in the Archstone Foundation’s Elder Abuse and Neglect Initiative to develop a blueprint for improving California’s response to elder abuse. She is an instructor at City College of San Francisco and consultant to local, state and national organizations. She was the founding director of the San Francisco Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention, which piloted the nation’s first elder abuse multidisciplinary team and other widely-replicated services, including a support group and shelter for elderly victims. She has presented at hundreds of professional forums, testified before Congressional committees, served on governmental advisory committees, and written extensively about elder abuse and related issues. Her book, Elder Abuse Prevention: Emerging Trends and Promising Strategies (Springer, 2008) describes what agencies, communities, tribes, states, and national organizations can do to prevent abuse, treat its effects, and ensure justice.

Mary Twomey, MSW

Program Manager of the Aging Initiative at the California Social Work Education Center at U.C. Berkeley, Expert Consultant at the Administration for Community Living at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Mary Twomey, MSW is an expert consultant on elder justice issues with the U.S. Administration on Community Living and the Program Manager of the Aging Initiative at the California Social Work Education Center at UC, Berkeley. Formerly, Mary was the Co-director of the Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse and Neglect at the University of California, Irvine, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and the Co-director of the National Center on Elder Abuse. Before going to UCI, Mary was director of the San Francisco Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention, a program of the Institute on Aging from 2000-2007.  She spent eleven years with the national office of AARP in Washington, DC where she coordinated the National Guardianship Monitoring Program.  Mary has her MSW with a concentration in gerontology and mental health from Catholic University.

Neil Granger

Consultant and Expert Witness – Elder Financial Abuse
Neil Granger is a 30-year veteran in the life and disability insurance industry who specializes in consulting and expert witness work in the area of life insurance and annuity fraud. Neil’s experience as an independent life agent and general agent gives him specialized insight into the sales practices used by agents and carriers in order to take advantage of their senior clients. Neil has extensive experience working with public and private attorneys as well as the California Department of Insurance as a consultant and expert witness.

Prescott Cole, Esq.

Senior Attorney, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform
Prescott Cole has been a staff attorney for CANHR for the past 19 years. In his role as Senior Staff Attorney at CANHR, Mr. Cole counsels consumers and family members who have questions about elder law and long term care. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging about financial elder abuse, written a number of successful pieces of California legislation, and received the 2010 Elder Law Attorney of the Year Award from California Lawyer Magazine. In 2013, Governor Jerry Brown has appointed Prescott Cole to the Professional Fiduciaries Advisory Committee.

Shawna Reeves, MSW

Director of Elder Abuse Prevention at Institute on Aging
Shawna Reeves, MSW, is director of elder abuse prevention at the Institute on Aging in San Francisco. Previously, she was director of financial education and advocacy at Council on Aging Silicon Valley. Shawna has published numerous articles on elder financial abuse and has presented throughout the country on consumer issues and innovative ways to prevent elder financial abuse. Shawna received her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work.