Phyllis H. Mutschler, Ph.D., is the Director of The National Center on Women & Aging and an Associate Professor at Brandeis University's Heller School.  In 1992, she was named a Brookdale National Fellow, an award by the Brookdale Foundation to persons who show the most promise for leadership in gerontology.  Dr. Mutschler is an authority on the economic status of older women, issues related to caregiving, and the "early retirement trend."  She currently is conducting a study of older women to identify factors that critically affect their well-being at older ages.  She also has collaborated with Dr. Wise at the National Bureau of Economic Research, to investigate the impact of private pension plan provisions and special early retirement incentive plans on employees' retirement decisions.  She continues to study  the effects of caregiving responsibilities on "working caregivers" and has collaborated with the Washington Business Group on health and business coalitions across the nation to support workers with family caregiving responsibilities.

James H. Schulz, Ph.D.,  is one of the nation's leading authorities on pensions, retirement policy, and the economics of aging and has lectured and carried out research throughout the world.  He is Professor of Economics in the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University and holds the Meyer and Ida Kirstein Chair in Aging Policy.  He is an associate of The National Center on Women and Aging and Editor of the Center's Women and Aging Letter.  He is currently on the Board of Directors of the AARP/Scudder, Stevens, and Clark Investment Program and on the editorial boards of four academic publications.  Dr. Schulz is a prolific author of  over 100 books, reports, and articles.  In a recent book entitled Economics of Population Aging, he looks at the policy implications of the changing demographic structure in Australia, Japan, and the U.S.  Probably his best known book is The Economics of Aging, the sixth edition of which was published in 1995. In addition to numerous awards for outstanding research in aging,  Dr. Schulz is a past President of the Gerontological Society of America and a founding fellow of the National Academy on Social Insurance.

Gail Buckner is Senior Vice President and Senior Investment Marketing Officer of Putnam Investments.  She is a well-known national television anchor with more than 20 years of experience in broadcasting.  She joined Putnam in September 1993 as the third member of Putnam's national speakers program.  An original anchor on CNBC and a registered representative, Ms. Buckner has extensive knowledge about business and global financial markets.  In addition to anchoring CNBC's "Moneywheel" and "This Morning's Business",  the most widely watched syndicated business program in the country, she contributed reports on personal financial topics to NBC's "Sunrise" program.  Gail is currently the host of "Fox on Money", a personal finance program on the Fox News channel.

Elissa Buie is a Certified Financial Planner and founder of Financial Planning Group, Inc. of Falls Church, Virginia, specializing in comprehensive financial consulting to individuals and small businesses.  She is a permanent member of the faculty of Indiana University Tax Institute for Colleges and Universities.  Ms. Buie is President-Elect of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP).  She has been named by Worth Magazine as one of the top 250 Financial Advisers in the country.  She is a National Board Member for the ICFP, Past President and Chairman of the Northern Virginia Society of the ICFP, and a member of the International Association of Financial Planners (IAFP).  Ms. Buie has appeared on CNBC, and  McLaughlin One-on-One, as well as other TV and radio shows and is frequently quoted by the press.

Lin Coughlin, a Managing Director of Scudder Kemper Investments, Inc., is Chairperson of the AARP Investment Program from Scudder and a Trustee of the Program's mutual funds.  Ms. Coughlin is also a member of the Mutual Funds Management Group and the Board of Women Express, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that promotes media literacy and leadership among teenage girls and young adult women.  Ms. Coughlin joined Scudder, Stevens & Clark, Inc., in 1986 and was a member of the firm's Board of Directors.  Prior to joining Scudder, she was with Citibank for two years and American Express Company for nine years.

Neal E. Cutler, Ph.D. is a leader in financial gerontology, an emerging field that brings together personal finance, economic policy, social welfare policy, and the study of aging.  Dr. Cutler holds the Joseph E. Boettner/Davis W. Gregg Chair of Financial Gerontology at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.  He is also the Director of Survey Research at The National Council on the Aging.  Among his other positions, he is director of Financial Literacy 2000, a national effort to assess public patterns of financial knowledge and consumer confidence regarding age, retirement, and health.  He is currently the chair of the National Institute on Financial Issues and Services for Elders and edits Financial Gerontology Review.

Cindy Hounsell is the Executive Director of WISER, the Women's Institute For a  Secure Retirement, a project created in 1996 by the Heinz Family Foundation.  Prior to joining WISER, Ms. Hounsell was the Director of the Women's Pension Project at the Pension Rights Center, the Senior Staff Attorney and the leader of its national education campaign, "Pensions Not Posies."  Ms. Hounsell has spent her career as an advocate for labor and women's rights.  As an experienced pension attorney, she is quoted widely in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television.  Her most recent work, "What Every WOMAN Needs to Know About MONEY and RETIREMENT:  A Simple Guide", appears in the April issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.

Jane C. Ingalls is Vice President and Director of Educational Initiatives at OppenheimerFunds, Inc. in New York City.  She develops and maintains programs that educate investors on financial planning issues.  One of the firm's most popular programs, Women & Investing, was started in 1992 and encourages women to make smart investment decisions.  Ms. Ingalls is quoted frequently in the press about the need for women to invest and she conducts seminars across the country on the topic.  In addition to acting as a spokesperson for Women & Investing, Ms. Ingalls is one of the firm's media relations managers responsible for a wide-range of corporate issues.  Prior to joining OppenheimerFunds, Ms. Ingalls was a senior associate in the Crisis Communications Group at Sawyer/Miller and a member of the Public Affairs Departments at Morgan Stanley and Prudential Securities.

Michael T. Kogut is the Assistant Attorney General for Elder Protection for Massachusetts.  He was appointed to the newly-created position in 1996.  His work focuses on advancing protection initiatives in finance, health, legal, and consumer related areas affecting elders.  Mr. Kogut has been widely recognized throughout Massachusetts as a leader in elder protection.  Prior to 1996 he served as Director of the Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.  As Director, he  gained national recognition for innovative investigations and prosecutions of health fraud cases.  Mr. Kogut was a private attorney in a criminal and civil litigation practice, served as an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts and as Assistant District Attorney in Worcester, MA.

Liz Liess is the  Counsel for the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging.  In her position, she oversees the Committee's work in the area of income security policy, which comprises Social Security, pension, and disability issues.  Prior to her work for the Aging Committee, Ms. Liess was a staff attorney for the President's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform.  She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law.

Jane Mancini is the president of Sun Life of Canada (U.S.) Distributors, Inc., a subsidiary of Sun Life of Canada (U.S), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Life of Canada.  She was named to the position of President in 1997.  She is responsible for overseeing product development, sales and marketing, and all channels of distribution for Sun Life of Canada (U.S.) Distributors, Inc.  Ms. Mancini has more than 16 years experience in the financial services industry, including nine years at MFS Investment Management.  While at MFS, an indirect subsidiary of Sun Life of Canada, she served as a Senior Vice President of insurance products.   Jane has earned her Series 6, 63, and 24 licenses and is an active member of the National Association of Variable Annuities (NAVA) and the Women's Financial Network.

Lois G. Pines, a Massachusetts State Senator, has been dedicated to public service for over 25 years.  First elected to town government in 1971, she won a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives two years later.  While in the House, she was co-founder of the Legislative Women's Caucus and led the fight for landmark women's rights legislation. Now a state Senator in Massachusetts,  Ms. Pines has consistently taken a lead role in forging legislation encompassing a broad range of public policy issues, many of which focus on women's needs and interests.  In 1996, the Massachusetts Legislature enacted two important initiatives sponsored by Senator Pines which were designed to help women gain economic security in their retirement years.

Jane Bryant Quinn is a renowned commentator on personal finance.  As a columnist writing on issues affecting personal finance,  her work appears in Newsweek, Good Housekeeping Magazine, and the New York Daily News.  Her twice-weekly New York Daily News column is syndicated and appears in more than 250 newspapers.  Ms. Quinn is the author of the best-seller, Making the Most of Your Money, a comprehensive guide to personal finance and a Book of the Month Club selection.  Ms. Quinn is the winner of an Emmy Award for outstanding coverage of news on television.  She also has been the recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for Lifetime Achievement and for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism; the John Hancock Award for excellence in Business and Financial Journalism; the Janus Award for excellence in television reporting; three-time winner of the National Press Club Award for Consumer Journalism; twice winner of the National Headliner Award; and honored by the Consumer Federation of America for Outstanding Consumer Media Service.

Jeanette C. Takamura, Ph.D., is the Assistant Secretary for Aging at the Department of Health and Human Services.  As Assistant Secretary she is responsible for ensuring the development and coordination of the Administration's aging policy.  Her office serves as a focal point for assuring that a system of aging services is provided to state and local agencies. Assistant Secretary Takamura has extensive expertise in the aging and health care fields.  She has served on numerous national advisory councils of private and public associations, including the National Advisory Committee for the 1995 White House Conference on Aging, the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Units on Aging,  and the Board of the American Society on Aging.  Ms. Takamura holds an M.S.W. from the University of Hawaii and a Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University.