Our People

Biography

Lisa Mensah is an expert in using financial tools to improve the economic security of the working poor. At Aspen IFS, Ms. Mensah leads a team of financial security experts who study the financial products and public policy solutions that help build wealth from birth to retirement for America's working families. Ms. Mensah began her career in commercial banking at Citibank prior to working 13 years with the Ford Foundation. Serving as Deputy Director of Economic Development for the organization, Ms. Mensah led the Foundation's work in microfinance and women's economic development. She became the leading national funder of individual development accounts (IDAs) - an innovative savings account structured with matching incentives and personal financial training used to finance homeownership, entrepreneurship and education. Under Ms. Mensah's leadership, IDAs grew from an experiment at a handful of sites to become a tool used by hundreds of community organizations in all 50 states. With a deep interest in solutions to the broad challenges to economic security and financial access, Lisa is the board chair of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a board member of the Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund, in Allston, MA and HOPE Enterprise Corporation, in Jackson, MS. Lisa holds an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from Harvard University. Ms. Mensah holds an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from Harvard University.