The Aspen Institute

By 2030, women are expected to control $34 trillion of U.S. financial assets, a three-fold increase in just a decade. But research shows women want more than a financial return on their investments; they want to use their money to spend, save, invest, and give in alignment with their values. Led by Aspen FSP Senior Fellow Heather McCulloch, this Women in the Economy dialogue features an in-depth discussion with three authors and impact investors who are helping women and people of color become “financial activists” in order to use the power of their money to support the change they want to see in the world. 

Janine Firpo is the author of Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World and the co-founder of Invest for Better, a nonprofit helping women build their investment knowledge and grow their wealth.

Jasmine Rashid, director of impact at Candide Group, is a financial activist, impact investor, and author of the new book, The Financial Activist Playbook: 8 Strategies for Everyday People to Reclaim Wealth and Collective Well-Being.

Nathalie Molina Niño is the president and a co-founder at Known. She is an investor, author, educator, and retired global tech entrepreneur as well as the author of Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs.

The Women in the Economy Dialogue Series, hosted by the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, features in-depth discussions with journalists, authors, filmmakers, and other thought leaders about how to redesign the economy so women are able to strive, thrive, and fully contribute to their families’ financial security and the nation’s economic growth.

*By “women,” we mean all individuals who identify as female.

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Speakers

Janine Firpo, Author, Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World 

JANINE FIRPO is an accomplished speaker, author, and social entrepreneur, with a long history of working at the intersection of women and their money. From the early years of Apple Computer to senior positions with Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Janine has always found herself making an impact. 

In 2017 she left a successful 35+ year career in technology and international development to focus on how women can create a more just and equitable society through their financial investments. Her book, Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World, was published by Wiley in May 2021. Later that year, she co-founded Invest for Better, a nonprofit that is catalyzing a movement in which millions of professional women are educated, enabled, and empowered to activate the power of their money for themselves and for the world. 

Janine walks her talk. She is taking action to move all her own assets into investments she feels good about and is watching them grow with market-rate returns. She is also a lead investor in Next Wave Impact, a venture fund designed to help more women become angel investors. In 2024, Forbes named Janine one of “50 Over 50” female leaders who continue to make impact later in life. 

Nathalie Molina Niño, President and Co-Founder, Known; Author, Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs.

Nathalie is the President and a Co-Founder at Known. She is an investor, author, educator and retired global tech entrepreneur. She is the author of the 2018 book LEAPFROG, The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs (Penguin Random House, Tarcher Perigee), named by Book Authority as one of the “Best CEO Books of All Time.”

As part of her work as a champion of communities of color and the planet, she co-founded the trade organization for Builder Capitalism, a long-view, alternative asset class to Venture Capital. Today, Nathalie serves as a Venture Partner at Connectivity Capital Partners, on the board of iconic women-owned consumer brands, Hanky Panky, and Carson Life, as an advisor for Vote Run Lead, and HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality).  Previously she was as an advisor to Goldman Sachs’ Launch with GS Black and Latinx Cohort, WOCstar Fund, and Accion Opportunity Fund.

During her career in tech, Nathalie was involved in launching and growing a multinational business (with Lionbridge, NASDAQ: LIOX) into a $100 million operation in 30+ countries within six years. Nathalie launched her first tech startup at the age of twenty and is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs@Athena at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies of Barnard College at Columbia University. In 2015 she stepped in as CRO of PowerToFly, to help grow what is now the fastest growing online hiring platform for women in tech. In support of her efforts to make reproductive healthcare more accessible and affordable, she serves on the board of the National Institute for Reproductive Health and until recently, with The American Medical Association’s Center for Health Equity and Cadence OTC. In 2019, she was honored with Schneps‘ inaugural Women of Wall Street Awards for her influence in banking and finance, and was named among People Magazine’s most powerful Latinas.

Heather McCulloch, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program

Heather McCulloch is a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program and a national thought leader on gender economic equity. She launched the Women in the Economy (WE) project at Aspen FSP, a two-year initiative to inform the design of a gender-equitable economy based on the insights, wisdom, and lived experience of working women across America.

Heather has more than two decades of experience working as an advocate and thought leader in closing the racial and gender wealth gaps and building an equitable economy. Previously, she founded and led Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap (CWWG), a multiracial/ethnic, cross-sector network of leaders working together to transform public policies and systems to advance gender economic equity. Prior to starting CWWG, she was the principal of Asset Building Strategies, a consulting firm that supported nonprofit, philanthropic, public, and private-sector leaders to advance policies and strategies to build the financial security of low-wealth families; and a founding staff member of the national nonprofit, PolicyLink.

Her insights have been covered in major news publications, including CNN Business, Fast Company, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, NPR Marketplace, Slate, and USA Today. She earned an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a BA in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jasmine Rashid, Author, The Financial Activist Playbook: 8 Strategies for Everyday People to Reclaim Wealth and Collective Well-Being

Jasmine Rashid (she/her) is a New York-raised, Oakland-based, Bangladeshi-American who believes deeply in people power. As a financial activist, writer, and impact investing professional, she successfully supported the FamiliesBelongTogether coalition in shifting billions of dollars in big bank financing away from the migrant detention and private prison industry. In her role as Director of Impact for Candide Group, she helps investors flow their money to predominately women & BIPOC-led social justice-focused companies, funds, and vital organizations building the next economy.
Her book — The Financial Activist Playbook — builds on her knowledge base as a:

• Congressman John Lewis fellow;
• Just Economy Institute alum;
• Trauma of Money Method certified practitioner; and
• lived experience as a girl in her late 20s just trying her best to navigate contradictions under Late Capitalism (and help build something better).

You can stay connected by signing up for her newsletter or connecting on LinkedIn / Instagram.