Genevieve Melford

Managing Director, Financial Security Program

Gen oversees Aspen FSP’s strategy, activities, and operations.

As Managing Director of the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (Aspen FSP), Genevieve oversees the program’s strategy, activities, and operations to illuminate and solve the most critical financial challenges facing American households and to make financial security for all a top national priority.

Genevieve joined Aspen FSP as its inaugural Director of Insights and Evidence, a role in which she built and led a team of talented researchers synthesizing knowledge and data on topics including consumer debt, financial stability, housing security, caregiving, the financial lives of workers, inclusive financial systems, household wealth, and the financial well-being of youth and young adults.

Before joining FSP, Genevieve worked at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where she led the Bureau’s work to define, measure, and study the drivers of consumer financial well-being and effectiveness research on financial education and capability strategies. While at the CFPB, she co-chaired the interagency Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC)’s Research and Evaluation Committee. Before that, she served as Director of Research at Prosperity Now, a national nonprofit dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities. Genevieve holds an M.P.A. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University.

Authored by Genevieve:

Genevieve Melford sits in the Ideas 20 letters on the Aspen campus.
Blog Posts

It’s Time to Connect Financial Security and Economic Policy

Aspen FSP Managing Director Genevieve Melford looks to the future of financial security work and economic policy.

June 11, 2025

Ida Rademacher facilitates a panel on asset ownership at an event.
Blog Posts

How the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion Can Help Households Build Wealth

The Strategy highlights the important roles that government, financial institutions, and employers all have to play in household wealth building. 

May 13, 2025

Blog Posts

How Money Moves through a Household – in 10 Minutes or Less

What Leaders Need to Understand to Design A Resilient Recovery

January 14, 2021

Blog Posts

Five Lessons About Financial Well-Being

Money is power.  Power to keep yourself and your family safe, and to make choices with dignity and freedom.

May 15, 2020