they would've found them them all over the place in 1965. but they were responding to an acute situation where people were not registered to vote. davis writes in the 15th amendment. >> thank you, counselor. the case is submitted. ..

public health and health services at the george washington university. it's with extreme pleasure that i welcome you here to very special afternoon at george washington university. i'm thrilled to see so many students, faculty, alumni, colleagues and supporters with us. i would like to acknowledge our friends and colleagues for joining us today via live web cast. if you are tweeting use the # #gwha. it's pound gwha, people in my generation. they celebrate international women's women day. it began in the 1900s. we made tremendous progress when it comes to womens rights. but at the same time women disparity don't effect the lives of millions. poverty, poor access to health

care, inadequate nutrition and water afflict women and girls across the globe. it's a paradox we cannot and should not tolerate. now more than ever we must focus on conducting research and conducting promises, policy, and interventions to provide solutions. particularly proud of the work of the global women's substitute at george washington university, university wide initiative promotes and supports the rights of women and conducts research education initiative an advocacy campaign. in particular the institute is identified violence against women. according to the u.s. government in the u.s. 1% of women or 1.3 million women every year experience rape or attempted rape. almost half are raped before the turn of the age of 18. over a lifetime, one in four are raped one in five beaten by a

partner and one in six stalked. men are victimized as well in smaller numbers. these are devastating psychologically as well as physically. we need to develop and support efforts. in the u.s. we have made enormous strains in promoting a quality for women. while in college i didn't dream of being a dean of a school. nor someday to have so many women working at states. we had women secretary of state, even as a presidential candidate. women in positions, the senate, governors, and ceos. when i was in medical school, women were actively discouraged going in to specialties like surgery. there were hardly any women in medical school at all. we have seen so much progress, if they say we have come a long

way we have a long ways to go. i do believe that along with the rights that we have we have responsibility and particularly the responsibility to care about the circumstances of women everywhere in the world. the situation with regard to women leads much to be desired. the life expectancy at birth for women in high impact countries in 2009 was 83, it was only 59 in the lowest income countries. that's an average of 24 years of life lost. the epidemic of hiv/aids is hitting women hard along with the issue of peed pediatric we know it isn't necessary for my baby to be -- we have measures

that can be used to prevent that. the mortality death is an enormous public health problem in most of the world killing 287,000 women in 2010 with a rate as low-income countries 24 times higher than the rates of internal mother talty in the u.s. today. we know how to prevent it. we should be preventing this. most are aware that breast cancer is leading the death of women. but cervical cancer which is preventable through advantag nation through the hpv and screening tests is a large cause of death worldwide. 80% of deaths of cervical cancer occur in countries. it is due to the lack of advantages nations but also screening programs. and last but not least, i want to say a little bit about cardiovascular disease. the leading cause of death among

women certainly in the u.s. and a cause of death that often goes unrecognized. one of our own faculty in the university lost their life due to a heart attack that was not recognized. women often manifest cardiovascular disease than different ways of men. even in the u.s., we still have a -- long ways to go in term of health care for women. i'm proud to say we are doing a lot of wonderful things for school of public health and health services just to mention a couple a new chair of global health conducting research in a poll critical to maternal newborn and child health. he's developing interventions at the community level to reduce indoor air pollution by cook stove which have been shown to cause poorer birth outcome for women and children.

chair of epidemiologist has promoting most of their career to this. the doctor has focused on hiv prevention work in africa and dr. green boring the direct are of district of columbia a multiconstitution effort addressing the hiv/aids epidemic here in d.c. which as most of you know, has among the highest rate in the world and the highest rate in the united states. the professors made remarkable progress in addressing women's health issues. for instance, professors studied the health problem affecting minorities living in the united states and developed remitses to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other serious health problems that disproportionately impacting such a group. professor wood is executive

director of our jacobs institute of women's health and conducted cutting edge research how it -- [inaudible] family planning services including their ability to obtain low cost contraception such as the pill. at the university level we have diane knapp here with us today. she spent her career researching nutrition and sustainable food policy and heads up the university's urban food task force. it partners with teachers and others in the community trying to get at children when before they develop the worse eating habits so they can develop in a healthy way and so their babies can develop in a healthyway --way as we grow up. and we have maureen in the front row. the founder of the university project of breastfeeding. she made tremendous progress educating our community about the importance of breastfeeding for maternal and child health.

as a pediatrician it's hard to me why we even need to talk about breastfeeding friendly initiative it's basic and fundamental to the health of infants. i'm proud that we are becoming a child friendly campus. we are creating opportunities for our students, faculty, and staff to be able to breastfeed as well as to collect their milk. so we have come a long way but there's so much that needs to be done. so that is why it's such a delight to introduce our guest, ashley judd. many of you certainly know her from award winning acting career. but she's a tireless advocate for women and children around the globe. i'm finding myself in a unique position of introducing her while i have her mother, naomi judd in the front row. [laughter] i'm sure much of what we see here today in term of a

remarkable career has do with her. she has graced the cover of countless nag zones. bringing awareness and closest to her heart such as gender ine quality. she was the subject of three award winning documentaries that aired more than 150 countries worldwide on vh1 the discovery channel, and the national geographic channel. in 2002, she became an ambassador for psi, a global health organization dedicated to improving the health of people in the developing world. she joined them as a board member in 2004, and visited the slums, broth l, school and clinic that psi programs target. i ask her if she was introduce her daughter, what she say. one thing she was struck by the courage that ashley judd shows in going and visiting these places where women and children are living in some of the worst

health conditions. conditions that are difficult experience to observe, requires a tremendous amount of courage to be willing to go out and do that work. she visited ty land, cambodia, and many other countries in what has been a passionate effort to understand the root cause of poverty, social injustice and inequality. recently she received a masters from the harvard kennedy school. she earned an honorary doctorate from eastern kentucky in 2009. please welcome -- join me in welcome miss ashley judd. [applause] >> good afternoon. well, there's what four southerners in here? take two on that.

[laughter] good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> thank you so much dean, and as far as i'm concerned, lass is over. i appreciate your expertise, i am totally daunted by the intellectual capital and life experience in this room, and students go to the student center and have coffee. [laughter] i'm very pleased and honored to be here today. this has been a date five years in the making. get that? based on my long standing froip with friendship we had the pleasure of traveling to india together in 2008 spending extraordinary emotionally grueling as well as aspiring three weeks visiting grassroots program that lift the poorest of the poor out of the worst conditions we have in the fragile world. thank you for having issued me the invitation years ago. amends for the delay. [laughter] and it's a real pleasure to be

here. i would like to thank my mom for being here too. i typical people extemporaneously. i don't keep notes. fortunately the stuff stays clear in my head. there are additional folks here today, and i thought, i better like, have my notes in case i get stuff wrong. my mother will know. i appreciate you make the trip with me. i have a dog on hunger strike. he only wants cheese. so just a little bit about how i got started in this beautiful work, and then i very much want to sit down and hear from the students, you are going the ones who create the current and future solutions that empower the health of all people around the world, particularly girls and women. and, you know, i want to know your thoughts. post mbg? what are we doing?

improved sanitation who is going to invent the toilet. what about the won that the prize at the gates foundation? what are your thoughts on women trapped in sexual slavery and transactional sexual exploitation. do we work with them in the vulnerable situation to immediately protect and empower their health while simultaneously working on demand and supply? abolition? what are your thoughts on that practically and morally. that and who knows what less come up. but i'll tell you a little bit about how i got started. i became aware, actually of child survival and maternal more faulty as someone who has been blessed all her life with rich narrative about family history. we would visit, we have a lot of counties in kentucky. we would visit all the rural county which is our people come and there would be judd graveyards in lawrence county and tome stones of little babies. it was devastating to me they were my kin or cousins or

whatever and i learned it was cool -- and i see moms dieing in child birth. i learned more my triple great grandfather who was a civil war hero who suffered a battle field amputation a prisoner of war three times, his third wife because the second wife died in childbirth and he needed a momma quick and got a good one. i was aware of that grow. ing up. i had the privilege and honor, really, as painful as it is being sensitized and educate about all of the preventable deaths that occur among children under the age of five, malaria, die of real disease, monopoly things which are easy solutions. so i loved being at the university of kentucky. i was in a or so or so

i was i became aware of what was happening in south africa with appar tide government there was a comfortable couple in the music business in south africa. they were activists against the racist regime. and they were about to be placed under house arrest again. they decided that it would be better for them and the effort for racial equality if they left south africa. they managed to flee before their house arrest and they smuggled out of the country with them records, vinyl actual records of speeches given by a fellow. and because they had been in the music business, they settled in nashville and my mother and sister came to know this couple and spotted in me a little something, something and loaned me the records. i started to connect my

christian values with social justice. those records made me cry. they -- they just litany soul on fire. then i started listening to youtube. why not? had great record came out '88 joshua tree in and they were on the cover of rolling stone and i started studying the notes and learning about amnesty international and learning the lyrics in a particular way, "where the streets had no name" that sounded like heaven. at the same time the board of trust agrees having a meeting talking about divesting from the racist appar tight government. a wonderful guy who given incredible service in the commonwealth of kentucky is beloved by our people and served as commissioner of baseball when baseball was integrated and jackie robinson began to play. made an unfortunate and probably generational remarking about why are we talking about this anyway? isn't it a bunch of n's down

there anyway? and we have strong student newspaper at the university of kentucky. i think it might be the oldest continuing running newspaper. go with it. i like it. [laughter] and we had a member of our press corp. there. and he wrote about it in the student newspaper. and i was so devastated i started to lead campus wide walks out of campus to say welcome pledges and that stuff. i started saying thank you for your service. please retire. and the governor published a wonderful memoir around the same

time and signing books and downtown lexington and my friends were standing in line to have the book signed and i was standing in a shorter line with a sign saying -- lflt and then i joined the peace corp. and i dropped out. that's the short version of that story. [laughter] my sister used to say to me, show us how you squat and get the sanitation here thing soon anyway. and i loved that idea. i loved that idea. i would go anywhere but yemen. i'm scared of that place. i hear the congress go is the worse place to be a woman. i've been there four times. i was willing to do anything until i realized that hollywood was a younger woman's game if i didn't give it a try in the early 20s i might later have a regret in life. and if i got started fully invested in service work, that would be my life path without exploring the creative part first. and so i stopped returning -- i did it 22-year-old style. i stopped returning that peace

corp. recruiters calls. talk about emotional immaturity. bead i made my amends to her and the organization and all of his children multiple times. and i was loved the peace corp. volunteers. i was fortunate to meet with ministers and heads of state and talk about the narratives. but boy, can i pick out an american peace corp. volunteer across the room. good people. you ask fantastic staff how many local dialect? three. you ask the peace corp. fourteen, i speak them all. they are amazing. i went to the other jungle hollywood, did my thing there and had success much to my own -- what would the word be? success. i didn't know it was success until i looked back on it last year. it happened so fast. and i remember when i was going, i was talking to a family friend, and i was so frightened.

amazingly i was lazed -- raced with the gratest voice in my generation. i didn't have an arts education. i didn't know what it meant to be an actor. i was scared. i was nervous and talking to the family friend and said i'm going to do a lot of service. i'm going help advocate that women need access to medically accurate sex education and have access to a full basket of family planning. and i went on to list the other things and are you going to be an actor or save the world? in 2002 i was sick and tired of being sick and tired. i didn't know what was wrong. i knew something wasn't at that time it turned out i was the highest paid women. and i like to say adjusted for inflation not including betty's

leagues. the rumor they were ensured. i'm sure it was. you can tell it's public health. you don't get the jokes. look her up. she was foxy. i was working on a film and we were doing a lot of consecutive night shoots. i was basically doing shift work as my loved one dollar owe calls it. and i came home, exhausted, i was waiting for the shower water to get hot and i literally fell asleep on my feet. have you ever done that cramming for an exam? [laughter] checking those footnote on the ph.d. dissertation. i hear it takes a year. at this point it sounds nice. i feel asleep and i jolted away and so surprised and discombobulated i got in the shower and the water was ice cold. san francisco tap water is cold. it's the second or third time i had done that. i got to the big pity party for

myself. and then i had this gift of getting other myself. ing? snapped inside of me. i got sick and tired of my own, you know, pity for myself. and all of these statistics that were still in the side of my awareness came to mind. how dare i be so pitiful standing in a cold shower when 1.3 billion people with whom i share this planet don't have access to safe drinking water. how dare i? i thought, how dare i feel so sorry for myself when 2.6 billion people don't have an appropriate place to got bathroom? when children under the age of 5 die from upper respiratory infections that i can go the doctor for. when my sister and i would sit and, you know, compare our

mosquito bytes and compete to see who is bigger and check our tans. when i would see her vaccination shot. when we were inoculated against diseases that could have killed us. and that same day, and coincidence is god's way of remaining anonymous. i got a letter from population service international asking if i would represent to north america the urgency about halting the hiv/aids crisis worldwide. and also that very same day, i got call from bono. was no talk is ever complete without talking about bono. you love this. talk? he's amazing. the real deal. bono and my great friend called me and started harassing me, and said, you know, we know who you are. we know who you are in your soul. and your soul cares about this stuff. your soul cares about poverty in america. your soul cares about food

insecurity among our children. your soul cares about the growing income gap. your soul cares about our national security and the effect that improving global public health can have on securing our borders and creating markets for american goods. and i said, yeah, i'm going scotland. we are smart like that. and they harassed me more because that's what they do so well. and so i said to dario. bono called, we call him the irish, he wants us to do this thing and travel around seven mid western states. we're going to kick off with warren buffett and lance armstrong will be there. we're going to talk to the heart of america about the hiv emergency. and can we go? he said, absolutely. we got an a bus and went all over the midwest as president truman said when you give americans the facts, they dot right thing. we tried to give americans the fact and we went to churches and

bus stops and stuff i love doing. that really feeds me and gives mae lot of energy. and that trip was the birth of the one campaign. so i'm very, very pleased to have the privilege on my little cd saying i was there at the beginning of the one campaign. i'm an alumni of the experience. and basically i quit my day job and got to this full time. when i started to travel with psi, it was under the guy's nationally as i mentioned 6 hiv/aids awareness. none of the problems exist in isolation. just as all of the solutions are holistic. as soon as i was visiting people in hiv positive in brothels i said why do girls end up in brothels? baseline, gender inequality. and so here we're, all of these years later and i am now going to sit down, are you bored? [laughter] are you glad you are out of class? [laughter] this is in light and

self-interest being here. it's the lecture for the week. and welcome, dean, back to the stage and start having conversation and thanks for letting me share a little bit. [applause] [inaudible] >> some of the things as i said -- [inaudible] [inaudible] >> hang on, sorry for the mic noise. [inaudible conversations] how is that? testing. we'll use this. it's better, isn't it? we're going start with questions from students and we're going ask that those who have questions line up at the microphones so that the questions can be clearly heard by everybody.

and then i won't have to repeat them. what i was moved by the words, and very interested in hearing about the trajectory you have taken in your life with in a way return, to the path you originally would have taken which is interesting. i think that many of us have that kind of experience in public health where there are many ways that people take to get to the same place. but again, i ask your mother about your label and we talked about beforehand and one of the things she hecked i thought -- mentioned i thought interesting was fact that apparently in your family there was a history of people of women who had been involved with health. nurses and ores. and the kind of influence that might have had on early on. >> we grew up with a strong nursing tradition. i'm very proud of that, and has

to be said there's that tradition of nursing because other jobs typical were not available to women, you know, nursing, school school teaching, et. cetera. that being said i think seven nurses in our immediate family. i grew up with my grandma my dad's mothers -- this is kentucky stuff. about family. like, get the -- i had a great aunt and she was a nurse in the second world war, and my great uncle was cranky because she had a higher rank than he did and he had to show the defensor. -- deference and mom and dad split up when sister and i were three. she found a way to earn our living as a nurse and had great passion for public health. it's participant of who we are. >> so -- and just to say to connect it to the breast feeding thing, if you can see the leap

my mind makes. we have too many uninsured people in the country. it's emotionally difficult for families and shaming, i think, for kids too. there were times when mom was in school and i was sick and stayed home alone. because that was all that was available to us to do, you know, and she did the best she could. and the whole family did. that's what, you know, growing up in a single parent home with a paycheck that is not enough does to kids. >> one of the things i've been struck by in the last couple of years to the extent which the issue of particularly women's health and productive health has entered the political arena and dr. wood, who is here on the faculty, is actually somebody who had been at the food and drug administration, and left the fda several years ago over

issues related to the plan b. decisions. and more recently we had a set of decisions that didn't 100% make sense to all of us. then also the attitudes that still seem to be present about issues like rape. and i think that as women, we have to talk frankly about the issues because we are so impacted. i'm the mother of a 16-year-old daughter. there's nothing that worries me more than the statistics and knowing that i want her to be as strong an independent person to be that kind of woman and the risk that she and her friends have every day. and how we as public health professionals can help to educate and get society -- for what it is.

i don't know if you have . >> no idea how much advice i have. i'm trying to identify where to go with this. i appreciated you included that in your remarks. and i've been aware of gender violence my whole life being a survivor of gender violence, and yet i was astonished when i went to graduate school and started to a deeper dive on the numbers here in america how prevalent rape and attempted rape is among young people. am i correct it's one in three college women? that's a lot of us in this room. that's a third of us in the room. part behalf -- part of what is important in addition to how we shape the narrative is that we all have the courage to talk about it. because it's, you know, we're as sick of our secret and the shame keeps us in isolation. with we find our shared

experience we gather our strength and hope. so, for example, you know, i'm a three time survivor of rape and about that i have no shame because it was never my shame to begin with. it was the perpetrator's shame. only when i was a grown powered adult when i would be i dids and opportunity to do helpful work on the trauma was i able to say the perpetrator was shameless and put the shame on me. i gave that shame back and it's my job to break my isolation and talk with other girls and women. and i see people crying. which is a good thing. and that is the one of the reasons why i have the passion and ability. i lose my faith and cry so hard in hotel rooms and people are like do we need help her? ultimately why i have the resilience to do the gender violence work and face the reality of child abuse in the country and abroad.

i am that kid. ives that kid. >> we applaud you your courage. thank you for being outspoken. thank you. [applause] we have an open mike. and our students any of our students if you have questions. >> i can't wait to hear from the college republicans. we do have them. in this building they are very welcome. >> that's not a joke. [laughter] >> believe it or not here at gw, the college republicans and the college democrats work in the same space, and so . >> what a concept! [laughter] >> i know. they talk to each other.

it's fabulous. you know, and we're hoping to set an example for congress. >> i'm not one of the republicans. [laughter] born democrat. i'm crystal. a public health students masters in internal health. i was one of the ones that doctor told us to come. but yesterday we were -- [laughter] but i was invited by our friends, so not only for that reason. >> how am i doing? >> amazing. >> okay. >> the question is yesterday in one of our classes with dr. sparks we were talking about kind of the difference that feminism was in the '70s during the movement and how it dormant but still alive. to you see what we do to give that extra push that, you know, when it the time for us women to wake up? and also not us but our partners.

it's not just about women but to bring up the balance. how do you see us trying to bring that light back in to the movement, because, you know, my sister they are going to college. but they're like, we're not feminists like you. i'm like, yes, you are going to college. >> that's a great place to start. how do you define feminism? we spend the rest of the day talking about just that. to me it's very simple. we're all made in the image of likeness and of our creator. and we are all sacred and we're here to love each other and be equal. it's simple. >> i think that what happened is that it has been used in the media to women who are strong women or educate leaders and maybe it's not even the word that is so

important, but what people are doing. >> there's a great book called "a little f-ed up "why feminism is a dirty woman. it's by a wm your age, jewelry -- i'm sorry i don't know how to pronounce her last name. she came to my speech last year called "conversation" and it was my first experience with something going viral. it was quite extraordinary. i wrote it in 22 minutes in a nightgown. ting came from a higher pow. i knew there was a movement with the essay. when she published her piece in forbes, she added all of these additional textures and dimension to it. and made me aware of the book she had win. i would highly recommend it for your age and anyone. it's a really great book. >> thank you for that. next question. >> my name is ellen, i'm a

student here. i just returned to school to do global health after many, many years of doing other kind of academic work. so ma less ma less millennium goals will few be met and most not. there's a conversation going about leaving them aside and moving on to other goals so we didn't make gender-equality or maternal mortality. let's do something else next time around. i was wondering what your thoughts might be on whether we should sustain the efforts in the goal we have, and reached or whether we should move on to something else. >> sorry. i'm sorry. i was making -- i was giving my mother eye kisses. >> if we don't obtain the goal. i'm not sure everybody in the

room knows -- does everybody know what the ma less millennium goal developments are? good, we are doing our job. [laughter] >> whatever we may call it, we must don't pursue gender equality. we must continue to pursue eliminating maternal mortality. i was able, because miracles do happen, to do some original math at graduate school, and i ran some numbers on the number of unintended pregnancy that happen among women in the democratic of congress go that prefer to have access to modern family planning between what was 2010 and 2050 that cohort of women will have 89 million babies. so we must continue to pursue and accomplish the goals. >> thanks. >> it's kind of interesting the

goal setting process is difficult because if you set the board too low and easily meet them, then, you know, people aren't stretching. and so it's possible -- if they're challenging enough it's going to be hard to meet them all. >> it's progress not perfection, you know. and i really love what melinda gates about doing family planning and the #on twitter and slogan "no controversy" when we allow them to medically accurate sex education and the abstinence and the ability to re-- we have the opportunity to reestablish abstinence. being faithful to one partner. correcting consistent consistent contraceptive use and the access to the type that is right for each individual and couple. and i made up an added d. years ago inspect is so important

delay of actual debut. delay of sexual debut. that takes, you know, conversation. appropriate conversations at the appropriate times with appropriate people. and the idea that we can prevent unintended pregnancy is so important because of apportions then becomes gone. and that's the goal in what is disiecial. >> that sounds good to a mother of a teen. [laughter] >> next question. >> hi. my name is laura hoffmann. i'm a graduate of the bachelors here at public health. and i'm now an attorney. i work with community health centers. my real passion lies in global health. i spent a summer in lob nonand beirut with women who were trafficked. no matter the work we did and the stories we heard. there was stories about how the

laws in lebanon, for example would prevent women from obtaining their passport back when they entered to the country. and the employers had taken them away. so i was just curious about your experience and the places you traveled about the intersection between public health and law. >> absolutely. it's diabolical. and i'm glad that congress reauthorize the violence against women act and within that was the trafficking victims protection act comp helps to -- which helps to get -- double standards within american law. too often we victimize the victim. in term of internationally, that's why i referenced that none of these problems exist in isolation and the solutions are also holistic. when, you know, health is the building block of all sustainability. when a girl is healthy, she can go to school. she can stay in school. when she has her period and

there is a will treen -- toilet and what she needs for the high gene, she can stay in school. for every year a girl stays in school, she has her first child at an older age. she has fewer children, obviously the earning capacity skyrockets exponentially with each year she stays in school. she contributes to the family and community. it's a way to lift nations out of poverty. when you have laws like you referenced, because the girls are still vulnerable in that situation. so lack of awareness about their civic right to civic participation land ownership and tenure. there's an incredible woman i met in a brothel. she ended up there when her mothered die of hiv which she contract frommed dat who had -- her dad's people kicked her off the land she had no legal

right. she ended up in a brothel and pregnant with the second child while still breast feeding the first when i met her. public health an attorney. good for you. thank you for that question. if you are interested in knowing more about sex slavery in the united states, i highly recommend look at the polaris project. it was started by two kids at brown. you guys can change the world. it's amazing what you can do. they didn't know how difficult it was to pass laws in congress. they got the original trafficking law passed in this country. and they are largely responsible for the victim the victim's reauthorization -- you know what, i i mean. that is the one thing that will end up in the paper. i high will recommend it and i

would suggest asking if you could visit their offices. it's an inspiring place near d.c. >> wonderful. and possibly a place that takes interns? we have a lot of students interested in that. [laughter] >> yes. >> hi. good afternoon. i'm meredith waters. i'm a current senior undergrad studying public health. i know, earlier you mentioned how important your faith is to to you. i'm wondering how question harness that to improve health globally and also what challenges you have encouraged especially regarding sexual and reproductive health as someone who is a religious person. >> wonderful question. i love your question. and that's one of the things i did want to talk with you about. it's hard work. you know, and i don't mean it's hard work in term of the hours we put in and cognitively the uptake. it's emotionally hard work. it's hard to be with people when they are suffering. even at -- and that's -- you know, i've been taught it's

abusive to point out a problem without pointing out a solution. and i'm clear that my work in america and abroad -- i'm just a surrogate for the people who are doing the grassroots work. and for some reason people are willing to tell me their stories. i receive their sacred narrative that goes back to the beginning of sitting around the fire telling our stories. and what became essential for me in my faith was to make sure that i celebrated those people too. so much of our hope comes from them. what i have had -- what was your name again? >> meredith. >> what i had to do is find a faith that work for me under all causes and conditions and forcibly displaced person camps in child abuse shelter. in an emergency room.

you know how hard its to work out of an orphanage? i can feel the weight of the baby i left behind. or sit in islam and have two sisters ask me if i will bring them home to america. they know america is where dreams come true. they know america where girls and women can reach their full potential. and later i released they had rehearsed it. it was something they had practiced because they wanted to come home to america with me. that is a death for me. it's like a spiritual death and i fire god, i lose god, i don't understand god. and then there's always something that brings me back. whether it's a conversation with a friend or with a spiritual director, a poo piece of scriptture and that's what i because i don't want any of you to burn out. it's a tragedy to burn out. you're too good.

it's a traj i do burn out. we have one of the great public health africanist in the room. i would have her if i wouldn't have gone to hollywood. and became country director in one of the most difficult countries in the world. democratic republican of congo. and did remarkable things while there. and speaking of religion and faith when we first met at the international retreat some years ago, we were talking about exactly this. how do people survive. how do you not burn out? public health is my religion. [laughter] so whatever works for you, work it. >> yes. >> hello. >> hi. >> a fellow kentucky person. go cats!

i'm going take you hostage home with me. [inaudible] i'm from eastern kentucky. that's what all of that was. and i am finishing up my ph.d. in global health i i felt inspired by appalachia which made me want to pursue public health seeing the health disparity that plagues our hills and mountains. and i just wanted to ask in a lot of gender classes i'm in now we talk about what is the best way to address gender inequalities overseas? is it top down? do you start with government. grassroots? i want to know you know what your thought is. >> it's both. >> it's both. >> thank you for that question. >> thank you for sharing that. i think we have another one. >> hi.

i'm alissa. i was fortunate this summer to travel to india with the doctors we were there for two weeks and i think was struck the whole time by the amount of garbage in india. and i couldn't -- i would wake up in the morning and go to bed and i could not get over it. so my question is chow -- do we get anyone to care about their health when the first thing they need to care about or they probably care about is the dump of trash that just got put in front of their house in a slum or don't have running water. and to me that seems like the base. if we can't get that then we can't expect women to care about getting to school or anyone care about getting their children the right nutrition. i'm wondering through your travels what you have seen and your thoughts on that. >> my thought is you found your

pig. and you should stick with your pig. and what, i mean, my pig is we all have to find the thing that makes us mad. and the thing that gives us the fire in the belly and the passion in the stamina to stick with it. and the pig thing comes from a good eastern kentucky my godmother introduced my parent although she lived in san francisco and had a pig as a pet. some of her fancy friends were like what was it about? she's like, it's my pig. [laughter] so it became a slogan for this is my thing. right. and it sounds like garbage has become your thing. [laughter] >> maybe. [laughter] >> go with it. >> okay. i'll go with it. and i agree with you about the garbage, and i've had the privilege to sit with literally three generations of waste pickers and pick waste with them. and it was one of the most

bonding and -- when i left the grandma she hugged me and said you will always be my be granddaughter because you sat her and picked waste with me. it was things like separating if there was a piece of copper they could exchange that for money. if you are interested in the informal economy in which girls and women disproportionately participate, there's great stuff going on with organizing waste picking. particularly in central america. >> i just actually watched "waste land" from brazil. i said that needs to go to india. [laughter] >> a great idea. >> and when i think of her name, i block her name out, i was in awe of her i was intimidated i'll give you the name of a professor for whom that xanax per tease. i was scared of her. she said 0 to scare me once, we

need to bring the anxiety down. [laughter] i was trying to do a matrix. of course bring the anxiety down. you people have that effect on us. [laughter] you do. >> do you. >> ability of anxiety can -- [inaudible] not that much. i was like choking up. next question. >> hi, nay any maim is any. i'm a former student and i am a pollster. so we do a lot of public opinion research around the issues. so this has been so fabulous. but i want to go back, miss judd, to actual violence and the importance of speaking out and naming the violence for what it is. which i agree is important and critical to the movement. i was wondering what you thought about situations in which the survivor or some cases the victim, the person still happening to is dependent upon

the perpetrator in such a way speaking out isn't possible. it happens a lot in the u.s. military. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. >> yeah. that's an issue. >> we're better than that. it's got to stop. >> right. so, i mean, i guess my question is do you have any thoughts particular about policy or how to address that issue specifically? >> such a great question. are you familiar with the military sexual trauma? so first of all, i would identify there are multiple ways in which a girl and woman is dependent upon herrer. traitor. there's economically and the wheel of violence and control the duluth model. are you familiar with that? if you don't know it check it out online. it's spectrum of violence. there's the subtle, the covert, and then it travels the spectrum

obviously to the lack of respect for our bodily integrity and sexual autonomy. and if we can start here, just identifying and collectively agreeing that this is in fact a form of gender violence, question start disrupting it here so it doesn't have to progress all the way to such extreme physical violence. and trauma bonding with one perpetrator is perhaps the most underdiscussed part of this. i think there is some understanding that if a woman is dependent upon her abuser for income or what feels like the protection of her children. that's a concept we get. but when a woman is psych lodgely bonded with the perpetratorrer and lives in the cage of fear, i think there's more victim blaming going on there. that's part of what i'm

interested in. is there anybody doing work on that in the room? >> have i inspired you to? [laughter] and then, you know, with -- i actually had the opportunity to direct something in november. it was about military sexual trauma. i was pleased -- the premise. it's "call me crazy" my particular one about a veteran who has ptsd from military sexual trauma. i was able to learn a lot. most of it extraordinary dismaying. and i highly recommend a documentary called "invisible war" on the subject and celebrate their courage because, you know, they are women who are raped in our military and charged with inif i infidelity an they're not married. it's a big problem. there has been progress recently in congress. i know, senator gillibrand has

been helpful. when a woman -- when the investigator, the prosecution, the defense, the jury, and the community is appointed and controlled by her superior, we make no progress. and as glad as i am that women are permitted in combat, my first fear was there will be more rapes. because there will be additional attempts to control women who have the capacity to progress in our military. so i appreciate your bringing it up. and we are better than that. i mean, i know women in the military who don't go to the bathroom in the middle of the night because sexual assault in the bathroom is so common. it's unacceptable in the united states of america. so thank you for bringing it up. thank you. >> you are going to be a part of the solution. you brought it up. you now have the responsibility. [laughter] >> hi.

miami epidemiologist. >> cool. i love epidemiologies. it's fun. >> yeah! i got the slam deng education about malaria by one of the greatest epidemiologist in the world. >> that's good. it it's numbers and facts. it's great. so going back to the sexual violence and gender violence. i'm a survivor of what we talked about earlier. the one in four on college campuses. and i -- sorry. i find it hard because like u just said women get to power and learn more and constantly brought back. and how do we keep ourselves going? like, that's a thing for me. how do i constantly want to do more and prevent it from happening again, yet i feel pushed back? i'm glad that you spoke openly today. because i felt less alone. i know, that is with a lot of

people. it is the one in four, by my senior year of college i could count in my class. i could count because we started talking about it. it shouldn't happen on a college campus because there is a statistic that if you don't go to college you less likely in that age group to have an assault. that's messed up. >> that's so messed up. you put it well. thank you for sharing that. thank you for sharing so openly. i think i just see so many faces around the room. i know, that it helps us all with with being able to open up and as you said be able to face that and not push it back. it's important about what you said not pushing it back. thank you so much. ..

my question might be for the team first. i say this because hearing on the stories about when placed in these positions of violence has been to really disturbs me and this should be your pick because if one of four students that are female at being abused -- i'm sorry i'm so nervous and shaking. the aggressors are the boys on

campus. statistically he was going to do it except the people around them? if the look of the room here come you're talking about feminism and been interested in gender studies and empowering women and people. we are all women for the most part. why are we not using our resources at the school to appeal to more young man to be part of the program and more at it? >> that's a good point. it's interesting that person is out to make so i don't want to put in too much on the spot. [laughter] but it's a good point. >> i would mention the manchurian violence program. are you all familiar with? its initiative that reaches out to boys on campus, young man on campus who have social capital and teaches them about the spectrum of violence and how do use their voice to destruct within their peer group. we are talking about male to

male alliances that isolate, individuate and diminish the voice of girls. i suggest you all take a look at the mentoring island prevention program. it's wonderful. >> may i squeeze in another question? -underscore t-tango had a roll with it. what kind of resistance or obstacles have you met her women, either cultural, social, economic, what have you experienced in your work you got an opposition women? for example, female mutilation, sometimes our strict cultural ties. >> sometimes women are tasked with enforcing some of the rules in society that are difficult for women and for whatever reason. i think i do fear perhaps if the

daughter is outside of the status quo that shall be harmed and that is being days. but they often have that role has been on the first line of enforcing whatever rules there are in a society. sometimes it does seem paradoxical that it is women who are communicating those limits. money talks. i mean, one of my minors as cultural anthropology at the time and that doesn't mean that there is a place in the 21st century for harmful traditional practices such as female mutilation. when i say money talks, one of the things that's effective is to take their emulators for him this is a cultural legacy and initiate responsibility and then

all the sudden they don't have to rely on it for survival in their thinking is hope and to some changes. so that is an example of economic empowerment. when you ask about my personal experiences, i would refer you to that essay, the conversation because that's how i experience participial. it's divided cocker. my god, there was this horrible thing recently. i've got my family of origin and my family of choice and she was telling me about some in her small wrote community. it is a post that said men, don't bother to understand women. women understand each other and they hate each other. are you kidding me?

and strong female to female alliances are so and i would encourage you to cultivate down as if your life depended on it because it does. i chronic sinusitis. i haven't gotten sick since then, but it is horrible extended, repeated kramnik sinusitis. i had a puffy face face, made? and all the sudden women everywhere were saying it was so contradict jury that i'd either had plastic surgery and what's bad or hadn't had enough and i looked at. and it's just not so that's when i wrote the essay so i refer you to that. strong female to female alliances because your life does depend on it. >> i'm sorry, i didn't see back there. >> mkc, a freshman here. up in the regular suburbs.

i was heard the statistics one in three women will be assaulted. it never surprises in my face and then i come to college in so many of my late female friends come to me -- they come to me and tell me they been assaulted. this is the first time when dealing with it. but so few of them, none of my friends go to the proper authorities or anybody for ice. they just do with it. we have such great resources they can go to. house fractures, crisis centers, but none of them seem to want to go to it. my question is first of all why do they not want to go? second of all, what can i in the position they put into to help them? >> asked them why they don't want to go and take her by the hand and take her there yourself.

>> yacht, all of us need to encourage to seek out. i do think it's very we've come that even in the u.s., and something like that happens to ask him and maybe people will think we did something to cause it. >> most responses are not the century. it sounds like you have good resources here that i appeared i have the opportunity to be familiar with the san francisco child abuse prevention and it really is a national model. please check it out. a great professor, madeleine albright's daughter, katie is one of the moving forces they are and they are creating a facility so when it comes forward, she's only interviewed once in every person who needs to be part of the processes they are because retelling a story is traumatizing. the idea that the investigator,

social worker, police cannot be there and is handled with the appropriate sensitivity is the person traced to debrief some is so traumatic is how we should move forward with a set number of people will feel comfortable. it's difficult, but they'll feel comfortable telling their stories. a friend of mine's daughter was gang raped and obviously was absolutely wild with grief and horror and she did all the thing shootout with the right things, took her daughter to the emergency room, told my series of caregivers and the staff changed and she had to tell the story again and then all this stuff about insurance and the police showed up at the end of the day, they said you were in the wrong county and her mother

did not press charges that she knows who the three boys sorry. >> a number of people are at the mike in only a few more minutes. so what i'm going to do a strike to hopefully if we can move quickly -- >> about this -- i just interrupted her teacher. [laughter] >> you did not. you are the show. >> each of you ask your question briefly and we'll see if there's a theme. >> one, two, three, four and turn things over. >> i interrupted president clinton once, too. >> i'm a graduate of program and the doctorate program at the wonderful opportunity to work on this project, but my heart and passion is an essential africa. my question is for someone who's traveled the congo and

experienced depression within that country and talk to women that it is a common theme you seen rape as a weapon of war. how do we address issues of child survival when people are faced with conflict and political instability on a daily basis? >> love that question. it's about fostering democracy and helping countries build democratic institutions. national democratic institute, for example. i have to write these down. these are good. >> and kitty remy pasted in global health and my question is while health and violence against women is always related to improving gender equality and things like that, but i feel racism is never brought into that realm and for a minority in america it is so intertwined

with that disparity and people are so to talk about it and it's such an abstract, unhelpful way that we never get to the root of the problem. how do you address some pain about a subject no one wants to bring up? >> hi, my name is leigh ann hester, masters in public health student with maternal and child health concentration. i get nervous i made notes on my phone. >> and a lot were never awol liar. promise. there's people who don't give a rats you know what about public health. >> we been talking about violence in our maternal and child health class we talked about the life course perspective, but we've been focusing on violence on college campuses, but obviously its roots go to a much earlier face in life most likely. how do you propose addressing it from a life course is.

and baltimore related to pregnancy dare come at young man felt like they need to pass on dna essentially because violence is so rampant in their communities that it was causing high rates of pregnancy and young women. >> hi, scipio triply, health policy student. my question is smart domestically focused because i know you may be running for political office. >> is there an elephant in room? >> i'm wondering what your debates. right now is up in a country extremely polarized politically and i'm wondering how do we address and move forward on underlying issues such as racism, or equality, education disparities, how do we really in

this climate address these issues and move forward? >> wonderful bunch of questions. how you make that into one i'm not sure, but i'm dying to see. >> there is definitely a very powerful theme that emerged over the course of our time together and that is violence against women and i appreciate your awareness and passion and understanding that when girls and women are constrained in any way to their health, educationally, economically, they can't reach their potential and neither can families and society. with regard to, i am all for our country showing our might. i am also for us showing our goodness, compassion and brilliance of the idea of

democracy and very things we can do to help failed states strengthen institutions and foster democracy. carter foundation is good at that. the national democratic institute is good at that. as i said earlier somewhat pithily this from the top-down and bottom-up. ever talking about it please called congo, it's all about abusive mineral extraction. this such a legacy that officials don't know how not to be corrupt. so you know, what is your paid? good governance, go get it and it's crucial. i really liked the life course perspective because the average age of entry into prostitution in this country is 12. all of them are survivors of

abuse, whether in fast or views, so we have to start disrupting not immediately. let others hear and we've talked about this stuff a lot and nobody is bad and wrong, it's the way things were. a lot of love in our family and son being said dirk. i grew up in two different states. i lived in a rural farmhouse in tennessee by myself and i realized that's not working so well so great to live somewhere else and it went live lived with my dad who i loved and adored and have a wonderful relationship and he put 40 bucks or so and in kentucky no one ever noticed. not a guidance counselor, not a teacher. one neighborcome a sober member of alcoholics anonymous reach out and said there sent me going on in your home.

i thought she was rich because she had cinemax. she listened to me after school. it's about recognition, voice, ultimately empowerment and gender equality. and that does include eliminating racism in all its iterations and guises. >> all i can do at this point is thank you. it's just been wonderful to have you visit with us today and the work that you do on behalf of women and children everywhere is fabulous. we do have something for you, a little thank you gift. it says school of public health and health services. it's not much. it's something. >> thank you so much. [applause] >> i hope you come back.

>> the daffodils are fixing to bloom in kentucky. i don't know what to do with this pack. >> don't wait five years to come back again. >> i will not. >> where the building coming out of the ground to come visit us there. our great appreciation. i think what you've shared with us is wonderful, so well-informed. vicious than fabulous. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate it. standing ovation from the mother. [applause] >> thanks, everybody. thank you. [applause] >> i'm going to call you kids. it's been a pleasure, kids. keep at it. you are the difference makers and i wish i could come to the student center and hang out with you. thanks for having me.

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i was reacting to a fear that someone else told me, you better watch out. they're going to try and trick you. >> i'm in d.c. that's a good thing. >> people told me he knew to be on guard and watch what you're saying. you shouldn't take questions from microphones. so my remark was coming from that. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> is that your speech is amazing. it is really empowering. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> nice to me here. >> nice to meet you, too. [inaudible conversations] >> i love you and your reviews. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations]

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>> and munched away your renegade group 20 years old. i am launching a non-governmental organization that is going to try to save the butterfly image in a ship that is in danger of extinction. research has come and visit you would like to state that butterfly in indonesia. you will find in the 20 years old and that there's people interested in doing that, which is great. then nasa's same group, who is to join me in a political party? who wants to join the republican

party or democratic party? you will see far fewer would be willing to volunteer time and efforts and passions enjoining and that's very valuable. political parties need to modernize khomeini to cut more attractive to young professionals because political parties ids sends of the idea you can have democracy without strong political parties. >> next, a panel discussion with

melissa koide handles consumer policy for the name. this is an hour and a half. >> after an welcome for the center for american progress. i'm director of asset building. today, march 1st is a milestone. not of washington that is possibly perceive the most attention today. i'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. it is perhaps the second and down the street i treasury treasury department headquarters pennsylvania avenue. for decades the general public could bring government checks to this room and have been cached. in 1976, the cash enclosed is a ceremonial space. there's no cash in the cash room. as for today's kind of cash, the transition to electronic

payments, most americans who receive payments such as social security, supplemental security income, veterans benefits and retirement than if it were federal employees will no longer choose paper checks. they have two options. direct deposit to take account of their choice or a new government issued card called the direct express card. for many americans as an easy choice. david bank account their entire lives in a two set up your deposit. approximately 17 million adults in america have no savings accounts allow according to the federal deposit insurance coalition. these are what we call about 80% of all american households. and there's an additional one in five under banked, meaning they take accounts, but they also use financial services. this is particularly true if we think about the populations most of the dubai today's change.

if you think about social security benefits, 1 million households age 65 or older are in banked. nearly another 3 million are under banked. 8 million american households earning less than $30,000 here have no bank account and another 10 million are under banked. her 2% of households earning less than $15,000 a year or i'm banked as 20%. so when you prepaid funds? and enormous potential to bring americans into the financials of them financial benefits. purchases without carrying checks to save money and time by avoiding check cashiers are many orders. they get cash at atms to the financial that it's much their counterparts to the bank account in debit and credit cards. over a piece in the market go down and features are going up.

a market by briscoe looks like a product is now mainstream. about 3 million people without bank accounts today manage their money with prepaid cards and among those households who once told big accounts but don't anymore, 27% use a prepaid card in 2011. as the center for american progress noted last november, prepaid cards and bank accounts or convergent and as we told the fdic last year, this may need adjusting to and what we consider unmanaged. regulation should mithras treating prepaid cards like bank accounts and in some arty do. this also pitfalls. somehow payment of fees or atm fees or per transaction fees or fees for customer service. it's possible to vzv be nickel vzv be nickel and dime nontheists. indeed, the national consumer law center indicated this is even true of some state governments that use prepaid debit card to distribute unemployment benefits.

so what is worse, with government dollars that should be going to recipients that are siphoned off. this can happen with tax refunds of the center for american progress noted in a release this week. i would like to introduce our panel. melissa koide is deputy assistant secretary for consumer policy at u.s. department of treasury had an article she covers financial access, education consumer protection issues and serves as executive for the advisory on financial capability. jeanne hogarth is vice president of the center for financial services innovation that seeks to improve both the quality and quantity of financial products and services. she was previously an economist at federal reserve and david rothstein of policy matters ohio, dedicated to building a more prosperous, equitable, sustainable and inclusive ohio will be speaking about his

experiences at the state level. at this point i would like to turn it over to melissa koide. >> good morning, everybody. it's great to be with you. thank you, joe for inviting me here. can you hear me okay? first of all, i want to pause on the reflection show made about what was happening in the cache are many years ago with the catcher looks like today. if you were to go into my office, you would see i had two portraits or photographs on the wall. one is the cashier many years ago when money was changing hands and the other is the cash room looks like today, this beautiful enormous stately room in which we have many conversations like the one were having today about the future of financial services holds for consumers. it's great to be with you and to hear you point that out.

as you heard, and the deputy assistant secretary for consumer policy at the treasury department and now is focused on a number of issues related to consumer policy matters. i want to call out in the remarks they we are interested in emerging trends in financial services and the role of type allergy and use of data and how those developments are manifesting an affecting how consumers are interact with their money. so you let me talk a little bit about that. we treasury see as key to our work in much of what we talk about this morning finding creative ways to harness technology, empower consumers with the ability to access native financial products and services and better manage their money. technology presents an opportunity to develop not only new financial products and tools for consumers, but also the promise to reshape the financial

services industry in ways that are inclusive, safe and accessible. the barriers to entry are low and protections are consistent and effective. technology offers the promise, offers promising ways to bring consumers, financial products, to those who have traditionally been underserved. one should contact allergies affect major implications for treasuries to move from paper checks to electronic payments. treasury has required delivery of federal benefit payments electronically in 1999 subject to reverse with the goal of going all electronic and today is that date was that that goal. we think the time is right. compared to five years ago, americans are simply more comfortable with electronic payments. according to the federal

reserve's 2010 payments study, there were 5.7 billion fewer checks written in 2009 compared to 2006 and a tronic payments grew more than 9% during that same period. direct deposit has been available for decades and has proven to be easy, safe and convenient. in fact, more than nine out of 10 federal benefit recipients already choose to receive their payments through direct deposit. for people who don't have a bank account as you heard joe mentioned, we now have the direct express card as an option, which is a prepaid debit card introduced by the treasury department in 2008. direct express provides a safe, convenient alternative to federal benefit checks. you don't need a credit check or bank account in order to use the card and you can use the card to make payments in excess cash. we are doing away with paper

checks in favor of electronic payments because it's the right thing to do for benefit recipients and we'll talk about that. but also it's the right thing to do for american taxpayers. over a ten-year period, we are going to save $1 billion by going electronic. millions of people have made the switch to direct deposit since today's deadline was announced. today approximately 94.3% of federal benefit recipients are receiving their social security and supplemental income payments via direct express card. that's from 85% from two years ago. beyond benefit payments, we sought to explore how to move to electronic payments, how better to electronic payments could perhaps make delivery of tax refunds paid for, more efficient and a financial inclusion tool. to that end, i want to take a few minutes this morning to share briefly results from a tax

time pilot we've undertaken. each year treasury males over 40 million individual income tax refund checks each year. the majority of individuals receiving most checks instead of using direct deposit and having those refunds deposited into an account, those individuals are low and moderate come. 60% of those check recipients are making less than $30,000 a year. as part of our effort to replace all checks with electronic payments and to test out the mechanisms of offering a tax and account aimed specifically at the young bank tax filer, treasury pelleted offering families the option of tax refund direct deposited into a reloadable prepaid debit card, what we term my account. a random sample of income families are given the option of receiving their income. every household receives one of

six offerings. each account had a different feature we predict it could influence take-up rates. we tested accounts with features that had these verses account they didn't have fees. we tested accounts that have been in touch savings account against accounts that did not saving him i also tested two different messages. one was around safety and wellness around convenient and i'm going to share with you what we've learned. the random sampling design allowed us to understand who would be most interested in a tax on account and importantly what account features would likely increase takeout. so what did we learn? first for individuals and households likely to be a ranked were three times are likely than those individuals and households in bank accounts to apply for and be issued the card. second, females and people in households with children were

45% and 35% respectively more likely to take up the card then males and people in households without kids. third, the pilot showed people living in households with low incomes, those with incomes at agi said $15,000 or less were 17% more likely to take up a card account offers and this is slightly higher incomes. fourth, data showed the presence of a monthly fee affected participants take up and use of the accounts. specifically the 4.95% monthly maintenance fee reduced by 42%. participants offered a card with a monthly fee versus those without use of the card 50% fewer months and were 52% less likely to deposit their tax refunds into the account via direct deposit.

so these data provide several lessons for anyone interested in thinking about expanding financial access to payments. the pilot indicated a consumer appetite for some newer products. data showing on being households were significantly more likely to apply for the tax timecard underscores the interest. secondly their product features matter. in this case, structure had a large impact on uptake. taking together, these findings suggest developing the right products in fees and features is an important step in helping to unlock attentional demand for these products. i believe the lessons from this pilot serve to affirm our continued efforts to protect american households, particularly on bank to lower and moderate households is safe affordable products to meet

needs. the move to electronic payments has significantly altered the financial landscape, which i've said and did the time innovation and technology and usage data is radically changing the personal finance experience and i want to talk about this. my office is interested in exploring how mobile phone to elegies is transforming the way we interact with their money for basic mobile banking to more novel innovations in payments and money management. the penetration of the smart found in particular may present a real opportunity to help expand access for underserved consumers. many of you may know to stay at, but i'll give it to you for those who don't. it's what i told pew conducted a survey and found 49% of african-americans and 49% of latinas under the age of 18 reported owning a smartphone. at the same time, more than a

third making less than $35,000 per year reported owning a smartphone and adoption in this group is growing fastest. a separate study found consumers are actually more likely to run smart forms than the rest of the population. it highlights mobile technologies to help reach underserved consumers. smartphone apps may be the next frontier in providing initial decision-making tools that can be personalized to the individual. these key off of data that helps the user to make smarter real-time financial decisions and also informed decisions and set goals they are able to achieve over time. recognizing this potential we have treasury have developed several initiatives using smart found as a tool for financial

capability. a major effort last year was for my money at challenge and i dare any of you and me to say that five times fast. this is a contest where we offered cash prizes for the best mobile app ideas and designs to help americans be more informed decisions. the challenge had two cars. the first was simply solicitation from a contest. give us your best financial at 240 characters or less. a second part of the competition was for a comprehensive design or postal. we received all across the country and walks of life. some of the imagination that americans have about how they can use their phone for finances.

sense is the name of the app the third-place winner. this proposal will help if developed will help take managing student loans easier and i know i would've appreciated having now. among other features, the app will allow the consumer to put all of their student loans in one place so they can see what they are paying, see their rates. it will then create a payoff plan i would think that the individual's budget and would encourage the user to make more frequent payments ultimately reducing the interest the consumer is paying almost loans. the idea that i have to note is my favorite, one called mullah. this is the second place winner, an apt idea aimed at helping low and moderate income benefit recipients to better manage their money and also achieve their financial goals. this would enable users to create a budget and also connect

directly with public benefits. i think of this concept is a personal financial management tool combined with a single stop public benefits. so just imagine the value and the opportunity and cost savings for government as well as individuals in using that kind of online technology through the phone. the winner of our app contest -- [inaudible] was one called crazy money, which would create a game interface that helps the user, but track and control would only help with their impulse spent. the developer called this the crazy money. users would create a game that would actually allow the individual to define how much money they want to spend as impulse spending, basically set monthly goals and of course using peer pressure, what their

friends and family know what the goals are. of course in the individual surpasses their crazy money expectations, friend and family find out about it and get matches here are to rein it in. so those are three of the examples that i think you can help illustrate the creativity and the opportunity of using mobile technology. we also believe there is a real potential for advances in technology that can make a meaningful positive differences in the way consumers interact and manage and understand money. the treasury we continue to work at innovators and leaders of industry for banks and credit unions to prepay providers as well as emergency technology companies thinking about smart ways to serve consumers while ensuring protections and compliance. but we are also looking internally and thinking about how government at all levels can

more effectively leverage payments to increase financial access and financial capability. from tax refunds to social security benefits, hundreds of billions of dollars are routinely flowing to the state and federal governments record of families. beyond just a vehicle to remit payment, now is the time to consider how government payments can be used to actively improve the financial outcomes of households. so as we think our government payments at the federal level can best be harnessed, there's a powerful opportunity to test strategies not only at the federal level, but also the state level where payments are made to households through ranger programs, unemployment insurance and child support. how might save jesus pena platforms to increase access to some financial products? how might this be used to not only facilitate saving, but also

to encourage it. and how many families better track and manage their money in their budgets through that electronic vacation in payments. and how many strategies that have been changes perhaps what federal government payments? are excited about moving the conversation forward, coordinating across government and working with industry and consumer advocacy community to explore new opportunities in this space. i'm not going to close. i'm sure joe is ready for us to move on. will end by calling a commitment to the can around the bend at what is coming, how the landscape of consumer financial services is changing and how policy and regulation can help enhance and encourage innovations that are ultimately empowering consumers. looking ahead, there's many reasons to be optimistic about prospects of increased financial inclusion of innovative financial service providers designing new and dynamic

products to the continued march at knowledge you, constantly reshaping the link between families and finances. there's a lot of potential, said thank you for having me here today. looking forward to her conversation. >> melissa. as the panelists are assembling on stage, i do have one question for melissa right off the bat. ..

>> they are the ones receiving payments. there are a number of strategies that have been employed to make sure that they were well prepared for this march 1 deadline. first of all there was a direct partnership. about 200 organizations helping benefit recipients understand how to use the product.

it is an incentive device that the benefit recipients will find out about by getting this. they will then receive it in the mail, they can scratch this off, they can have a number, they can go online and engage in a number of financial education courses or modules. when they do that, they did entered into a contest to win small prizes. there are encouraging and nudging of benefit recipients. >> that is good. i know this is a moment of anxiety for people who may not have experience with bank accounts. we do appreciate that. turning to you, do you have any thoughts on this?

>> melissa mention that this has been a work in progress since 1999. i had an interesting experience working on this to help people get their. i think the direct express card is a really great product. if you look at the free structure, it is very free. you can use it as the point-of-sale cash back. there is only one free atm withdraw from him. but because we can get cash back and we downloaded the entire amount of cash at once. i think it's an opportunity --

it could be a leader that will help consumers with products to build the financial mainstream and use products that they can use to promote their own financial security. >> what are your thoughts? >> you know, i agree with her and i think this is designed really well read if i would agree to this, you know, one thing that is important is that there is a fee for this statement for using this card,

we encourage people to help track their transactions throughout the month. that is one area in which we have a pretty big value. over time i would love to see sort of the savings opportunity on the card. especially because that is a little bit different in that the idea would be social security and disability recipients. >> we all need to encourage savings. i appreciate the recommendations on the savings peace. i think that we have more to do to understand how to make that happen technically and how to think about ensuring the benefit

that recipients will use and see that as an opportunity. >> i know you have seen this for a while. you have seen issues in ohio, unemployment benefits the biggest issue was overdraft fees and they have about 300 branches

throughout the state. so they do have some atms there as well. there are 33 counties that don't have this. there are around 15 or so that don't have this either. taking out $20, back it's really expensive for people that are on unemployment compensation. that is exactly what we are arguing for. so i think that this card is

better than some of the cards that are out there. >> it is important, but it may not work all the time. >> that is a challenge. if you talk to the financial planner types, advocacy folks, it could be encouraging people to spend a convenience store, a grocery store, but they want to take $20 off the card. >> is there any kind of adjustments at the state level that you have seen? >> well, the national consumer form has gone to great reports. i think at least 30 of them have the best rate you can get. and a lot of cards don't always

do these types of things. over drafting is important, those are the real important things on the card. also, overall, encouraging direct deposit for those who are eligible is really important. a lot of people who do have financial institutions, credit unions, and i think they can -- there is nervousness around government deposits in the accounts. >> how do you go about that when you are looking at a card from a national perspective?

we wanted to make sure that consumers would have many points of access and cash. one of the approaches that we have taken is we have utilized this money path, which notably an asset even to call attention to the fact that we also have access points for cash and some well known and well distributed areas and retailers.

and how many times you have to walk into a branch is something that has changed the model. while it is important to have an ability to work with a financial institution through the web or some sort of customer service phone line, walking into a branch may not be as important as having access to financial services someplace else. that being said, i think there has been research out there that shows the presence of bank branches and communities does foster community economic development. i do think that the way that customers relate to their financial institutions is changing quite a bit.

>> we are talking about a number of different payments. >> in regards to ebt payments, we have strategies to really encourage the benefits for social security and other federal benefit payment recipients. to think about using it and wiser way.

it also speaks to offering of the card products. and i think there is some work that we need to do to balance the equation [inaudible] >> the philadelphia reserve bank of the study that looks at how consumers are using these prepaid products. there is this pattern were a whole bunch of people that

follow one spectrum's annan, and then there is the other spectrums and, and it is used as a atm, getting 20, 40, $60 back, using it as the fast food chain to grab lunch. they're using it as a transaction device. >> holding that thought for just a minute, i know melissa must have back for a meeting in a few minutes. i did want to give the audience the opportunity to ask questions. woman in the back? >> i am a consultant working for a nonprofit. what conversations are taking place between the department of treasury and hhs, primarily with

the programs that they have? possibly creating an application program participants to use on a smart phone. >> that is a great question. as you can imagine we are quite interested in leveraging our partnership with other agencies to think about payments and leveraging them for access and capability. we have only begun to really think about the conversations, but i think there is a recognition across all federal agencies create even throughout the administration that we have to and that is on our agenda.

>> [inaudible question] switching over to electronics, we know some have done it, we know there will be some that have not read hal gently is this enforced and is this being done. >> let me just say no and checks are going away? people are still going to receive their payments. it will be after the checks are distributed because the individual cannot find out that we will come back to them. and offer encouragement and assistance in getting them into the directives.

>> are there other questions? >> in the back? >> can you talk about the strategies and how people are vulnerable? >> i'm going to get your name before i leave and make sure that the folks we specifically reached out to nonprofits on the ground.

we are teaching how to use the cards wisely. we are talking about who you have in mind. >> in the front? >> i am happy to share. >> [inaudible question] >> the treasury had respect for to the distribution of government payments into prepaid cards. a number of consumer protection mandates were included in that ruling, including the prepaid

card receiving federal benefits and it must have federal regulation protection for payroll cards. statements and disclosures and a host of other types of consumer protections, as well as the requirements that any cards that receive federal public benefits by the fdic or equivalent insured. >> one final question? >> second row? >> i am going to ask about something that is similar to a chat, where someone can take everything off the card. in the study, has there been any other issues with safety of it? let's say someone can't travel, but before they were signing the

check and giving their check to someone to cash, they knew the money they were getting back and that sort of thing [inaudible] can you explain a little bit more about that, and what do people have to do? to have to give the cards to someone else? >> great question. thank you. >> i can tell you that i don't want to get effects because i don't know the details. but there is always the concern about someone giving their card

to someone else and the car being stolen and the pin number being accessed. having said that, the amount of fraud that we are seeing when we were doing the projects was so significant there were payments in 2011. i want to say there was something like 440,000 paper checks in 2011 where the checks were lost or stolen. it is not to say that there is an impossibility for the incidence of some of ostrov. >> in terms of what we are offering to the recipients, this

really reduces and outlook. >> [inaudible>> we have done a k around making sure that people can understand the features on their prepaid cards. >> what you sign-up for over the internet, we will try to make whatever is available to you. we have porky compass principles that serve as filters for how we

view financial services. they are promoting success and creating opportunities we have taken the form key things and we talk about how they are applied to prepaid cards. we used them to create compass guides to prepaid cards. >> yes, we will offer you products that are inclusive and trustworthy and help you succeed and create opportunities for your well-being.

alyssa said that when she was there, the folks are creating a prototype of a fee disclosure, many of you know about this that you get with your credit card. we are applying it to what you could expect to have they are building and designing their products. i'm happy to say that actually we do have financial institutions and we are only going to offer these kinds of products in this way. >> do you have any thoughts on

that level of transparency? >> i think the disclosure is a great idea. as was said, it is not totally applicable. we hope these transactions are one thing that we need to push. when we help them out by giving them a card for free, that is a great transparency.

>> we asked how you get that money off your car. especially people with unemployment benefits and those who really use their entire paycheck or benefit check. >> we are hoping to support this through the mastercard network. once we have the ability to

service customers in this way. but that is the other option. >> you mentioned the conversation where we have been lining up to offer these cards. especially to offer these with clear disclosures. >> they said that sometimes it is a interchange fee and you have probably heard of this. so there is a revenue generation there. what is in it for the financial institution in terms of lining

up these set of principles. is that you retain the custompl. is that you retain the customers cards that do get reloaded can last two or three years. customer attention becomes a key issue for financial institution and it is cheaper to go after the customer you have been a customer you don't have. so we need to keep that in mind, keeping your customer in mind. >> so direct deposit, whether it is from an employer or the government or these economic preferences, and makes a difference. >> it really does. >> you mentioned earlier briefly

some of the issues. >> yes, i did. i really think that there will be a structure to let the card be profitable. so they're they are not coming at the end of the month and it snowballs and it is a difficult thing to accumulate over time. so i think that is one of the problems of over drafting. the other problem is speaking from my standpoint. it is a prepaid card, meaning that the money is already on it

without the benefit. i think policymakers are very nervous about the idea of an overdraft it would be taxpayer dollars and i think that that is a real concern. i think the other thing is if the issues are occurring, the underlying point is that we need to offer assistance. >> you made some interesting

points. many of these cards, we can go onto the web and look at these transactions and track your balances and get text alerts and whether or not you can afford that purchased before you go into an overdraft situation if your card allows it. they can use their mobile devices so they track where they are going.

one company lets you overdraft and it gives you 24 hours. so they are going to say that we are over your limit, there are some other ways we can manage [inaudible] >> okay. >> when money is loaded on the car, whether it is down to the balance, people just have to do their best. >> so we have heard a lot about

this, whether it is text alert, good or bad, at what point can we start accessing information that they can count via mobile? >> we have seen the lines blurring. there are infrastructure issues that actually do prevent the prepaid card from becoming a bank account problem. so they have several payments or you can record it. there are some structural limitations the prepaid account

really starts acting like a bank account, per se. >> that is a really good description. there is the functional concerns. they want to put money on the prepaid card, and there is a fee for that. and that is a huge barrier. regardless of the spectrum that is out there, they are not going to charge you to make a deposit their are some cards that have done some really cool things.

>> i think that makes a very good difference. i do think that some of the bank accounts are in the prepaid industry. i think i don't know there are a

a lot of institutions that have encouraged their employees to either go direct depositive it, or they are opting for a payroll. i have to say that, thank you for saying that i was an economist at the fed. i've been in the job for two months. i think he tried to go that to give me credibility here. in my role at the fed, i worked with the payroll card rules and, and it was really, really important for the industry to get some give back on the rules like the monthly paper statements. david, i know you like that. let me say when we do focus groups with people, who were receiving payroll cards, they said, no, i don't want a paper statement. it's a historic document by the time you hit the cutoff line and you put printed off and put in

the mail and get it in the mailbox i've moved on and made a bunch of other transactions. i can see the one woman, that we stand at the stop of the staircase in my apartment building and swap mail because the mail delivered the mail to the wrong boxes. how helpful is a paper statement in that situation. they were more likely to go online to use their cell phone to track their blanks. and i think that as you think about the idea of employers moving to payroll cards as a way to cut their costs, i have to remember that there's actually some benefits to the work force as well.

you don't have to worry about whether the snow and sleet and rain is going deliver that paycheck to your mailbox. >>well, you know, i think in terms of the payroll cards, i think the electronic transfer is a step for a lot of workers. it's a lot of the obstacle. they associate with the payday of having that paper check, and i think moving, you know, once they move in to it and move away to it to a payroll card and direct depositive it. i think people are happy. there's a lot of outreach. a lot of payroll cards look good and they follow the principles specifically with the disclosure box i think it makes it helpful. >> going back to prepaid card and bank accounts. number of cities had bankout initiative.

they are encouraging people to open bank account. banks are doing campaigns to reach out. where does prepaid fit to the mix? i'm a fan of prepaid but i'm a bigger fan of bank accounts. i think that we have heard that prepaid can be an onramp to bank account. i don't think we have seen that -- the data haven't really supported that yet. and i don't want to say that it's disproved it. we don't have much data. and if the goal is to have people have access to a sweet of services and products that can help them achieve financial security and stability, it's more than just a payment transaction mechanism. people need access to savings vehicles, they need access to

credit and liquidity tools as well. and so i guess what i'm trying to say is that i'm really supportive of the bank on initiative because i feel in the end that a bank account with a full sweet of products and services is going better service the financial services needs of most american consumers. >> i think that's right. i think, you know, one of the general concerns in the field is that, you know, that bank accounts will be sort of either continue as they are lots of changes. that will be a staple for, you know, middle class and higher income folks, and for lower income families it will be about prepaid and have the diverging, you know, sort of financial market. i agree, i adopt -- don't think it serves the economy or families well. we support certainly the second

chance checking accounts in the bank model work well. you know, the america saves model where even if people are struggling on a checking account side they can do a savings account. i think that makes a lot of sense as well. and certainly support of that. certainly having both models working together makes a lot of sense. i think the biggest concern you have thousand of people on prepaid cards not having any association with banks except for the card and then, you know, other people continue on the trend they are currently on. >> what should regulators and lawmakers in washington be doing to make prepaid work broadly but also keep bank accounts available and affordable? >> going me first? >> yeah. >> as i mentioned, i mean, you know, we wrote when the consumer financial protection bureau

asked comments, we were strong in support of this. we feel like overdraft and small line of credit should not be on prepaid card. i'll standby that. by and large, you know, it's tough to know what the market will like like five years from now. i know, some of the ways overdraft is done on prepaid cards can work and may not seem high in the scheme of things. the slippery slope of where it leads could be dangerous and could have implications as people are getting issued prepaid card in a different state and, you know, how does that work the laws in other states? it's a bad place to be. that's one feature that we would hope on regulation would be addressed. and then i think, you know, we're moving we sort have the preliminary discussion earlier today. i think we're moving to a place where prepaid will be under fdic policy sort of that model is going to apply to them anyway.

i think we're moving there. so that's a really good place to be. >> all right. >> so i would like us to think about sort of the next-gen the prepaid 2.0. and think about opportunities for choice so right now we have direct express or direct deposit. you get to choose which bank you're depositive iting in. if you don't do that, you get the direct express card. you don't have a choice about what other card you want to use. the next-gen model will be more about choice. consumer choice. i think expanded functionality is going to be important. i mentioned the multiple purses on the cards. i think that finding ways for these cards to be places where you cannot only have pay or benefits deposited but other sources of funds deposit will be helpful for the expanded

functionality. melissa talked about building financial capability in the pay perks model. there are teachable moments here when you log on to your website or your mobile browser to find how much money you have in your account. there's an opportunity there for some touch points with respect to building financial capability. and i think we have to seriously look at -- there's limited ach. bill pay is limit order the cards. there's limited ability to sweep funds in to a savings account. in essence the message is spend, don't save. and i'm with you, david, i think we need to be thinking about helping people build those small emergency reserves rainy day

funds, whatever you want to call it. i think there's still plenty of opportunity in the policy arena for government industry and community groups consumer groups to be working in improving and getting to that next next-gen. >> following up i think it's sort of you're looking down the road five years from now. we don't want somebody of these wallet or purse loaded up with six different prepaid debit cards two public sector cards or maybe two employees. i think the idea of how do we commingle accounts is really important and good one. and maybe it is just sort of a, you know, sort of like you envisioned like a computer hard drive that has different sectors and, you know, maybe that's how we can work on some of the prepaid stuff. i think that becomes even more confusing for a consumers and they are more likely to spend or

potentially not spend and realize the benefit on certain cards. >> the last question for you. we talked about a lot the consumer side of the end of cash and the ability to have prepaid debit cards and bank debit cards and credit cards. what about the merchants? if we're moving toward an economy with a less cash, how are merchanteds responding to in? >> right. you have the card until wallet but you can't use it anywhere. i have to tell you a story about that too. when the olympics were in threaptd visa came out with the pin card. people had the ?az cards they couldn't use in because the infrastructure wasn't there. i think we are seeing more in chip technology. we're the merchants are

grudgeically moving away from swipe technology. anyone who traveled in europe, you know everything is chip there. and joe warned me he was going ask the question. i actually brought with me my square. which if you adopt know what it is. it is a device that plugs in to your cell phone or tablet and enables you to take swipe payment. visit a food truck and they'll just swipe it and you'll be happy as clam. i think the technologies like this are going to be really helping merchants become -- and even the mom and pop stores. if you listen to the gowned that founded it as to why he can it. -- did. he developed it because a friend was an artist going craft sales she couldn't sell the crafts because everybody wants to pay with the credit card. she didn't have a way to pay credit cards payments. you can become a home crafter

and get a square. we have to think about, you know, the consumer side but also the if you're buying something somebody else is selling it. how do you bring those to . >> thank you. i would like to take to the audience. i will ask several people to give their questions back to back and i'll have the panel respond. so first we'll go here on the right. >> yes. hi. my name is -- [inaudible] entrepreneur and lifestyle for the 1845 demographic. a question i had i didn't see mentioned. is talking about the prepaid mobile space. what take bill payment and people able to pay the mobile phone and they also have a prepaid card so look in at what kind of synergy you're seeing

with points of sale. it's mainly going to the walmart, cvs, grocery stores. there are urban retailers not on the grid but they are a huge part of the infrastructure in the unbank community that take cash, payment for people utilities and what are some of the things your thoughts on some of the virtual payments as far as there is thing phones do thing in the emerging economy and how do you see that working as far as for, i mean, debit cards in the environment. >> sure. one more question from the audience. yeah. >> good afternoon. philip -- [inaudible] and i have my own -- [inaudible] i represent a trade group of non-profit credit counseling agency. i share coincidence i got home late last night from dinner and

sitting any mailbox was a solicitation from a financial service company i had never heard of before to sign up far prepaid debit card in the slice fashion was -- solicitation was the actual card with the sticker saying call us to activate which shocked me. -- [inaudible] so first i thought about if they put in the wrong mailbox. is there a fraud potential here. i'm not sure. i didn't have time read the disclosure and condition. i see you have to sign up for a direct deposit to get it. there could be identity theft. second to raise the question of oivelt this time of marketing is beginning to go on whether consumers have the ability to analyze which is a thing about a prepaid card which is the best or wanting to sign up for the one they get in the mail that may have a rather agrease ev --

aggressive fee structure. what is your response to that kind of marketing? >> okay. >> i think on sort of a mobile and virtual payment fund, i think the bill pay ability i think is really important. and one of of then reasons -- [inaudible] consumers getting the benefits or dr it gives them the ability to make the mobile payment without having the cash on them. we did a focus group awhile ago. people were talking about utility bills they have to get a money order for them that can be be $10 a pop. sometimes landlords will not accept -- [inaudible] the bill payment is on the cards opens up a u whole new on the mobile phone front i have an

iphone. i don't know how to use it. i'm not the best person to answer the question. but i think on in term of the being able to use "the master" card, visa networking for bill pay that aren't credit -- a lot of folks who get sort direct express cards have the ability to do things they're not able to do before. the mobile space is interesting. one of the reasons that it succeeded so much in africa is that, you know, i'll use the m. word. they are an monopoly. they have a huge market. the united states markets aren't quite developed along the lines. we are struggling with some other issues in that home mobile payment phase.

the other problem it's not necessarily in the u.s., when you have a mobile payment and something goes wrong, the consumer doesn't know where it went wrong. it could be in the hand set, the operating system, the telecom carrier, the merchant, their own bank. there's all of these different potential parts of contact. and the regulatory space hasn't figured it out yet. we have to come to grips with that. it's going to be an issue now and well to the future. the idea of small businesses being able to access and use the

new payment mechanism i think it's interesting and critical. i think the innovation continues. i think we have to sort of continue to cure on that a little bit. i don't think we have it -- [inaudible] i want to talk to the gentleman's point about solicitations. i believe it's a new field and the regulators haven't gotten their hands around it yet. ly say in the prepaid pace for reloadable prepaid there are in place know your customer and customer identifications calls that are there mainly as if there's a card they want you to load the paychecks on and be

reloadable they have go to know your customer kinds of screens for that. i have to put my glass on and look in to that. >> your question about how to consumers make the comparison is great. i think as the market grows and there's so many cards that becomes challenging. you know, we heard some folks talk about the idea of maybe

there's a score based on those. maybe the next step is can you -- rate a card upon in terms of the number or letter that gives it sort of people that need access to cash. i think it's confusing for con consumers. [inaudible] unfortunately we don't have time to go longer. if everyone can join me in thanking our panel for joining us today. [applause] i hope the audience will consider joining us again for another event. thank you. [inaudible conversations]

i was fascinated by the feminists. remember the ladies or you'll be in trouble. she warned her husband, you can't rule without including what women want and that swrim to contribute. this is 1700s. >> abigail adams this monday night on the new history series. "first ladies influence and image ." she was outspoken about her views on slavely and women's rights. as one of the most prolific writers she provides a unique

window to colonial america and her life with john adams. join in the conversation on abigail adams live on monday night at 9:00 eastern. on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. now a discussion about school safety and antibullying efforts around the country with educators, super tends, and researchers. it's part of an antibullying summit hosted by colombia university in new york. it's about two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

hello. good morning. good morning. good morning. thank you so much for being here. i would like to introduce myself. i'm -- [inaudible] and i currently serve in the capacity of supertuned of schools. i'm happy to be moderating today. today's summit to -- [inaudible] safe schools. we are so thrilled you are here today. on behalf of the summit, the substitute for urban and minority education here at the college i would like to thank you for participating in today's event we'll address the critical issue of try trying to stop bullying in our schools. i would like to take a brief

moment to recognize the member of the beyond alliance with a coalition of organizations that offer bullying prevention, learning and character development. every single day you educate, walk the high hall of the building and sit in the room as they prepare to teach and remove barriers to learn for the future students. and so teachers' college. one of the most graduate schools in education has been -- as a venue for today's very, very important event. ..