Panelists

Carmencita N. M. Whonder
Policy Director, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Carmencita Whonder is the Policy Director in the Washington, D.C. office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. She provides strategic public policy advice to financial services clients and represents their interests before the U.S. Congress, Executive Branch and financial regulatory government agencies.

Prior to joining Brownstein, Carmencita served as staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development and as the principal advisor on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee to Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY). For four years, Ms. Whonder was responsible for issues including banking, financial institutions, securities and commodities markets, economic and monetary policy, CFIUS, insurance, consumer protection, housing and community development and trade. She previously held the position of Democratic staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Economic Policy.

Carmencita previously worked as a member of the inaugural team for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program/UNCF, a $1 billion imitative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and completed a rotational assignment in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

A graduate of Howard University, she is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a Socrates Scholar at the Aspen Institute.