Award-Winning Professor Focuses on Financial Education for All

Jean Lown is dedicated to sharing financial education with those who need it most.

“Managing money is not rocket science,” she said, “But it has become a lot more complicated in the 30-plus years that I’ve been teaching at Utah State University.”

She is a professor in the Family, Consumer, and Human Development Department within the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Service at USU, but she has done plenty of teaching in the community. Since 1997 she has offered a monthly seminar for the general public called Financial Planning for Women.

She received the Distinguished Fellow Award from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education in December 2015. AFCPE has given Lown awards for two of her papers. She has served two terms on the AFCPE board, published four articles in its journal and made 26 presentations at its conferences where she has encouraged and financially supported her students to attend since 1994. In 1999 she was named Educator of the Year by the organization.

Lown recognizes a real need for sound financial planning.

“With less generous employee benefits, less job security, higher costs for post-secondary education, fewer government supports for low income households, longer lives and a reluctance to save and invest for the future, there is more need than ever before for effective financial education,” she said.

That need exists for both men and women—and both are welcome at her monthly seminars—but Lown said women can be hit especially hard with the consequences a lack of planning brings.

“Numerous academic studies and surveys over the decades show that women are at a disadvantage economically compared to men,” she said. “Women live longer, have more erratic employment histories, often take time out of the work force to raise children and care for aging parents. They earn less than men, have fewer employee benefits and are less likely to have earned a pension. While men tend to be overconfident in money management and investing, women tend to be too conservative in their investing choices. Far too many women wait until their husband dies or divorces them to wake up to the need to understand personal finances.”

Lown’s relationship with AFCPE extends to its earliest days, when a financial counselor, financial planner and marriage and family therapist at BYU convened a small group of personal finance faculty to discuss the need for an organization to promote financial education and counseling. That was in 1983. The following year a larger group met at Iowa State University to form AFCPE, which has since grown to become the premier professional organization dedicated to educating, training and certifying financial counselors and educators.

Contact: Jean Lown, 435-797-1569, jean.lown@usu.edu
Writer: JoLynne Lyon, 435-797-1463, jolynne.lyon@usu.edu