Suvasini Patel joins the Financial Access Initiative as the Associate Director of Communications. Prior to joining FAI, she was the Communications and Outreach Manager for WITNESS, an international human rights organization.  She has also worked as a radio producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and as a communications professional at PBS with journalist Bill Moyers.  She has designed community outreach, web, educational, promotional, advocacy and communications campaigns using socially conscious media for well over a decade.  Su holds a Bachelor’s degree from Carleton University in Political Science.

Barbara Kiviat is a research associate for the U.S. Financial Diaries, a multi-year study of the financial lives of 300 low-income American households. Prior to joining the Financial Access Initiative, Barbara was a staff writer at Time magazine, where she covered business and economics. Barbara is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is currently a David Bohnett Public Service Fellow at New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where she is earning a master’s degree.