Cindy Hounsell is the President of WISER, the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the opportunities for women to secure retirement income and to educate the public about the inequities that disadvantage women in retirement.
An attorney and retirement expert, Ms. Hounsell has been widely quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, U.S.A Today, Newsweek, Barrons, Investors Business Daily, Congressional Quarterly, Ms., Working Mother, Associated Press, Knight Ridder, and Reuters. She has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, Fox Morning News & Financial News, and a Good Morning America interview with Diane Sawyer. The PBS program, To The Contrary, filmed a two-part award winning series on women and retirement that featured WISER. Radio interviews include several syndicated shows including National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Marketplace.
Ms. Hounsell has testified before Congress, served as a delegate for a number of White House Summits and conferences including the last two White House Conferences on Aging, the White House Social Security Conference and each of the National Retirement Saver Summits. She has written several chapters, columns, articles, op-eds, papers and booklets on women and retirement. Two booklets, What Every WOMAN Needs to Know About MONEY And RETIREMENT: A Simple Guide and What Everyone Needs to Know About Money and Retirement, appeared as inserts in Good Housekeeping magazine, to a readership of more than 26 million readers.
Ms. Hounsell provides technical assistance to several national organizations as well as training to leaders and grassroots advocates around the country as part of her role as director of the National Resource Center for Women and Retirement Planning, funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging.
Ms. Hounsell was appointed in 2011 by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to the ERISA Advisory Council, and in 2008 by the Bush Administration to the Advisory Panel on Medicare Education (APME) representing the field of retirement and financial planning.
She serves on the Boards of the National Alliance for Caregiving, STRIVE-DC; on the Advisory Council of Wider Opportunities for Women's Elder Economic Security Initiative; and on the Financial Services Roundtable's Retirement Advisory Council. She is also a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
In 2018, Ms. Hounsell was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Plan Sponsor Council of America. Ms. Hounsell was also named a 2015 Influencer in Aging by Next Avenue. The Influencers in Aging list highlights 50 thought leaders, researchers, experts, executives and everyday people who are redefining what it means to grow older in America. Ms. Hounsell was named by Women's eNews as one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, and in 2012, Money magazine named her one of its 40 Money Heroes for helping women secure their financial futures.