Profile:

Cindy spent her Fellowship year with the Pension Rights Center and is currently the President of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER), 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 experienced pension attorney, she 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 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. An essay appeared recently in 50 Ways to Improve Women’s Lives and she has co-authored 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.  The booklets appeared as inserts in Good Housekeeping magazine, to a readership of over 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 POWERCenter, the Program on Women’s Education for Retirement, a national resource center funded by the Administration on Aging. In 2006 Women’s ENews named her one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century.