Thomas J Fox Biography (042904)

Thomas J. Fox

410 Meadow Street • Agawam • MA • 01001 •413-330-5254 [email protected] • www.myspace.com/thomasjfox

Thomas J. Fox is a resident of Massachusetts currently employed as the Community Outreach Director at Cambridge Credit Counseling Corp. Mr. Fox is an AFCPE Accredited Financial Counselor and IFL Certified Educator in Personal Finance who, over the last decade, has created a number of guidebooks, DVDs and educational curricula designed to educate young people and low-income individuals about personal finance. Thomas has authored both the Young Adult and Adult editions of Cambridge’s Learn Now or Pay Later series (1st and 2nd editions), and the Cambridge Guide to Credit, Debt and Personal Finance (1st and 2nd editions). In addition, he has co-authored the GoodPayer.com Guide to Credit, Debt and Personal Finance, and Your Financial Future: Understanding Credit, Debt, and Planning for Tomorrow. Mr. Fox also serves as a personal finance columnist for both The First-Time Home Buyer and Fuze magazines and currently hosts Money America, a weekly radio program which airs on WAIC 91.9 FM. Thomas has consulted or contributed to a number of personal finance initiatives, including the finance unit of Springfield Public School System’s School-to-Career curriculum, the Learn Now or Pay Later television program aired on the UMass Amherst campus cable system, as well as Net Gain, a high school financial literacy program designed and operated in partnership with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and USA TODAY. Currently, Mr. Fox produces, and hosts, a viral financial literacy show titled Your Money 2.0 on YouTube which can be viewed by visiting www.youtube.com/CambridgeCredit. During his tenure at Cambridge, he has conducted personal finance seminars for a wide variety of audiences across the country, including appearances at Arizona State University (Tempe), Rider University, the University of Connecticut, Springfield College, American International College, Western New England College, the Hampshire Educational Collaborative, as well as the Enfield, Chicopee and Springfield public school systems. In addition, Mr. Fox served as a guest lecturer for the Bruce Wells Scholar Upward Bound program at Clark University, and as a panelist for Nichols College’s forum on the Cycle of Debt in America, and for the California JumpStart Coalition’s Innovative Financial Literacy for Youth conference. Recognized as an expert in his field, Mr. Fox has been interviewed for a variety of news segments regarding personal finance. Some of the outlets that have utilized his expertise include CNN,

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CN8, Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com, The Wall Street Journal and local television stations WWLP, WGGB and CBS-3 Springfield. As for his personal life, Thomas is passionate about helping others. Over the years, Mr. Fox has donated his time to fundraising for both the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the United Way. In 2005, he was invited to become a member of the Board of Directors of Dream, Believe, Achieve, a local non-profit agency whose mission is to provide educational programs to young people who reside with foster parents, guardians, or who live on their own. Mr. Fox has also volunteered for the Massachusetts State Scholars Initiative, helping motivate students to complete a more rigorous course of study in high school so they may be better prepared for college. His efforts earned him an invitation to further serve students by becoming a member of the Dropout/Graduation Rate Task Force for the Chicopee Public Schools. Finally, for the past several years Mr. Fox has been active as a poet. In June of 2007, Thomas released his first book of poetry titled Life Inside Pajamas: A Poetic Look at Modern Society.

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