Martin Eakes, co-founder and CEO of Self-Help and the Center for Responsible Lending, will discuss “Extreme Inequality: Is it Really a Problem?” on Oct. 1 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Eakes will deliver the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Lecture in Public Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences at 5:30 p.m. in Gerrard Hall. A reception will follow the free public event.
Self-Help and the Center for Responsible Lending provide consumer financial services, technical support and advocacy for those left out of the economic mainstream.
Eakes, a native of North Carolina, has been a champion of economic empowerment for women, low-income, rural and minority communities. He has worked throughout his career to ensure that all Americans have equal access to the American Dream. He was selected in 2011 as one of 12 recipients of the Ford Foundation’s Visionaries Award for his contributions to creating financial opportunities for the poor. He also has been honored as a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2009, the Opportunity Finance Network presented him with the Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Lending.
The Lambeth Lectureship was endowed in 2006 to bring to campus speakers who are distinguished practitioners and/or scholars of public policy, particularly those whose work touches on the fields of education, ethics, democratic institutions and civic engagement.
