Jonathan Mintz is President of the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund, a national non-profit organization that supports municipal efforts to help low-income families and individuals achieve long-term financial stability. He is also the founder and co-chair of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Coalition (CFE Coalition), which brings together pioneering municipal governments from across the country to advance innovative financial empowerment initiatives on the municipal, state, and national level.
From 2006-2013, Jonathan served as the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), having been appointed to the role by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. During this time, Jonathan launched the DCA’s Office of Financial Empowerment, which seeks to educate, empower, and financially protect New Yorkers with low incomes. During his tenure as DCA Commissioner, Jonathan also worked on large-scale enforcement and litigation work focused on ending industry-wide deceptive practices in the consumer marketplace; significantly increased the volume of New Yorkers protected and educated about their finances; and led the nation’s most comprehensive campaign to boost awareness and uptake of the Earned Income Tax Credit for working families and individuals. Prior to that, Jonathan served as both Acting Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner to the DCA starting in 2002.
Before joining the DCA, Jonathan was a member of the founding faculty of the Roger Williams University School of Law and a second grade teacher at Greenwich Village’s Little Red Schoolhouse. Jonathan also taught at Chicago Kent College of Law and practiced at the law firm McCutchen Doyle Brown & Enersen in San Francisco.
Jonathan earned his Juris Doctor from Cornell University and holds a master’s in education from the Bank Street College of Education and a bachelor of arts in English from Indiana University.