Ellen Lazar was appointed Senior Advisor to the Chairman for Consumer Policy at the FDIC in June 2009 following a far-reaching and distinguished career, spanning three decades, focused on consumer protection, with particular expertise in community development and affordable housing nationally and in the Washington, D.C., area.
Ms. Lazar advises FDIC Acting Chairman Martin Gruenberg on a variety of consumer issues, policies and programs, including the legal and policy aspects of FDIC activities related to community development, affordable housing and consumer protection. She is also the lead advisor to Acting Chairman Gruenberg on issues before the FDIC’s Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion – whose goal is to expand access to banking services by underserved populations – and oversees the development of policy proposals to implement Committee recommendations.
Prior to her FDIC appointment, Ms. Lazar distinguished herself in a number of nonprofit and philanthropic leadership roles. Most recently, Ms. Lazar was a partner at Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP), a philanthropic organization that invests in nonprofit institutions serving children and youth in the Washington, D.C., region. At the Fannie Mae Foundation, she served as Senior Vice President for Housing and Community Initiatives, responsible for strategy and management of the Foundation’s national, regional and Washington grantmaking programs. She served as Executive Director of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (d/b/a NeighborWorks America), a Congressionally-chartered nonprofit corporation that works to revitalize rural and urban communities by mobilizing public, private and community resources at the neighborhood level. At the Treasury Department, Ms. Lazar was Director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. She also held leadership positions at the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders and Enterprise Community Partners, serving as Chief Administrative Officer, Vice President and General Counsel. At the National Corporation for Housing Partnerships, she was assistant general counsel. She also served in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Ms. Lazar has been active in the community throughout her long career, serving in leadership roles on several national and local boards of affordable housing and community development organizations.
Ms. Lazar is a graduate of Queens College of the City University of New York, and the Indiana School of Law at Bloomington.