Beverly Brown Ruggia is the Financial Justice Program Director for New Jersey Citizen Action. She advocates for the Community Reinvestment Act, fair and affordable housing, access to safe financial services and for consumer finance protections. Brown Ruggia leads a debt prevention and consumer protection coalition of state organizations working to combat all forms of predatory and discriminatory lending practices as well as systemic debt traps, including medical and student debt. She is a lead organizer for the Economic Justice Policy Advocacy Conference which convenes state and national advocates to collaborate on economic justice and consumer finance protection policy development and strategies.  Brown Ruggia is a member of the Student Borrower Protection Center’s Advisory Board. In 2019, she received the CFA Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award. In 2021, Brown Ruggia was appointed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board.