Our Experts List

We had the pleasure of working with many experts to help inspire you. In this section, we have invited our experts to post their biographies and make it easy to find them, should you choose to connect or learn more. Please search for them by name or keyword using the search below.

Joline Godfrey

Joline Godfrey

Featured in Chapter Three: Motherhood
 
Joline Godfrey is the CEO of Independent Means and an innovator in financial education for children and families. Originator of a unique developmental, experiential approach to financial education, her work gives families new tools for developing their human capital and raising children growing up in the midst of abundance.

Godfrey is also the author of Raising Financially Fit Kids, Our Wildest Dreams: Women Making Money, Having Fun, Doing Good; No More Frogs To Kiss: 99 Ways to Give Economic Power to Girls; Twenty $ecrets to Money and Independence: The DollarDiva’s Guide to Life.

In 1992, an article she wrote for Inc. Magazine lead her to launch An Income of Her Own, the first non-profit offering financial education for girls. Over the next few years, Joline became one of the country’s leading experts on girls, women and money and the success of that effort led to the founding of Independent Means in 1996.

Based in Santa Barbara, CA, IMI (www.independentmeans.com) provides financial education for children and families with a rich array of programs, products and services, including The Great Families Program for thought leader families; Camp $tart-Up, DollarDiva and Indie Girls programming; Fashion and Finance; Sports and Money; etc. Independent Means’ clients include Fortune 100 families, leading financial institutions, multi-family offices and boutique investment firms.

A clinical social worker by training, at the beginning of her career, Godfrey was an executive of the Polaroid Corporation where she provided in-house family and therapeutic services to officers and employees. One of the first women in the nation to manage a spin-off from a Fortune 500 company, she launched Odysseum, a spin-off from Polaroid, and sold it in 1990. Odysseum was a creativity training company serving other Fortune 500 firms.
Godfrey is a graduate of the University of Maine and Boston University (where she received an MSW) and was awarded an Honorary Degree in Business from Bentley College in 1995. She was a Kellogg Leadership Fellow and the recipient of the Leavey Award for Excellence, as well as the Beta Gamma Sigma Entrepreneurship Award. Recognized in features for The Today Show, Oprah, Fortune, Business Week, The New York Times, and more, Ms. Godfrey is a frequent speaker and consultant worldwide.

You can follow her blog at www.independentmeans.com/imi/joline
 
Professional Website:  www.independentmeans.com

Favorite Charities: Channel Islands YMCA, NASW Foundation, Direct Relief International