WASHINGTON – Wanda P. Hardy, president and founder of CreditWorthy, Inc., a nonprofit financial education organization in Deptford, New Jersey, will receive the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award on Saturday, June 27, during the 2009 AAUW National Convention in St. Louis.
Established in 1989, the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award honors an individual, organization, project, or institution for outstanding contributions to equity and education for women and girls. The award is given for a broad range of activities including classroom teaching, educational and research contributions, and legal and legislative work in equity for women and girls. While the award focuses on education, the recipient need not be an educator.
"Wanda Hardy has distinguished herself in the financial sector and is devoted to encouraging others to gain control of their finances and improve their financial well-being and quality of life through financial education, counseling, and money management coaching," said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. "AAUW is proud to recognize the achievements of Wanda Hardy and others like her."
The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award includes a $5,000 honorarium and a trophy, as well as paid travel expenses to the AAUW National Convention. Past recipients include the Ophelia Project, Penn State Erie, and Judy Brown of the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium.
"To receive an award for helping others is an honor," says Hardy. "I am looking forward to accepting the 2009 Eleanor Roosevelt Award on behalf of all individuals and organizations who break through economic and social barriers for women."
In 2007, CreditWorthy, Inc., received an award for participation in the FDIC's 2004–06 Longitudinal Evaluation of Money Smart, and in 2008 the organization received the Money Smart for Young Adults Partner Award for leadership in promoting and facilitating youth financial education.
As an FDIC Alliance Member and Money Smart Instructor and member of the New Jersey Coalition for Financial Education, Hardy has helped more than a thousand individuals. Ninety percent of her clients have been women, who now have the knowledge and skills to make informed financial decisions. She is a faculty member at Cumberland County College in the Department of Business and serves as a guest speaker at Gloucester County College's Freshman Experience Seminar.
A graduate of Saint Joseph's University Executive MBA Program, Hardy serves on the PNC Bank Advisory Board, is a member of the Gloucester County Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors, and is a founding member of the Nonprofit Development Center of Southern New Jersey, an "umbrella" organization created to help build capacity in the region's thousands of nonprofit organizations.
