J. Michael Collins is the Fetzer Family Chair in Consumer & Personal Finance in the School of Human Ecology, a Professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs, and the Associate Director for Training and Research at the Institute for Research on Poverty.  He leads the UW Retirement and Disability Research Consortium research center funded by the Social Security Administration. Collins studies consumer decision-making in the financial marketplace, including the role of public policy in influencing credit, savings and investment choices. Collins brings two decades of applied experiences and consulting to his research. He co-founded SpringFour, an online resource for people facing financial challenges and serves on the boards of financial institutions and retirement plans. He holds a Masters from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, a PhD from Cornell University, and a BS from Miami University (OH).