Speaker Bios

Ellie Kay is the best-selling author of fifteen books and a frequent media guest on CNBC, ABC’s Nightline, MSNBC, Neil Cavuto and Fox News. Ellie is also a gifted keynote speaker, presenting to standing ovation crowds of over 8,000 people.

Bethany Bayless is Director of Communications for Heroes at Home and an Air Force Brat. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL, and has been a social media coordinator for several organizations including two international groups. She recently spend a year in England, managing social media for projects across Europe. Bethany is also an award winning speaker, has experience as a radio show host in Chicago, and as a print media journalist. For more info visit Bethany’s website at http://bethanybayless.org. Bethany and her mom, Ellie Kay, host an upbeat podcast called The Money Millhouse.

JJ Montanaro is a financial planner with USAA and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional (CFP®). He earned his Bachelor's from the United States Military Academy.

Montanaro has two decades of experience as a financial planner and served in the US Army for over 20 years on Active Duty and in the Reserves.

JJ's focus has been to help families realize their goals and his advice has appeared in outlets including the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He writes monthly finance columns for Military Spouse Magazine and American Legion Magazine.

Rod Griffin is Director of Public Education for Experian. He works with consumer advocates, financial educators and others to increase consumers' ability to understand and manage personal finances, credit reporting and credit scoring. He is frequently quoted in national print, broadcast television and online media outlets, and writes a credit advice column. Rod oversees the company's financial literacy grant program, which awarded more than $800,000 in the current fiscal year to non-profit programs that help individuals consumers and small business owners to achieve financial success.

Gerri Detweiler has more than 20 years of experience guiding individuals through the confusing world of credit, and had earned a reputation as a reliable and independent resource on personal and small business credit. Gerri is the author or co-author of five books, including her newest title, Finance Your Own Business: Get On The Financing Fast Track. She serves as Head of Market Education for Nav, which provides business owners with simple tools to build business credit. A prolific writer, her articles have been featured on popular websites such as Yahoo!, MSN Money, ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com, NBCNews.com, Forbes, The Today Show website and many others.

Ingrid Bruns is Director of Military Life Advice, responsible for developing relevant and actionable advice for USAA's 10 million members. For the past 23 years, she has traveled the nation and the world as a proud Air Force spouse. Prior to joining USAA in 2013, Ingrid worked as a personal finance counselor for service members and their families. She was also the USO's center manager in Stuttgart, Germany, where she worked to help provide a ``home away from home`` for military families. Ingrid holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and an MBA, and she's also an Accredited Financial Counselor and Accredited Domestic Partnership Counselor.