Jilenne Gunther

Armed with a passion for social work and nearly two decades of experience in elder law and the aging network, Jilenne Gunther is on a mission to protect the finances of older Americans. She has developed groundbreaking programs and research to advance financial exploitation prevention, protecting more than five million older adults across the country. As the director of AARP’s BankSafe Initiative, she is leading the development of a game-changing financial-exploitation prevention training and identifying other promising practices to address financial exploitation, dementia, caregiving and the accessibility of the banking environment.

Jilenne has authored two books on consumer rights and elder law as well as a pioneering analysis on the economic cost of financial exploitation. Her work has been replicated in more than 40 states, and has been cited in Senate hearings, CFPB advisories, GAO reports, Forbes and Money Magazine. She has received 20 awards and counting, including Utah State’s Woman of the Year Achievement Award.