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Press Release February 2, 1999 |
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, has chosen Elizabeth (Betsy) Imholz as director of the group's West Coast Regional Office. Imholz has been a public interest attorney and consumer advocate for nearly twenty years. Starting at Consumers Union in 1994, she has worked on a variety of issues with the organization, first focusing on earthquake and property insurance issues, and then credit and finance and trade school regulation. During the past year, she has been Consumers Union's lead health advocate.
Imholz officially took the helm of the West Coast office on January 25. She replaces Judith Bell, who left Consumers Union in October after more than ten years of service. Bell is now Vice President with a new nonprofit organization, PolicyLink, in Oakland.
"Betsy has an impressive history of work for the improvement of consumer interests," said Harry Snyder, senior advocate at the West Coast office of Consumers Union. "She will provide strong leadership to California and national policymakers in achieving fundamental fairness in the marketplace."
"I look forward to leading the West Coast Office of Consumers Union in providing independent, top-notch public policy analysis and advocacy from the perspective of low- and moderate-income consumers," Imholz said. "To ensure that viewpoint is accurately reflected in our work, we expect to work more closely with community groups. Connecting with them will enrich our work, and provide capacity building for local groups."
Imholz is a recognized expert on consumer fraud and federal student financial aid. From 1991 to 1998, she was Director of the Higher Education and Training Access Project, a non-profit advocacy endeavor on student financial aid and vocational school issues. Prior to her work with that project, Imholz was the Consumer Law Coordinator of Legal Services for New York City and the Director of the Consumer and Employment Law Unit of South Brooklyn Legal Services for seven years.
Imholz is a Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude graduate of Columbia University. She received her law degree from Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey and was recipient of the University's G.A. Moore Prize for distinguished work in equal employment opportunity law. In 1991, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York awarded Imholz the Legal Services Award for outstanding work in providing civil legal assistance to the poor in New York City and equal access to justice. She was the 1996 recipient of the Vern Countryman Consumer Law Award from the National Consumer Law Center for outstanding efforts to strengthen the rights of low-income Americans through the practice of consumer law.
