Business Women Awards 2019 | HONOREE
Margaret Brooks, Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition
Margaret Brooks is passionate about empowering the state’s vulnerable populations via financial literacy, a subject she knows intimately.
Brooks grew up in Warwick, one of nine children in a poor family. Food, clothing and other basics were often tough to come by.
Her parents tried to shield her and her siblings from the financial struggles. “A lot of times parents don’t want to talk to [their children] about money,” she said. “They think children will grow up worrying.”
But Brooks, president of the Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition, was always interested in the subject of economics.
She dropped out of high school, as did some of her siblings, but she went back and got her GED. And she didn’t stop there.
As a single mother of two, she enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island, transferring to Brown University after two years. Brooks earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees – all from Brown, all in economics, and with high marks.
“Not having a financial safety net made it challenging,” said Brooks. She won scholarships, took out loans and worked as a teaching assistant.
Brooks now lives in Warwick with her spouse, Robert Brooks. Between them, they have four grown children.
Brooks enjoys teaching economics, especially to younger people. She has leadership roles with three groups that spread the word on healthy economic and financial management.
In addition to the nonprofit Jump$tart, where she began as a volunteer, Brooks also leads the Rhode Island Council for Economic Education – part of a national effort pushing for financial education for K-12 students. She is also the director of the Center for Economic Education at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, and director of that school’s Office of Financial Literacy Initiatives.
Jump$tart and the economic education council have held a Financial Capability Conference at Rhode Island College annually for five years. The free event is an opportunity to get stakeholders to the table, said Brooks.
A major milestone came more than four years ago, when Brooks helped lift financial literacy’s place in Rhode Island’s classrooms.
She was instrumental in the 2014 adoption of educational standards for financial literacy. But Brooks gives credit to students.
“Over a period of eight months, a group of students from East Greenwich High School called RealEdRI conducted student surveys and used social media to advocate for the adoption of financial literacy standards,” she said.
Brooks said the skills the standards represent should be introduced gradually, starting in lower elementary school grades. She believes in giving children allowances and encouraging entrepreneurial ventures such as lemonade stands. That way, students will be prepared for one of their biggest financial decisions: college.
“They have to decide [on] one, comparing the different options and look not just at the sticker price but add in financial aid, scholarships … it’s a complicated decision,” she said. “They have to decide if they are living on or off campus and the associated decisions, such as buying a car, and then how they pay for insurance.”
