Eliminating Barriers to Bank Accounts: How CalAccount Can Ensure Financial Inclusion and Serve as a Model for Public Banking
March 11, 2025
Chávez believes that giving people a safe space to tell their stories can elucidate the lived experiences that drive their opinions, choices, and behaviors. His work—spanning 24 US states and 14 countries—has helped foundations, marketing agencies, nonprofit organizations, public and private research firms, and international institutions gain a human-focused understanding of the problems they seek to address. Most recently, Chávez’s research informed the design of the United States’ first cash program for youth experiencing homelessness. As a man of color raised in Southern California by non-English-speaking Mexican immigrant parents under the poverty line, he is passionate about research that meets communities where they are, lifts their voices, and empowers them. He received a doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley after an early career in the United States Intelligence Community. He is based in Los Angeles, California.