Meet the Faculty, Staff, Professionals, Volunteers, and Researchers who do so much for our team!
Lori Kowaleski-Jones, Ph.D.
Professor, Family & Consumer Studies & Director, Interdisciplinary Exchange for Utah Science (Nexus)
Email: lk2700@fcs.utah.edu
As co-project lead, Lori works on all aspects of the C2C program implementation and evaluation
Norman Waitzman, Ph.D.
Professor, Economics
Email: waitzman@economics.utah.edu
Norm is the project co-director. He will provide overall academic leadership for project design, data collection and evaluation, and data analysis.
Viridiana Najera M.Ed.
Project Manager, Connect to Collect, VITA volunteer
Email: Viridiana.najera@utah.edu
Viri serves as the program facilitator for the project. She will be responsible for project implementation, project site coordination, student recruitment, coordination of project partners, and development of training for volunteers. She has been a VITA IRS tax preparation volunteer for the past five years.
Ann House AFC
Director, Financial Wellness Center
Email: ahouse@sa.utah.edu
Ann serves as a faculty academic advisor and oversees volunteer recruitment.
Cathleen D. Zick, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Family & Consumer Studies
Email: zick@fcs.utah.edu
Cathleen works on C2C community outreach and EITC eligibility screening tools.
Michael K. Magill, MD.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
Email: michael.magill@hsc.utah.edu
Michael consults on design of community outreach and contributes to writing reports and publications.
Greg McDonald
Executive Director Tax Help Utah
Email: greg@taxhelput.org
Greg managing director of Utah’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, a group of more than 700 volunteers who prepare over 17,500 free tax returns for low to low-moderate income clients.
Maren Curtis
Student Researcher
Email : u1047821@umail.utah.edu
Maren Curtis is a sophomore studying Community Health. Her role in this project is to interact with people in need of tax information and to analyze data from these interactions.
Jessica Elaine Schmidt
Student Researcher, Connect to Collect
Email: Jessica.E.Schmidt@utah.edu or Connect2Collect@utah.edu
Jessica joined the team in December 2020 and is a UROP-awarded Student Researcher who works on C2C’s scoping review research project on trust and helps staff the C2C Hotline during tax season. She is currently a senior and will graduate in Spring 2022 with a double major in Economics and Political Science, a minor in Global Citizenship, and certificate in International Relations.