Mae Watson Grote, Founder and Executive Director

Ms. Grote has been a member of New York City’s public interest legal and social service communities for over a decade. Ms. Grote has led a number of diverse initiatives for organizations such as the Legal Aid Society and FoodChange. Since she started The Financial Clinic in 2006, Ms. Grote has led the creation of the nation’s first nonprofit financial development organizations that in only a few years accumulated over millions in new savings, reduced fees and canceled debt for its customers.

Prior to the Clinic, Ms. Grote was a senior labor market policy analyst with Public/Private Ventures, a national nonprofit research and policy organization. She has extensive experience in work supports and low-wage, low-skilled workers’ self- sufficiency issues. Among her publications, Unrealized Gains: How Workforce Development Organizations Can Put Money In the Pocket of Low-Wage Workers examines how nonprofit organizations address their constituents’ economic security within the fabric of their preexisting services. She received a B.A. from Rutgers University and a J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law. In addition to “growing” the Clinic, Mae is also the mother of Izzabella, Stella and Ramona.

Rebecca Smith, Director of Strategic Initiative

Becky Smith, Director of Strategic Initiatives, leads The Financial Clinic’s Capacity Building services. She manages the cust mization and integration of the Clinic’s financial development framework providing training and technical assistance support to public sector and non-profit organizations nationally. She is a faculty member of NeighborWorks training, and has presented at various conferences including New York State Community Action Association’s Poverty Symposium and the Department of Health and Human Services Head Start’s Asset Summit. Ms. Smith joined the Clinic in 2008 as part of United Way of NYC’s MoneyUP Initiative to bring financial coaching and free tax preparation to working poor families, where she later ran a VITAsite. Since joining Clinic, Becky successfully led the establishment of the Clinic’s Financial Empowerment Center, with the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Financial Empowerment. She drew on her previous experience as a financial planner for the Ayco Company, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, where she provided counseling to corporate executives and their families through investment, tax, and estate planning advice. There she obtained her Series 7 and Series 66 licenses. Becky graduated with honors from Rutgers University where she earned her B.S. in Finance and B.A. in Communication. She has fallen in love with Haitian dance and Bikram, can’t live without ChapStick, craves chili dark chocolate, and wants to take up solo “jumping”aka skydiving.

Haidee Cabusora, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Ms. Cabusora is the Director of Services and joined the organization in 2007 to lead the Clinic’s tax work in the MoneyUP initiative. As an attorney, she worked on tax and employment issues including legal representation of customers during audit proceedings, tax debt management, and claiming unemployment benefits. She recently completed a three-year term as a member of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, a federal advisory committee that identifies taxpayers’ issues and makes suggestions for improving Internal Revenue Service’s customer satisfaction and services, including its EITC subcommittee. Prior to joining the Clinic, she was the staff attorney and VITA site manager with FoodChange/Food Bank of NYC. At its Harlem site, she supervised the largest free tax preparation site in the country and continued to work in their legal Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic. Ms. Cabusora began her legal career as an associate in the Tax Department of Hale and Dorr LLP (now WilmerHale LLP). She is a member of the New York and Massachusetts Bars. She holds a BA from Columbia College (1997) and a JD/LLM from Cornell Law School (2001). Her favorite things include Law & Order UK, the brush-back pitch and the New York Magazine Approval Matrix.

Eduardo Beltre, Director of Finance and Operations

Mr. Beltre joined the Clinic in June 2008 as an Office Coordinator to provide administrative support at the organizations main office, mainly due the Clinic being selected to run a Financial Empowerment Center pilot in Queens. Shortly after, Mr. Beltre went on to becoming the Office Manager, where he managed office assistants, monitoring all organizational expenses, by contract and programs among many other administrative tasks. In his new position, he manages all of the organizations’ contractual obligations, operating budgets, and cash flow. Prior to joining the Clinic Mr. Beltre was volunteering for a local religious community-based organization as a general manager, where he managed all bookkeeping and orchestrated all community outreach events, creating awareness of the multiple services that the organization provided. On his spare time Eddie likes to re-read the Wiley Not-for-Profit GAAP Manuel (for the three most recent years). Yet his true creativity comes to life when he writes how-to songs on how to fill out the 990 form, while eating Doritos.

Mauricio Garcia, Director of Services

Mr. Garcia joined the Clinic in March 2011 to lead The Fellowship Program’s scaling efforts and overall spectrum of activities including recruitment, administration, curriculum, and fund development. He came to the Clinic by way of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), where he oversaw the programmatic operations for an annual corps of 240 AmeriCorps members nationwide and coordinated performance measurement, program reporting and grant administration. Previously at LISC, Mr. Garcia served as Grants Manager, overseeing $4 million in grants and contracts, representing a diverse portfolio of national and local initiatives, including community safety, affordable housing, income and wealth, and youth education. He began his career in the for-profit sector, most recently working in the Trade Services Group at J.P. Morgan (formerly J.P. Morgan Chase Vastera). Mr. Garcia currently sits on the board of advisors of the DIY Business Association, a community- building organization that empowers, educates, and connects creative small businesses and freelancers. He received a BS in Marketing from Oakland University and an MPA in Nonprofit Administration and Policy from the City University of New York’s Baruch College. Outside of work, Mr. Garcia revels in eating and writing about fish tacos, talking Detroit, and trying to be like Mike on the basketball court.