Your Brunch & Budget Team
FULL TIME TEAM MEMBERS
Pamela Capalad, CFP® AFC® | Founder & CEO
I devoted my life to financial literacy to help you get to that place in your life. You know that place. That place where you close your eyes and feel perfectly at peace and energized all at the same time. That place where you know you’re at your best, that you were somehow built for this, this thing you’re doing that you can’t believe you get to spend your life doing.
Life isn’t about cringing every time you run your credit card through a cash register or dodging calls from bill collectors. It’s not about the next paycheck, next rent check, next job, next in line.
Life is about finding your why.
So here’s the deal – you have the why, I have the how.
Nicole Gomez | Director of Operations
In 2008, I landed an EA role at a financial firm and I learned more than I could’ve ever imagined! No one I knew growing up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn had a Trust, a Will, a whole life insurance, a disability policy, assets or a financial planner! What the heck were these things? Guess only high net worth individuals needed them, unlike me!
Then it hit me…..geez, how much better would my parents be doing right now in retirement had they invested ANY of their money in ANY thing? They both came to NY as young children from Puerto Rico and they each had been working their butts off since they were teens.
Why did they both work so hard all their lives and now, in retirement, have hardly anything to show for it other than the family house?
Samantha Gorelick, CFP® | Managing Financial Planner
I am a native New Yorker, lifetime environmental justice advocate, and I spent years of my adult life studying anti-capitalist, feminist, and anti-racist philosophy. I am happiest with my hands in the soil growing vegetables, in the mountains on a trail somewhere, or racing cars in open road rallies. My interests take me to far-flung places, but New York is where I am rooted.
What does any of this have to do with financial planning? I ended up with a job at a wealth management firm because of chance and circumstance.
I realized I could use my position in this profession to help people avoid some of the financial mistakes I couldn’t help my family to avoid. I finally understood how I could infect people with the knowledge they need - not just to survive - but to thrive in the biased and unfair system we live in.
Allison Irby Vu, AFC®| Managing See Change Coach
Hi! I’m Allison. I’m a native Washingtonian that lives happily alongside my sidekick/son just outside of D.C. I love to travel, connect with new people and I love everything that has to do with growth, empowerment, social justice and financial wellness.
I have explored various career paths - education, government consulting, workforce / career development, and now finance. It’s important for me to do work that aligns with my own story, which is why this transition to finance makes sense. I am a life-long learner that spent a tremendous amount of money on higher education.
For many years after graduating, I felt paralyzed by this massive debt and continued to dig deeper into debt. In the spring of 2016, when I learned I would become a mom, something inside of me shifted and made me determined to find a way out of debt.
Brittany Davis, AFC® | Associate Financial Planner
Growing up I was the “goodie two shoes student” at school. I kept my grades up, made sure I didn’t misbehave. School was my place of refuge as opposed to my home life, which was quite the opposite. We lived below the poverty line, so my only understanding of money was that we didn’t have much of it. We never discussed our living situation, so I learned to tolerate life and relished the times we had more than a can of beans to eat.
As I got older, I took advantage of resources available to me in order to escape, honestly. I managed to accumulate enough scholarship money to pay for state school without any student loans. However, by the time I graduated from college, I had 4k in student loans and a car loan worth 15k.
Chanell Gore | Operations Associate
I've spent the better part of my career brainstorming, strategizing, and solving problems: public policy problems, industrial supply business problems, insurance industry problems, etc. Regardless of the field, I've always enjoyed trouble-shooting and figuring things out. It's just my thing. But none of this ever applied to my personal finances. I wouldn't have categorized myself as a spendthrift...okay, maybe I was to some extent, but I lived my life like someone who was blissfully unaware that I had no meaningful savings, retirement plan, monthly budget, or self-restraint when it came to a sales rack. What I did have was over $50k in student loan debt and a car that could have given out on me at any moment (spoiler alert: it eventually did), leaving me broke and carless in Los Angeles.
Nicole Carson, CFP® | Financial Planner
Hi, I’m Nicole! I am a native and current resident of the Philadelphia area. I love all things Philly: the history, the arts, and the food, but I could skip the snow. I also enjoy traveling and appreciate how centrally located Philly is to all of my favorite hobbies; like visiting the beach, touring wineries, and attending the theater.
I grew up in a faith-based household that valued education. When deciding where to go to college it wasn’t a surprise that I chose to attend local faith-based schools for both undergraduate and postgraduate education. What was a surprise was that I didn’t experience my first finance class until college. Financial education is not widely taught in public schools, and depending on the major you select, it isn’t taught until college. But why is that? Financial Education is critical for our everyday lives. Each of us needs this education to understand how the credit system works, manage a budget, and how to leverage investments to build wealth, among so many other things.
CONSULTANTS AND CONTRACTORS (WHO WE ❤️ FULL TIME!)
Dyalekt | Podcast Host, Workshop MC, See Change MC
As a mixed race Caribbean kid, I had trouble figuring out where to find roles that I felt comfortable playing. I started writing for myself and others by turning my music into plays. Every piece I create has an educational component. It's the 'each on teach one' part of Hip Hop.
I've been an entrepreneur since my teenage days, and tell my students that the only thing that gets me out of my house before 10am is talking to kids. Since the essence of Hip Hop is making something from nothing, I have rapped, written, and performed every freelance gig available to my skill set. I linked up with Pockets Change and cohost the Brunch & Budget podcast to help people find freedom in expression, understanding, and their finances.
Darren Liddell, AFC® | See Change Financial Coach
My passion for personal finance began while I was growing up. I was always eager to learn more about money and always tried to stretch my dollars as far as possible. I spent summers watching my dad give personal finance seminars while witnessing many in my family and community struggle to never quite have enough to stop worrying about money. Both my parents come from large families and I was made aware at a very young age the importance of being there to support family in times of need. This led me to determine that I wanted to work to impact the lives of People of Color and help them to achieve their long-term financial goals. I want to break the barriers of the racial wealth divide and work to achieve worldwide racial wealth equity.
Danyell Flowers | Publicist
Danyell is the Founder & CEO of Maven Media Management. An affiliate of FMI, Maven Media Management takes pride in thinking outside the box. We strive to promote as well as expose clients far beyond obvious realms. Offering both national and regional press outreach, Maven Media Management will work to grow and expand your reach, ignite interest and educate the public as you ready new initiatives and exciting advancements for your brand. Our goal is to continually work to develop your story and help to elevate your brand and lifestyle.
Niani Tolbert | Social Media Mindset Coach
Niani is a marketer-turned "professional connector." She fuses life coaching frameworks with business strategy to help entrepreneurs identify and overcome their self-limiting beliefs, find their voice and meet their business goals.
Niani also runs #HIREBLACK, an initiative to get 10,000 Black womxn get hired, trained, or promoted. the initiative started as a LinkedIn post to help 19 Black womxn get resume feedback on Juneteenth. #HIREBLACK is now a network of 3,000 people and counting.
She was named one of 30 most creative people in advertising under 30 by Business Insider for her marketing.
Ruth Solorzano | Executive Assistant
Growing up with a mom who had me at 16 was challenging to say the least. She did the best she was capable of doing and it taught me (among many things) to become a resilient and tenacious person. I come from a background that had zero knowledge of money and taking responsibility for my own financial future is something I really treasure (pun intended). I'm an actor, a writer, a creative and now I'm the executive assistant to a company I believe in. Life is turning out better than okay.