Kathy Stokes is a nationally recognized leader in the consumer fraud arena. As Director of Fraud Prevention Programs with AARP, Kathy leads AARP’s social mission work to educate older adults on the risks that fraud represents to their financial security. Since taking the helm of the AARP Fraud Watch Network in 2019, she and her team have vastly expanded AARP’s leadership in this space, including the creation of a new victim support program, a multi-year campaign to end the use of gift cards in fraud, and the formation of a national effort to fundamentally transform how our country addresses consumer fraud.

Kathy’s career has centered on financial security, both in the realm of public policy and the development of retirement education programming. She was the first executive director of the American Savings Education Council, a program of the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Kathy also worked for Ernst & Young and the Brookings Institution’s Retirement Security Project before leading her own communication consulting business for a decade. She currently serves on an advisory council to the board of the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators and on an advisory council to a committee of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

Kathy has a master’s degree in American Government from The Johns Hopkins University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh in Rhetoric and Communication.

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