Kristi Rodriguez honored for driving change in financial services industry

As the driving force behind countless efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion, Kristi Rodriguez has been recognized again for bringing real change to the financial services industry.

Rodriguez’s advocacy efforts were honored at the Excell REPRESENT Women in Wealth Management Awards, where she was named the recipient of the Industry Transformer Award. The award spotlights a woman who is driving transformation and innovation in wealth management and is bringing real change for the overall betterment of the industry at large.  

Recently, Rodriguez was honored with the 2022 Lang Dixon LEAD Award by the American College of Financial Services for her leadership and the significant impact she is making on the industry’s diversity and inclusion.

As senior vice president of Nationwide Retirement Institute®, Rodriguez drove the creation of the Financial Alliance for Racial Equity (FARE) by partnering with leading financial service organizations, industry associations, and six historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). FARE’s focus is on increasing the number of Black professionals entering the financial services industry and supporting them once there by providing resources, scholarships, training and connections to diverse students and professionals. FARE was recently recognized with the Diversity Champions Award at InvestmentNews’ Excellence in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion event. 

The Diverse Markets Initiative within Nationwide, also initiated by Rodriguez, aims at driving retirement planning opportunities, education and awareness for women, Black, LGBTQ, Hispanic and rural communities. The goal of this program is to provide increased access to retirement planning resources and solutions in underserved markets. 

Nationwide Investment Services Corporation (NISC), member FINRA, Columbus, Ohio. The Nationwide Retirement Institute is a division of NISC.

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