Board of Directors
Helene Raynaud, President
Helene Raynaud is the President and CEO of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Maryland and Delaware, Inc. (CCCSMD). Prior to joining CCCSMD, Helene worked at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) for 10 years, most recently as their Chief Operating Officer. During her tenure, Helene was responsible for strategic planning, program and partnership development, and fundraising. Helene also held the position of Senior VP of Business Development where she focused on federal and non-federal grants and programs in the areas of housing counseling, financial counseling, and financial coaching. Prior to the NFCC, Helene worked with Fannie Mae where she developed foreclosure prevention programs with nonprofits, and at American Express in the United Kingdom.
Vicki King Taitano has spent her career advocating for justice for low income people. She is a supervising attorney in the housing unit at Neighborhood Legal Services in Washington D.C. She spent four years as program counsel at the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder for civil legal services for low income people in the country. In that role, she advised legal services programs throughout the country on program management. She spent nine years at Maryland Legal Aid, where she was an elder law staff attorney, represented clients on consumer issues, and directed Maryland Legal Aid’s statewide foreclosure legal assistance project. She has also served as a staff attorney in general practice at Micronesian Legal Services in the Pacific.
“In my work as a legal aid attorney, I partnered with MCRC on several projects and was very impressed with the impact MCRC has on consumer issues in the state. They fight hard every day for all of us and their emphasis on economic justice has made the state a more fair place to live. I am so happy to be able to continue to be a part of that work.”
Vicki King Taitano, Vice President
Emanwel J. Turnbull is from the United Kingdom, where he earned his law degree at St Hugh’s College, Oxford University and a post-graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the College of Law in London. In 2011, Emanwel was among the first students to enroll in the University of Maryland School of Law’s graduate program, where he focused his studies on Consumer Law. In the course of earning his LL.M., Emanwel published articles in the Widener Law Review about consumer arbitration, and in the Vermont Law Review about the use of the “account stated” doctrine in consumer debt collection actions. He first met Peter Holland as a student in University of Maryland’s Consumer Protection Clinic, and they have worked together ever since. In addition to his practice, Emanwel teaches law and legal history in the Legal, Ethical and Historical Studies division at the University of Baltimore. He is also active in the legal technology field, volunteering his time to help the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service to build, maintain, and analyze a database of millions Maryland court records, in the Client Legal Utility Engine project. Emanwel also helps researchers interested in using the database for public-interest applications.
Emanwel Turnbull, Treasurer
Claudia Wilson Randall is the Executive Director of the Community Development Network of Maryland (CDN). Claudia comes to CDN with a long history in community development statewide. She recently was the COO of Southeast Community Development Corporation in Baltimore City, and prior to that worked for Maryland DHCD in the Neighborhood Revitalization Division. Before that, Claudia was the Deputy Director with the Maryland Center for Community Development, which was the precursor to CDN today. Claudia has her master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and lives in the Ten Hills community of Baltimore City. We are proud to welcome her to MCRC’s Board of Directors.
Claudia Wilson Randall, Secretary
Nick Brooks
Nick Brooks is the Workforce Development Coordinator at the Youth Empowered Society, Y.E.S. - Drop in Center. He is an advocate for youth and young adults and has spent ten years in the sectors of Workforce Training and Development, and youth-based programming. Nick believes building resiliency and practicing trauma responsive and strength-based techniques are essential in serving youth. In the last year, Nick and his colleagues at YES have been involved in various efforts focusing on systems reform including, the Workforce Practice Advisory Group for the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, Associated Black Charities’ Workforce and Racial Equity: Community of Practice; and legislative advocacy in support of The Ending Youth Homelessness Act and Baltimore’s Housing Trust Fund. He graduated from Elizabethtown College, in 2009, where he studied Public Relations and Business Administration.
Sandy Comenetz
Sandy Comenetz is a financial services attorney. She has worked at federal banking agencies, where she held a variety of leadership positions, and in private practice. She has served on the board of the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, worked with two state consumer protection divisions, and provided pro bono assistance to numerous individuals. She is committed to consumer protection and to making financial education available to everyone. In 2018, she co-founded the Anne Arundel Financial Education Coalition. She received her J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, where she was Articles Editor of the Maryland Law Review, and was a law clerk to the Hon. Joseph C. Howard, U.S. District Court for Maryland.
Cathy Feingold
Cathy Feingold is a leading advocate on global worker rights issues. As International Director of the AFL-CIO, Cathy is a committed and passionate advocate, strategic campaigner and policy expert. Cathy brings more than twenty years of experience in global worker and human rights issues and economic policy with a focus on trade union rights, women rights, trade and worker rights and global economic justice. She has appeared on numerous television and radio shows and has testified before several committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate on various policy topics. Her work in both global and grassroots fora reflect her commitment to strengthening the voice of working people in the workplace, communities and global policy debates.
As the Clinical Fellow for the University of Baltimore School of Law's Civil Advocacy Clinic, Nicole supervises law students representing real-life clients in a poverty-focused clinical course. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked with Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland (PBRC), the pro bono arm of the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA), and the statewide clearinghouse of volunteer legal services. As PBRC’s Consumer Protection Project Manager, she provided training and supervision for attorneys representing low- and moderate-income clients at no cost. McConlogue is committed to serving low-income clients and being an engaged and active member of the legal services community.
Nicole McConlogue
Tracy McCracken
Tracy McCracken is the Director of Fair Housing of NCRC’s Center for Civil Rights. She has garnered extensive fair housing and fair lending testing experience as a project coordinator with DB Consulting Group, as a senior project coordinator with the National Fair Housing Alliance, and as the executive director of the Mobile Fair Housing Center. She has conducted testing in the areas of rental, sales, lending, insurance and public accommodations. She is one of the authors of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “Study of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program”. She is a graduate of The University of Montevallo and Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law. She is a member of the Alabama State Bar Association. She has two daughters who reside in Mobile, AL.
Pokuaa Owusu-Acheaw currently serves as the managing director of political and legislative affairs for the Maryland State Education Association. Prior to working for MSEA, Pokuaa worked as the Intergovernmental Affairs Officer for Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, in the United States Senate as a Regional Director for U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, and the Maryland General Assembly as Legislative Director and Chief of Staff for Maryland State Senator Joanne C. Benson. Pokuaa is a proud first-generation American, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, with a bachelor’s in political science and communication in 2012. In 2015, she graduated from the University of Baltimore School Of Law, with concentrations in public interest and intellectual property. She is an advocate for issues relating to economic justice, racial equity, reproductive justice, and voting rights. Pokuaa has been honored by Radio One's WKYS as a 2016 DMV 30 Under 30 Honoree, the Prince George's County Social Innovation Fund as a Forty Under 40 Honoree in 2018, and by The Maryland Daily Record as a 2020 Successful by 40 Very Important Professional(VIP).