JOLINE GODFREY has been an innovator in financial education and well-being for families for over three decades. Since 1992, she has been a pioneer in the movement to increase financial intelligence among young people. Innovator of a unique developmental approach to financial education, Godfrey's introduction of the financial apprenticeship stage of life has given parents and community leaders revolutionary tools for becoming better money mentors for kids.

Growing up in a family business herself gave her an intimate understanding of the complexity of sustaining family and career across generations, and her training as a clinical social worker and work in one of Boston’s oldest settlement houses provided her insight into how powerful even a small amount of financial education could be.

Joline specialized in family and gender issues—in the context of work and business at Polaroid Corporation, and she was invited by Inc. Magazine to host a series of dinner table gatherings for women entrepreneurs which she documented in her first book, Our Wildest Dreams. Insights gained from those tables led to deep curiosity about how women acquire financial fluency, and in 1992 she founded An Income of Her Own, the country’s first non-profit focused exclusively on financial education for girls and women, and the publication of No More Frogs to Kiss: 99 Ways to Give Economic Power to Girls. Godfrey subsequently started Independent Means Inc. to provide financial education girls and boys and published Raising Financially Fit Kids, now a classic resource for building financial fluency in kids. Independent Means was acquired in 2015.

Godfrey’s invention of a developmental approach to financial education for family members from the youngest child to the oldest financial novice was a breakthrough in financial education which has earned her numerous speaking and consulting opportunities including invitations to address gatherings that include Fast Company and Inc. 500 conferences, the exclusive Padres e Hijos gathering in Latin America, hosted each year by Carlos Slim, and an historic meeting at Ten Downing Street organized by Gordon Brown to encourage a more entrepreneurial UK generation. She has spoken to family offices from Dallas to Dubai and at many of the most prestigious family office gatherings in the world. She is currently a Managing Director with The Hawthorn Institute for Family Success.

The Unexpected Table is Godfrey’s personal platform to write, think, explore and try out new ideas with families intent on thriving in the midst of change. Hosting conversations at eclectic tables to bring complex groups together to learn and discover remains one of her core passions.

A Maine native, Joline graduated from the University of Maine and received an M.S.W. from Boston University. She was awarded an Honorary Degree in Business from Bentley College for her achievements in financial education. Godfrey was a Kellogg Leadership Fellow and has been recognized in features for The Today Show, Oprah, Fortune, Business Week, Inc. Magazine, and The New York Times. Joline is at work on two new books focused on what makes families thrive. She lives in Ojai, Ca. and Tenants Harbor, Maine.