Walt McRee
President & Chair
Walt McRee has held leadership roles with PBI and the public banking movement since its earliest years. In addition to serving as Chair and President (2015-2017), Board Director, and Senior Advisor, Walt has been centrally involved as co-founder and director of other public banking initiatives including the Pennsylvania Project and Banking On New Jersey. Following an extensive national media career, Walt created, produced and co-hosted radio and TV programs for public banking including, “It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown” on the Progressive Radio Network as well as “Public Bank Solution” TV series. Following his initial period as PBI Chair, Walt founded Public Banking Associates, a national consultancy of public banking experts helping legislators and policy professionals address creation of their own public banks. Walt has also held founding leadership positions in other public interest issues including world hunger, the environment, public broadcasting and the arts. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Geography from Valparaiso University.
Vice President
Peter Winslow holds diverse executive-level experience in financial and economic arenas as CEO, COO, CFO and as a consultant. A Deloitte alumnus, Peter conducted a private CPA practice in New York City, where he was also publisher of The M&A Journal, a columnist for The Journal of Medical Economics and an editorial consultant for The Journal of Strategic Planning. He has hands-on experience consulting both for-profit and non-profit, public and private businesses during startups, ramp-ups, bankruptcies, reorganizations, turnarounds, mergers, and acquisitions within multiple industries. As a leader of the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition, Peter produces and co-hosts the online program “Financing Philadelphia’s Future” discussions. He received his BA in Economics and MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania and he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Finance, Accounting, Taxation and Business at Cornell University, Hunter College, Rutgers University, and Temple University. Peter is president of A SMART Collaboration LLC (ASC).
Treasurer
Holding a PhD in Ancient History, Joshua comes to PBI with over a decade of experience in higher education, whose courses range from ancient Rome to modern American social history. Joshua will complete his law degree at Willamette University College of Law in 2024, where his studies have focused on environmental and government law and his research interests examine economic, environmental, and social justice policy. Joshua has done work on the constitutional position of state banks and continues to examine the potentially precarious question of what legally constituted a bank according to nineteenth-century state laws. Joshua lives in Salem, Oregon and is active with various non-profit organizations in the state.
board member/senior advisor
Scott Baker has written hundreds of articles on alternative economics for Opednews.com, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, the Georgist site: Common Ground USA, and currently posts on a wide range of topics on the X platform under @newthinking.
Scott Baker’s article anthology book “America is Not Broke!” discusses the ways in which financialization and rent-seeking has obscured the fiscal realities of America’s true wealth and what can be done to reclaim trillions of hidden public wealth, including Sovereign Money creation, Public Banking, Land Value Taxation (Georgism), and Pension Fund reinvestment and reform. Scott has analyzed dozens of governmental CAFRs (Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports) to assist cities and states that are considering creation of public banks, and uses these figures as a matrix for projecting city public bank prospects.
Most recently, Scott has used AI to help create in-depth reports on public funding and public banking from existing but unused options from pension and other government assets in various American regions.
Scott previously served as an IT Manager for NY University and is a New York State Coordinator, Senior Advisor and Director of the Public Banking Institute. He received his B.A. with honors in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and is President of Common Ground-NY, a Director, the V.P., and multiple committee member of Common Ground USA.
ESME COLE
board member
Esme Cole is a legislator in the Vermont House of Representatives. She has championed a range of policies that support economic advancement for working Vermonters, against the backdrop of a nation with a shrinking middle class and increased concentration of wealth at the top. She was appointed to the House committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry in her first term and serves on Human Services in her second.
Esme is a founder and co-chair of the Vermont Legislature’s Public Health Caucus, a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus, and the vice chair of her town’s Energy Commission. Beyond politics, her professional experiences range from dental assisting, to serving, to operations in the nonprofit sector—including an early childhood education center and a music/activism organization. Esme graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in International Studies and a minor in Biology. She has since continued her education with a graduate course in ecological economics at the University of Vermont Graduate School, counting toward a certificate in Community Resilience and Planning.
Her affinity toward public banking was catalyzed by a dissatisfaction with the high percentage of taxpayer dollars siphoned away from infrastructure projects and diverted to Wall Street shareholders in the form of interest to private banks. Retaining more of those hard-earned funds for community investments is a key to her policy vision. Esme is excited to apply her political and professional skill set to supporting the mission of the Public Banking Institute. In particular, she looks forward to contributing to the democratization of our financial system and the expansion of financial literacy.
board member
Melissa Marquez is CEO Emeritus of Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union in Rochester, NY, a community development credit union & CDFI with $50 million in assets and 4500 members. She retired as CEO after 20 years in June 2025. Her leadership brought Genesee Co-op FCU in as a founding member of the Rochester Public Banking Coalition, on which Melissa continues to serve as a member of its steering committee. Melissa is Treasurer of City Roots Community Land Trust and is on the board of Person Centered Housing Options, both in Rochester, NY. She has a Master of Science degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Santa Clara University. She has served on the Boards of Directors of Inclusiv, the Institute for Community Economics, Abundance Cooperative Market and OWN Rochester and has deep hands-on experience working in the field of grassroots cooperative economics for her entire career.
board member
Angela Merkert is a founding member of New Mexico’s public banking initiatives and the driving force of the Alliance for Local Economic Prosperity (AFLEP). One of America’s most effective, well-organized grassroots public banking efforts, AFLEP is now on the brink of a promising final stage of state legislative achievement. Angela’s leadership has already impacted the national public banking stage with her innovative rebranding of their public banking campaign as an economic tool for uplifting local self-reliance and commerce. PBI looks forward to her sharing that expertise with other local public banking initiatives nationwide.
Founder and chair Emerita
Ellen Brown, J.D., developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. She is the author of 12 books, including the groundbreaking Web of Debt and The Public Bank Solution. The latter traces the history and evolution of the current private banking system, showing how it usurped the power to create money from the public, and how the people can take that power back through public banks that operate in the public interest. Ellen’s 300+ articles are posted at EllenBrown.com. She also co-hosts the podcast “It’s Our Money” on PRN.FM and podbean. She is a Fellow of the Democracy Collaborative and has degrees from UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law.
senior advisor
Curtis is a 20-year banking veteran and served as Senior VP with four of the top 25 domestic banks overseeing management for multiple branches in distinctly different markets focused on small businesses, retail banking, institutional trusts and commercial banking. As Senior Director of a major American city’s Commerce Department, Curtis addresses capital funding challenges for regional business development with a deep understanding of municipal needs, resources and realities. He is a noted lecturer across the country on the structural impairments in access to capital for marginalized communities, and is an adjunct professor at Temple University. Named one of “Pittsburgh’s 50 Finest” and among the top 50 Black MBAs in the country, Dr. Gregory has served on the Board Directors at Leadership Philadelphia, The American Diabetes Association, and The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Small Business Advisory Board.
senior advisor
In addition to his roles as a legal advisor to Public Banking Associates and the Public Banking Institute, Earl has been the chair of the Rocky Mountain Public Banking Institute since 2016. He has been licensed as an attorney in Colorado since 1998. He has done extensive research on Colorado law and other state laws and banking regulations to consider the legality and feasibility of state and local public banks under state constitutions, state legislation, and local banks under home rule. The research includes consideration of fundamental differences between private chartered banks and public banks that necessitate legislative variations in certain provisions governing public banks from those governing private banks so as to make the bank viable and financially sound.
Earl has drafted legislation to establish a state public bank, state legislation to authorize cities and counties to establish public banks, and an ordinance for home rule cities and counties to establish a public bank without state legislation under home rule. He has also drafted a legal opinion supporting the establishment of a public bank by a home rule city or county in Colorado without state legislation.
Early in his career he gained experience in corporate, banking, and antitrust law, and as executive director of a legal services and public defender association in Ohio. Later he served as as an assistant city attorney for the city of Austin, TX. Since 1986 he has managed his own law firm involving extensive litigation in environmental law and toxic torts, real estate law, commercial law, and other litigation.
Earl also engaged in public service as president of the Toledo Council on World Affairs for six years, and led an educational public forum in Denver for 16 years. He holds a degree in history from Yale and in law from the University of Michigan.
Engagement & Support Director, Charitable Giving Coordinator
Cimbria has an MBA in Managing for Sustainability, and is a certified permaculture designer and trainer. Based in Central NY, Cimbria serves as a consultant and coach for individuals and companies who are interested in streamlining their systems, and creating pathways to thriving. Her model for life rests on the permaculture principles as a framework, and integrates financial permaculture, dynamic governance and the practice of Buddhism. Cimbria sees the Public Banking Institute as illustrating many aspects of financial permaculture. It is a grass-root organization helping to create a stakeholder-guided model of exchange which supports economic growth for all.
media director
Former US Navy Sonar Technician aboard the nuclear submarine, USS Patrick Henry SSBN 599(G). After the Navy, Michael got his BA in Philosophy from Calvin College where he reestablished the Calvin College Peace Organization, published the first ever study on the Arms Industry in Kent County, MI where the college is located, and organized several churches for protest at the leading weapons manufacturer. Served as Radio Electronics Instructor in Mombasa, Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer. As a database expert and applications architect of 25 years, he developed a digital lighting system application for Starfield Controls in Westminster Colorado, a system that saves 80% on lighting systems energy. He also served on the Board of Directors of CFVI (Coloradans For Voting Integrity). Founded Colorado Move to Amend after the SCOTUS decision in Citizens United case. Michael is now wholly focused on public banking in Colorado and around the nation serving also as the Public Banking Institute’s Media Director. You can learn more about his interests on his website: http://EstablishingLocalDemocracy.org Or contact him at mdavidmelio@gmail.com