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We’re thrilled to share some exciting news: SoFi has been named on Forbes’ Best Workplaces for Women! A true testament to our commitment to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and empowering environment for all employees, this recognition is especially meaningful to me, not just as SoFi’s Chief People Officer – but on a personal level, too.

This recognition, conducted annually by Forbes in partnership with market research firm Statista, celebrates the top 400 companies in the nation that excel in creating equitable environments for women in the workforce. This exciting acknowledgment is a testament to our ongoing efforts at SoFi to empower women and cultivate a culture that’s dedicated to the success, growth, and overall well-being of everyone. In other words: the best part of my job at SoFi!

But the reason I feel particularly proud of this is not just about my current role at SoFi. As a woman who’s spent 20+ years working in tech, finance, and healthcare, I am genuinely proud of the collective “us.” In addition to the progress we’ve made at SoFi, I’m deeply inspired by how far the broader workforce has come since I started my career, which is right around the same time I started my journey as a mom. This intersection of life milestones – though not easy at the time – has truly fueled my ambition to give all that I can as a mom while also bringing my best self to work each day.

In addition to reflecting on my own journey, today’s recognition from Forbes gave me a chance to reflect on the ways we’ve evolved – and are continuing to evolve – at SoFi to be part of the solution. Here are a couple of recent highlights that stood out to me and helped us secure a place on the coveted list:

Employee Resource Groups
SoFi proudly sponsors nine Employee Resource Groups, known internally as SoFi Circles. These groups build high-trust, functional connections that help our organization thrive. They also foster a sense of belonging, drive innovation and help create bridges of connection and intersectionality. The SoFi Circles and their defined missions and while all employees are encouraged to join any Circle they feel aligned to, we see our female employees engaging most with two in particular:

•   Women@SoFi— Mission is to build a safe space for female-identifying employees and allies to connect across SoFi to promote the advancement and inclusion of women. We’re looking forward to taking this engagement to an even deeper level in the coming months as we plan to offer smaller group sessions – based on various levels within the organization to create space for meaningful conversations at specific levels (e.g. senior leaders, people managers, etc.).

•   Parents@SoFi— the mission of Parents@SoFi is to support current and future parents at SoFi. This is something I would’ve loved to have had access to when I was starting my journey as a working mom, which is part of the reason I stepped into the role of executive sponsor for this group which aims to create an environment where people with shared experiences can connect and help each other have both a successful career at SoFi and a rewarding family life.

Face of Finance
In addition to building internal programs to support women, we’ve dedicated resources to external initiatives that aim to empower all women, as well. Our Face of Finance campaign was launched in an effort to bring attention to AI bias and present a new narrative around women’s financial successes. Our talented in-house team created a video revealing the bias that exists in current algorithms and successfully recast women in a more accurate light, depicting the image of wealth and fiscal responsibility that so many women work so hard to achieve. But our video was just the beginning. We enlisted the help of some of social media’s most influential women to help us retrain AI by using their images, so that it could better reflect the truth about women and money. In addition to having a positive external impact – with more than 81M impressions and a 42% surge in unaided awareness – the Face of Finance video also served as an excellent source of engagement internally as well, bringing employees together around a concept we all feel passionate about.

Looking Ahead
As I look to the future – both as a SoFi leader and a woman in the workforce – I know the best is yet to come. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with our team to bring solutions that empower women – and all employees – to collaborate across our organization in a way that allows them to unlock their potential and offers both clarity and purpose in the work they do everyday.

After a federal appeals court blocked the Biden administration’s Save for a Valuable Education (SAVE) program last week, the Department of Education announced that borrowers enrolled in the plan are being moved into forbearance and will not have to make payments until the court case is resolved.

Forbearance refers to an approved period during which loan payments are temporarily suspended.

More than 8 million people are enrolled in SAVE, which was created a year ago. The DOE also said that

•  no interest will accrue on payments during the forbearance.

•  SAVE borrowers will enter interest-free forbearance irrespective of whether they have received an August bill yet.

•  borrowers affected by the court decision will hear from their loan servicers and/or the DOE “in the coming days,” the department said late last week.

SAVE Court Case Questions Scope

The court challenges to SAVE were launched by eight states, including Texas, Kansas, and Missouri, arguing that the Biden administration exceeded its authority in implementing the plan, which adjusts loan payments based on income and household size. A program that drastically reduces federal loan obligations should be authorized by Congress, not the president, the lawsuits claimed.

For certain qualifying federal student loan borrowers, SAVE lowered monthly payments to as little as 10% of monthly income last year, and in July 2024, the amount was set to be lowered to 5% of income. In May, the White House announced that total loan forgiveness had reached $167 billion for 4.75 million Americans.

The first injunction halted the DOE’s planned progression to the 5% of income threshold, and the latest ruling put the entire SAVE program into forbearance while these cases are decided.

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