Incharge Debt Solutions Board of Trustees

These experienced professionals with diverse backgrounds are elected to two-year terms of office as members of the InCharge Debt Solutions Board of Trustees.

Susana Kondracki

Susanna Kondracki is the principal of Golden Woods Consulting LLC, focused on supporting Woman-Owned Small Businesses and advancing Female Executive Leadership. Prior to founding her own firm, Mrs. Kondracki spent 30 years in Financial Services, leading large Risk Management, Operational Management, and Structured Finance Teams at systemically important institutions including Capital One and Freddie Mac. As a transformational leader, she is passionate about balanced leadership that drives sustainable, efficient, and effective execution in both the public and private sectors.

Susanna is the Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and will take over as Co-Chair in October 2022. The national foundation focuses its efforts on education & awareness, advocacy work, and maintenance of the more than 16 U.S marine sanctuaries, our underwater parks, around the country.

Susanna lives with her husband, Chris. They have two daughters, Kendall and Alice.

Robert J. Ruiz, Esquire

Robert J. Ruiz, Esquire has served as a Trustee since February 2012.

Mr. Ruiz is an attorney with over 35 years of experience in government and public interest law. His career includes service as Solicitor General for the State of Illinois, National President of the Hispanic National Bar Association as well as being a founding member and officer of the National Hispanic Prosecutors Association and the Illinois Association of Hispanic State Employees.

In education, Robert serves as a member of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. He has served on the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO), Chairman of the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities, Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, and the Foundation for Podiatric Education. He has served on the University of Illinois Alumni Board, the DePaul College of Law Visiting Committee and the Committee on Continuing Education for the Law Institute of the American Bar Association, the Chicago Metro History Education Center and the USO of Illinois.

Ruiz is an alumni of the prestigious Leadership Greater Chicago Program. He is a graduate of the DePaul Law School and the University of Illinois Chicago.

Kristen Soles, CPA

Kristen Soles has served as a Board Trustee since February 2013.

Kristen Soles, CPA, is a partner in CohnReznick’s Government Contracting Industry Practice. At CohnReznick, she provides an extensive range of advisory services for government contractors, including FAR/CAS compliance, indirect cost rate structuring, cost reporting, and final incurred cost proposal compliance. Through her prior experience as a management-level contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Kristen acquired working knowledge of DoD compliance, allocability and allowability issues, disclosure statement requirements, GSA schedules, and DCAA audits.

Kristen works with government contractors to develop business systems, identify and correct system deficiencies, and prepare for business systems and other government audits. She is an expert in Deltek GCS Premier and is well versed in Costpoint. Kristen frequently works with the Firm’s Construction Industry Practice and Not-for-Profit and Education Industry Practice on government contracting issues related to grants, A-133 audits, and U.S. Department of Energy 316 audits. Additionally, the Firm was awarded blanket purchase agreements to perform incurred cost audits and business system audits for a number of civilian agencies. Kristen is one of two partners in our Firm who is responsible for performing these audits. Her duties include communicating with the contracting officer, ensuring the audits are performed in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS) and that they are based on the Defense Contract Audit Agency’s (DCAA) audit program, and issuing audit reports. She advises the government on cost allowability, allocability, reasonableness, and compliance with the applicable standards.

Internally, Kristen supervises and trains staff on audit and review engagements, as well as on various government contracting issues. She also presents monthly “lunch-and-learn” sessions and developed GovCon360.com to provide resources, templates, and updates to government contractors that reflect the ever-changing regulatory environment. She has been repeatedly honored as a “Super CPA” in the field of small business consulting and government contracting by Virginia Business magazine.

Education: Mary Washington University: Bachelor of Science, Accounting

Professional Affiliations: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants

Carey Tarbell

Carey Tarbell has served as a Trustee since February of 2014.

Carey, managing director of VOX Global, leads the firm’s financial services and crisis practice groups. She has more than 20 years’ experience as an issue-advocacy communications strategist and coalition manager for large corporations, associations, small businesses, community groups and non-profits. Carey’s unique expertise has helped various industries achieve their most important public policy objectives.

Carey has extensive experience in crisis communications. In recent years she has worked with a global corporate client on a highly publicized OIG investigation and assisted a major firearm manufacturer in its communications during a national recall. She has also worked for several years with a global auto manufacturer on contentious labor issues. Carey has extensive expertise in the related areas of litigation communications, stakeholder engagement and reputation management, including providing strategic communications counsel to Pokémon toys and Vinson & Elkins, Enron’s principal law firm.

On the financial front, Carey works with a variety of our largest financial services clients and leads communications strategy for a large, multi-year coalition of financial services companies focused on interchange regulation. She has also worked closely with these entities on a multitude of data security and reputation management issues.

Prior to joining VOX, Carey served as executive director of The National Journal’s Policy Council, an issue advocacy membership of nearly 100 leading organizations including corporations, trade associations, think tanks and nonprofits.

Earlier in her career, Carey served as executive vice president in the Washington, DC office of Powell Tate|Weber Shandwick. Over the span of her 13 year tenure with the firm she managed many of the firm’s largest and most complex clients. Highlights include launching and managing multi-year reputation management campaigns for two separate coalitions of financial services providers.

She managed a comprehensive issue advocacy campaign for a coalition of financial services companies seeking permanent reauthorization of federal preemption provisions in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Favorable legislation was enacted at the completion of the campaign.

Additionally, Carey coordinated a multi-year public affairs campaign for a large financial services coalition seeking reform of federal personal bankruptcy laws. A survey of congressional staff at the time named the reform effort one of the year’s most effective campaigns.

Carey began her public affairs career in the Public Law Policy division of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld. A Washington, D.C. native, she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from George Mason University.

Jeffrey Tassey

In 2004, Jeffrey A. Tassey formed the government relations firm of ‘Tassey & Associates’ which specializes in issue, coalition and legislative risk management involving complex, unpopular issues, with a concentration on financial services, bankruptcy, and legal reform issues.

Prior to the establishment of Tassey & Associates, Mr. Tassey served as a partner at Williams & Jensen where he led the firm’s Practice Group for Financial and Judicial Reform Issues. Previously, Mr. Tassey held the position of Executive Vice President for Legal and Government Affairs for the American Financial Services Association.

Mr. Tassey spent nine years as a senior Congressional staffer, serving as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer and Monetary Affairs of House Committee on Government Operations, and as Banking Counsel to the Honorable Doug Barnard, Jr.  Leading up to his Congressional career, Mr. Tassey received a Public Affairs Fellowship from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, was a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and completed his fellowship at the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress.

In January, 2001, Mr. Tassey was named to the Bush Administration transition team to provide advice to the Treasury Department on financial issues and appointments. In 2004, the Hill newspaper named him as one of the top financial services lobbyists.

Mr. Tassey received a BA in History from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio and a JD from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He was awarded a Public Affairs Fellowship at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Patricia A. “Trish” Wexler

Patricia Wexler has served as a Trustee since February 2011, and is currently serving as the Board of Trustees Chairman.

Trish Wexler is Chief Communications Officer for Chase Consumer & Community Banking. Trish and her team protect and enhance the reputation of Chase and its leaders, ensure its employees are informed and inspired, and bring the Chase brand to life internally and externally. In this role, Trish oversees media relations, public affairs, internal communications, and social media, and serves as the primary media spokesperson for the business.

Trish, who joined the firm in August 2013, has worked in crisis communications and public affairs for nearly 20 years specializing in financial services legislative and regulatory. Most recently, Trish was a Senior Partner at VOX Global, a public affairs firm she helped to build.

Trish graduated from the University of Richmond where she studied International Studies, Japanese and Mathematics. She lives in Rye, New York with her husband and two sons.

Monika J. Wilczak, PhD

Monika Wilczak is a savvy, growth-oriented executive with expertise in artificial intelligence and data analytics. She’s been delivering exceptional results to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies for the past 25+ years.

Monika has worked in diverse segments (B2C, B2B, B2E) and verticals (Financial Services, Energy/Utilities, Technology) at leading companies including Bloomberg, CITI, JP Morgan Chase, Accenture and Ernst & Young. She is currently an executive advisor to the US Government.

Monika holds a PhD and Master of Science in Statistics and Operations Research from NYU Stern School of Business, and a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Methods from the Warsaw School of Economics.