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     Esther Peterson Consumer Policy Forum

This lectureship was established in 1990 to recognize and honor the outstanding, long-term contributions of Esther Peterson to consumer policy making. It honors her as a notable long-time consumer activist and early leader in the consumer movement. It is presented at the ACCI Conference annually with respect to a contemporary consumer policy issue that is identified and clarified. 

Esther Peterson Biography

Esther Peterson photo

Esther Eggertsen Peterson (December 9, 1906 – December 10, 1997) graduated in 1927 from Brigham Young University. Early in her career, she taught prep school and volunteered at the YWCA. In 1938, Peterson became a paid organizer for the American Federation of Teachers and traveled around New England. In 1944, she became the first lobbyist for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, DC. In 1948, the State Department offered Peterson’s husband a position as a diplomat in Sweden. The family returned to Washington, DC, and in 1957 Peterson joined the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO becoming its first woman lobbyist.

She served as Assistant Secretary of Labor and Director of the United States Women’s Bureau for President John F. Kennedy and Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter. She also held positions as Vice President for Consumer Affairs at Giant Food Corporation, and president of the National Consumers League. 

Learn more about Esther Peterson

  

Esther Peterson Consumer Policy Forum 
Award Winners by Year
Year

 Lecturer Title of Lecture
2024 David Silberman, FHN/CRL The Researcher and the Regulator Can Be Friends: How Household Finance Research Affects Regulatory Policy Making
2023 Jean Ann Fox Your Car is Your Credit! Using Research to Curb Predatory Car Title Lending
2022 Jack Gillis  
2021 John Sabelhaus, the Brookings Institution  

2019

Michal Grinstein-Weiss
Washington University
Shanti K. Khinduka Distinguished Professor 

  

2018

Travis Plunkett 
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Sr. Director, Family Economic Stability

Developing Research that is Policy Relevant: Approaches Used by the Pew Charitable Trusts

2017

 

Barbara Roper
Consumer Federation of America

Do Facts Still Matter? Independent Research in the Policymaking Process 

2016

 

Rhoda H. Karpatkin
President Emeritus of Consumers Union of United States, Inc.

Young Consumer Activists Today:  We Need to Hear Their Voices

 

2015

 

Sandy Praeger
Former Kansas Insurance Commissioner

 
2014

Stephen Brobeck
Consumer Federation of America

The Past and Future Evolution of Consumer Advocacy
2013

Sharon Nelson
Consumers Union

Testing, Informing, Protecting: A Short Personal History of Consumers Union and Consumers International
2012 David Laibson
National Bureau of Economic Research		 Behavioral Economics and Consumer Choice
2011 Damon Silvers
AFL-CIO		 The Consumer Position in the "New" World Marketplace

2007

 Mila Kofman
Georgetown University		 Nearly 47 Million Americans Without Health Coverage: Is Incremental Reform Working?

2006

 Caroline Warne
International Organization for Standardization		 Why Setting Standards Is Important to Consumers and How Consumers Benefit

2005

 Connie Weaver
Purdue University		  

2004

 Louise Sylvan
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission		 A Global View of Consumer Issues: Then and Now
2002
James N. Morgan,
University of Michigan		 Why Consumers Need Economics Insights as well as Information and Protection
2001 Suzanne Morse,
Pew Partnership for Civic Change		 Consumers and Communities: "Restless" for Change ad Results
2000 Jim Hightower,
Consumer Advocate		 Agitating for Consumer Power
1999 Trudy Liebermann
Consumer Union

Richard I. Smith
American Assoc. of Health Plan (AAHP)
Managed Care and the Consumer Agenda
1998 Carol Tucker Foreman
Safe Food Coalition

 International Food Issues: A Consumer Advocate's Perspective
1997 Wendy L. Goodwin
Council for Responsible Genetics

 Perils Amidst the Promise: Consumer and the Biotechnology Revolution
1996 Colien Hefferan
Coop. State Research Education & Extension Service, USDA

 Whither the Consumer Interest: The Role of Consumer Professionals in an Era of Regulatory Reform and Government Downsizing
1995 John Kenneth Galbraith
Harvard University		 Esther Peterson and the Consumer Movement
1994 Mark Silbergeld
Consumer Union		 International Trade: What is the Consumer Interest?
1993 Eric Flamm
Office of Biotechnology, FDA

Karen Marshall 
Agricultural Group, Monsanto, Inc

Robin Douthitt
University of Wisconsin-Madison

 Biotechnology and the Consumer
1992 Grada Hellman
Regional Director, REONA, IOCU		 The Global Consumer Movement
1991 Edward Kane
The Ohio State University

 The Continuing Savings and Loan Insurance Mess