Bio

Cynthia Crawford, PhD, is an MU Extension faculty member bringing leadership to a retirement planning education project that targets 30,000 University of Missouri faculty and staff on four campuses; as well as reaching residents across the United States. Prior to her current role she served as a regional family financial education specialist for more than 30 years with periodic assignments that included MU Extension director of donor education and Extension faculty recruiter. She has reached over 300 million people via the radio with financial management education and has presented 3500 face to face workshops and classes on financial education, leadership, management and donor education to over 200,000 individuals. A highlight of her career has been traveling the world as a W.K. Kellogg International Leadership Fellow (class 1). She models life-long education and is currently studying positive psychology and how the research from that field can make retirement planning more comprehensive and impactful. Cynthia and her husband Robert, a retired attorney, have two adult children – both graduates of Mizzou. Their daughter is a graduate of the personal financial planning program and works in a financial crimes unit and son is a nuclear medicine cardio technologist.