Student Borrower Protection Center, the UC Student Loan Law Initiative, and Protect Borrowers Action Welcome Four New Senior Fellows to Lead Projects Across Allied Organizations
March 7, 2025 | WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), the University of California Student Loan Law Initiative (UC SLLI), and Protect Borrowers Action (PBA) are proud to announce a new cohort of fellows across these allied organizations, who will bring their deep experience serving across the White House, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to the fight to protect borrowers. These new additions include Josh Rovenger and Allison Preiss, both of whom will serve as senior fellows at SBPC, Julia Barnard, who will serve as a senior fellow at UC SLLI, and Blake Narendra, who will serve as a senior fellow at PBA.
“As borrowers face new threats from a hostile administration and emboldened financial firms, the fight to protect borrowers stretches across the economy and spans every level of government,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of SBPC and PBA and co-founder of UC SLLI. “Josh, Allison, Julia, and Blake are leaders who will rewrite the rules to protect working people and reshape the way we think about debt and economic opportunity. I’m proud to welcome them to the team and excited about all we will accomplish together.”
New additions to the SBPC, UC SLLI, and PBA teams include:
- Josh Rovenger, Senior Fellow at the Student Borrower Protection Center. At SBPC, Josh will rejoin SBPC’s counsel team to lead a renewed effort to hold the Trump Administration accountable in court, demanding that government officials restore borrowers’ rights and follow the law. Josh most recently served as Associate Counsel to the President for Racial Justice and Equity, where he advised the President and top Administration officials on various civil rights issues including LGBTQ+ equity, religious freedom, housing, tribal justice, and access to justice. Before joining the White House, Josh was a Supervising Attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and fellow at SBPC. Josh earned his law degree from Harvard Law School and clerked on the U.S. Circuit Court for the First Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
- Allison Preiss, Senior Fellow at the Student Borrower Protection Center. At SBPC, Allison will help lead a new initiative to defend the CFPB from efforts to dismantle the agency, organizing a cohort of former senior CFPB officials to aggressively communicate with the press and the public about the costs to working families should the Trump Administration “delete CFPB.” Prior to joining SBPC, Allison served as CFPB Director Rohit Chopra’s chief communications advisor, where she drove messaging and strategy on junk fees, medical debt, and other high-profile national economic issues. Before her time at the CFPB, Allison was the vice president of communications and senior advisor at the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. She also spent more than six years on Capitol Hill in communications roles at the Senate HELP Committee for then-Chairman Tom Harkin and for Senators Sherrod Brown, Chris Dodd, and Evan Bayh.
- Julia Barnard, Senior Fellow at the UC Student Loan Law Initiative. At the UC SLLI, Julia will join an interdisciplinary team of law scholars and economists to build a research agenda that defines the new economic landscape for working people trapped in debt. Until she was illegally fired by Acting CFPB Director Russ Vought, Julia was the Student Loan Ombudsman and an advisor to the Director at the CFPB. During her time at the Bureau, she was Director Rohit Chopra’s principal policy advisor on student loan strategy and acted as the CFPB’s primary liaison to the U.S. Department of Education and Office of Federal Student Aid, among other federal agency partners. She also led the policy development process related to federal and private education loans, which included reports related to tuition payment plans, K-12 payment platforms, college banking, and more. Additionally, she helped guide the CFPB’s strategy related to federal student loan servicers, private student lenders, and colleges. Before her time at the CFPB, Barnard was a student loan team lead at the Center for Responsible Lending and a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Blake Narendra, Senior Fellow at Protect Borrowers Action. At PBA, Blake will lead a new effort to hold Members of Congress directly accountable for raising costs on working families, fighting against the right-wing scheme to pay for tax cuts by gutting the student loan safety net and rolling back key consumer protections. Blake most recently served as Special Advisor to Chair Lina Khan at the FTC for external relations. Previously, Blake held appointments in the Obama and Biden Administrations at the National Security Council, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and at the National Nuclear Security Administration, all in press- and congressional-facing roles. Additionally, Blake worked for Senators Jeff Merkley and Ed Markey over five years. A native of Minnesota, Blake received his master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
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About Student Borrower Protection Center
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a nonprofit organization focused on eliminating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. We engage in advocacy, policymaking, and litigation strategy to rein in industry abuses, protect borrowers’ rights, and advance racial and economic justice.
Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow SBPC on Twitter @theSBPC.
About the University of California Student Loan Law Initiative
The University of California Student Loan Law Initiative (UC SLLI) is the nation’s first academic research project focused on student debt and the law. UC SLLI fosters the highest quality research, provides grants, and builds the capacity of student loan experts to shape the future of this marketplace.
Learn more at slli.org or follow SLLI on Twitter @UC_SLLI.
About Protect Borrowers Action
Protect Borrowers Action educates, activates, and mobilizes Americans with student debt to hold right-wing officials accountable for their efforts to deny borrowers life-changing relief and keep them drowning in student debt. PBA is a fiscally sponsored project of Fund for a Better Future, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization.
Learn more at borrowersaction.org or follow PBA on Twitter @borrowersaction.