TEAM

Carmencita Whonder is policy director at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the leading lobbying and law firm in the U.S. and is founder and chief executive officer at OF WHONDER, the Brooklyn-based size inclusive luxury womenswear brand.  With experience working globally across multiple disciplines, Carmencita advises Fortune 500 companies, startup CEOs, executive teams, and boards of directors on public policy, regulatory affairs, product development, strategic communications, crisis and risk management, corporate philanthropy, and diversity and inclusion.  An expert in financial services and housing finance policy, she also regularly represents clients from these industries before the U.S. Congress, White House, executive branch agencies, and international financial institutions (IFIs).

Previously, Carmencita served as the staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development and as the principal advisor on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee to United States Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY). During the 109th Congress she held the position of Minority Staff Director for the Senate Subcommittee on Economic Policy. For over four years, Carmencita was responsible for issues including banking, financial institutions, securities and commodities markets, economic and monetary policy, CFIUS, insurance, consumer protection, housing finance, community development, tax and trade.  She was Senator Schumer’s trusted liaison to Wall Street and the real estate industry.

Carmencita was member of the six-person team to launch the Gates Millennium Scholars Program (GMS), a $1 billion start-up education philanthropic initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At GMS, she allocated millions in funding to minority students, co-designed the Leadership Development Program, developed funding strategies, and wrote program policies and procedures.

In 2000, Carmencita worked in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations specialized agency. At WIPO she completed a rotational assignment in the Arbitration and Mediation Center and the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Unit. In the Arbitration Center she administered domain name dispute resolution cases and in the LDC Unit she researched the relationship between foreign direct investment, intellectual property, and the TRIPS Agreement.  Prior to that she served as an International Fellow at the Center for Policy Alternatives and to Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan, US Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Carmencita serves on corporate and non-profit boards and over the years has taken on leadership roles at various professional organizations.  She is currently a director at MidCap Financial Investment Corporation (NASDAQ: MFIC) and Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NYSE: ARI). She is a former director of Direct ChassisLink, Inc. Additionally, she serves as a member of the Board of Visitors for the College of Arts & Sciences at Howard University and on the boards of the DC Jazz Festival, and Brooklyn Org. She is a Trustee at the Population Council. Carmencita is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Carmencita has also been recognized as a MiSK Global Forum Delegate, a Milken Institute Young Leader, Milken Institute Associate, an Aspen Institute Socrates Scholar, a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member and served as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Taskforce on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy.

Carmencita holds a bachelor’s degree from Howard University College of Arts and Sciences, a Diploma from Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).