Cheryl L. Evans, JD, leads the Lifetime Financial Security (LFS) Program of the Milken Institute’s Finance pillar. She frequently discusses a variety of issues related to financial security and retirement savings and has been cited in publications such as US News and World Report, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg News, MarketWatch, CBS News, Pensions & Investments, McKnight’s Senior Living, and TheStreet. Evans is the co-author of Shifting the Retirement Paradigm: Moving toward Lifetime Financial Security and Enhancing Retirement: Advancing Lifetime Income for All. She has also written for the Work Megatrends Section of AARP’s International website and has published several law review articles.

Evans has worked at CFA Institute, where she worked in its enforcement program, helped lead the research for its Future of Finance global initiative, and worked in its educational events and programs area, where she also spoke on issues faced by women in finance and law. She worked as special counsel at the US Chamber of Commerce, where she engaged in legal writing, public speaking, advocacy, and strategy work and was registered as a federal lobbyist. Evans was also a part of the Chamber’s economic crisis working group, contributed to two capital markets studies, led a large economic study, and led two academic working groups focused on securities litigation and corporate criminal law.

She spent over 11 years as senior counsel at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At the SEC, Evans worked in the Division of Enforcement, where she handled a variety of investigations, was a member of the WorldCom case team, served as the liaison to the Office of International Affairs, and was a part of a criminal fraud task force. She also worked in the division of Trading and Markets, where she approved financial products and interpreted trading rules, and in the division of Examinations, where she inspected compliance programs, at the SEC.

Evans was appointed to work as a special assistant US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia prosecuting felony and misdemeanor criminal cases. She also served as a trial attorney in the Commercial Litigation Section of the US Department of Justice, where she worked at both the trial and appellate levels handling international trade cases, banking trials, and government contract bid protests, and she served as a judicial law clerk at the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Evans holds a BA from Marietta College, a JD from Rutgers Law School, and an LLM in transnational business practice from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law and Salzburg Law School in Austria. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.