The Center for Institutional and Social Change, Office of Private Sector Careers, and Public Interest/Public Service Law and Careers are co-hosting a lunch with two former FTC officials, Monica Vaca and Kati Daffan, who will be talking about their experience working in government and transitioning to the private sector while maintaining a focus on public interest.
Monica Vaca is a 23-year veteran of the FTC. As Deputy Director for the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Monica worked on the full range of matters, from fraud to privacy violations. In other roles, she led initiatives, investigations, and cases against lenders, business opportunity sellers, telemarketers, online scams, and payment processors. Over the course of her career at the FTC, Monica worked to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds to consumers and injunctive relief that ended unlawful conduct. Previously, Monica worked for Legal Aid Chicago as an Equal Justice Fellow in the Women's Law Project, and clerked for Judge John F. Grady in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
In her 15-plus years as a litigator, manager, and leader at the FTC, Kati Daffan developed expertise on topics across the agency's consumer protection mission. As Assistant Director in the Division of Marketing Practices, she led the agency's litigation and initiatives related to multilevel marketing, deceptive business opportunities, AI-related fraud, illegal repair restrictions, and payment mechanisms used to facilitate scams. Kati also served as Acting Deputy General Counsel of the FTC and was Attorney Advisor to Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. Prior to joining the FTC, Kati was a Skadden Fellow at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and clerked for Judge Shira A. Scheindlin in the Southern District of New York.