Martin Eakes, co-founder and CEO of Self-Help and the Center for Responsible Lending, will deliver the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Lecture in Public Policy on Oct. 1 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Eakes’ talk “Extreme Inequality: Is it Really a Problem?” will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Gerrard Hall, with a reception to follow.

Eakes, a native North Carolinian, developed Self-Help and the Center for Responsible Lending to provide consumer financial services, technical support and advocacy for those left out of the economic mainstream. Throughout his career, he has been a champion of economic empowerment for women, low-income, rural and minority communities and has worked to ensure that all Americans have equal access to the American Dream.

In 2011, Eakes was selected as one of 12 recipients of the Ford Foundation’s Visionaries Award for his contributions to creating financial opportunities for the poor and he has also been honored as a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2009, the Opportunity Finance Network presented him with the Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Lending.

The Lambeth Lectureship in the College of Arts and Sciences was endowed in 2006 to bring speakers to campus who are distinguished practitioners and/or scholars of public policy, particularly those whose work touches on the fields of education, ethics, democratic institutions and civic engagement.

The event is free and open to the public.

More information here.