Executive Director, Arizona PIRG
Started on staff: 1985
B.S., Springfield College; M.Ed., Springfield College
Diane directs the policy and campaign priorities for Arizona PIRG. She helped lead members of the Coalition for Transportation Choices advocating for Proposition 104 in Phoenix—one of the boldest investments in public transportation passed in the nation. Diane is the recipient of recent awards from the Phoenix Business Journal, the League of Women Voters of Arizona and the Arizona League of Conservation Voters. Diane was previously the executive director of Illinois PIRG, and an assistant organizing director with the Student PIRGs.
In recognition of Consumer Protection Week 2022, Arizona PIRG Education Fund released a series of consumer protection tips and tools to help Arizonans address some of the most common consumer issues. To make it easy for consumers, the organization compiled the information in one location.
When National Consumer Protection Week began in the late 1990s, many Americans still didn’t have internet access at home, let alone on mobile devices. Now, according to the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, infringement on our online privacy is a huge threat, even when you just have apps running in the background. A new tips guide from the Arizona PIRG Education Fund can help consumers control access to their private information and what companies can do with your data if they get it.
According to the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, consumers often don’t know which products will last and they’ll be able to fix, or which manufacturers make fixable devices and support Right to Repair. A new scorecard by the organization, “Failing the Fix,” ranks the most popular cell phone and laptop makers for consumers who seek to purchase easily repairable products – especially those from companies who do not fight to prevent Right to Repair.
According to the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, in 2021, a record number of people from across the country filed complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Public Consumer Complaint Database. Here in Arizona, close to 7,900 complaints were filed, likely representing a sliver of the scope as not all Arizonans are aware of or may choose to file a complaint with the CPFB.
According to the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, many farm equipment manufacturers prevent farmers from accessing the software tools they need to fix their modern tractors. The organization states that this “forces farmers to turn to corporate-authorized dealers for many problems, which can lead to high repair bills and delays that can put their crops—and their livelihoods—at risk”. While farmers have always relied on local dealerships for help, more and more those dealerships have been bought up by large chain networks, further reducing competition and exacerbating the problems farmers already face due to repair restrictions.
