Meet Amber Banks, Inaugural Vice President of Programs
As we prepare to celebrate five years of Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP), we’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Amber Banks (she/her) as the inaugural Vice President of Programs. Dr. Banks will lead DWP’s programs and support the direction of Liberated Capital’s funds. She is a seasoned social sector leader with over two decades of experience as an educator, researcher, coach, facilitator, advisor, grant maker, entrepreneur, and organizer. Across these roles, Dr. Banks’ work elevates how relationships and repair inform our work together for social justice.
Dr. Banks started her career as a special education teacher, and prior to joining DWP, was the Founder & CEO of the Center for Trust and Transformation (CTT). CTT is a consulting collective offering coaching, consulting, facilitation, and advising to social sector organizations focused on trust, healing, repair, and racial justice. CTT’s clients include the Gates Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, Equal Opportunity Schools, the BIG We, and Frontline Solutions.
Dr. Banks completed her undergraduate degree in Journalism at Boston University and her Ph.D. in Education Leadership, Organizations, and Policy from the University of Washington with a focus on cross-cultural trust, racial justice, and social network analysis. Dr. Banks is certified as a Healing Centered Coach and Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP), in addition to being a Reiki practitioner. She is also a Fellow with both the Pahara Institute and Mosaic Changemakers. Dr. Banks loves to dream of what’s possible when we work together from a place of trust and healing.
Get to know Dr. Banks through this brief Q&A session:
Tell us about yourself. How have your roots/background informed who you are today?
I am a Black, bi-racial woman from Los Angeles who is the grand-daughter of farmers on both sides of my family– each brought to the land by very different histories. My story starts in Los Angeles, with family roots that reach back to Kentucky and Nebraska. My story is one of bridge building, boundary spanning, and basketball. As a child, I moved between public and private schools — witnessing first hand the injustices of the educational caste system. This experience paved the way for a career in education in order to be part of making our education systems, and ultimately our society, more equitable.
My middle name is Joy and this is a defining feature of my people and my spirit. My mom’s lineage has taught me to live fearlessly and my dad’s side reminds me to never let anyone steal my peace. From this place, I am continually learning and evolving. My roots instill a love for family, good music and good food, and plants of all kinds.
How did you first find your way into philanthropy?
I first worked in philanthropy as a Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation after graduate school. I held roles doing both Measurement, Learning, and Evaluation and programmatic grantmaking. It was a powerful experience to be part of building philanthropic strategies, evaluating impact, and collaborating with colleagues across program areas. I met incredible people and lifelong friends both at Gates and in the philanthropic sector broadly. It also helped me more deeply explore ways to embed equity in philanthropy, what it means to cede power to Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, and the vast number of ways there are to tell stories and define impact.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
There are so many things I am excited about in this role! DWP’s programs and funds are very aligned with my own values and I am excited to support DWP’s programmatic growth and evolution. The DWP team is brilliant and dynamic and I’m excited to continue to find my place in amplifying, accelerating, and celebrating DWP’s work. I am also very excited to get to know DWP’s extended family of partners and collaborators and for all the good trouble we will get into together in the years ahead.
What drew you to Decolonizing Wealth Project’s mission?
The call to action in Decolonizing Wealth is as compelling today as it was five years ago when the book came out. DWP’s mission invites a necessary shift in the field of philanthropy that invites us into a practice of reflection, repair, and redistribution of wealth. I share DWP’s belief that healing and repair are prerequisites for liberation and I love that DWP is global in scope but prioritizes ceding power and moving resources to movement organizations on the ground. The relational foundations of DWP’s work resonate deeply with me.
You’ve studied and done a lot of work on trust. What inspired that and how does it inform your work today?
It took me a long time to realize that I have been exploring trust my entire life. I spent a lot of time growing up moving between different worlds and have always been fascinated by relationships. As a Special Education teacher, trust was critical. It is very difficult to be a good teacher without first building trust with children and their families, and (re)building this trust looks for different people and across different contexts. In graduate school, I took this curiosity to the next level by going deep into how trust operates in the context of race, power, and identity.
This led to the creation of the Center for Trust and Transformation which allowed me the space to explore how to infuse trust building and repair for racial justice in the context of philanthropy, systems change, and organizational development. At DWP, I am excited to bring all that I have learned about trust to support and continue to learn alongside partners about how we heal from colonial harm, redistribute wealth, and move into right relationship with ourselves and each other.
