Racial Equity and Economic Development

LaChaun Banks is a seasoned professional in economic development, strategic planning, leadership, and management. She teaches courses on economic development at the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she is creating and developing experiential learning programs for MBA students. She also serves as a research fellow at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, working specifically on the drivers of place-based economic growth as part of the  American Growth Project . This includes helping to expand the institute's outreach and visibility with public officials, corporate partners, and other stakeholders in major metropolitan areas around the country. Banks previously served as the inaugural Director for Equity and Inclusion for Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a joint appointment. Her role with the Ash Center involved working on the practices, policies, and networks needed to diversify the community, inform the center's organizational culture and resource allocation, and help move the Ash Center toward shared values, understanding, and language around diversity, equity, and inclusion in their work and in the center's community. Banks's role with the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative managed the deployment and adoption of the City Leader Guide for Equitable Economic Development. The guide, which Banks co-authored, is a diagnostic tool that helps city leaders assess and better understand their current practices and state with respect to equitable development and provides analytic tools to lead improvement by asking the right questions, looking at the right data, and considering promising practices in other cities. Banks earned a BA in international studies from UNC Chapel Hill, with a concentration in global economics, trade, and development. She later earned her MBA from UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.