StephoneAbout
I left traditional banking to champion a new economic model that heals, rather than harms, our communities. My time in conventional finance revealed a hard truth: the system isn’t broken; it is working exactly as designed—to accelerate inequality. I stepped away to focus on shifting capital from extractive institutions toward ventures that reinvigorate people, places, and planet.
As a founder without “deep pockets,” I have lived the obstacles that Black and Brown communities face when capital flows along historical fault lines. I know firsthand that for too many, a single setback can be terminal. This lived experience fuels my conviction that a zip code should never be a structural determinant of financial opportunity. I work to replace costly scarcity with equitable access, building systems where risk is shared, learning is celebrated, and innovation thrives.
Systems change requires inner work. To address the “mental models” that perpetuate economic struggle, I earned a Trauma of Money certification. This enhances my ability to integrate frameworks that transform collective and individual financial trauma into agency and sovereignty. I view economic justice through a healing lens, ensuring that every tool and resource I design addresses not just the math of money, but the human needs for safety and dignity that define our relationship with it.
I’m based in Texas, the financial powerhouse of the South and epicenter of fossil-fuel finance, and ground zero for a just economy. From here, I advance initiatives that prove that prioritizing people is the foundation of economic prosperity. I challenge institutions whose Corporate Social Responsibility rhetoric clashes with their extractive lending portfolios, offering the strategic frameworks necessary to align their capital with their commitments.
My work creates data-driven blueprints that redefine value, ensuring that profit can no longer be derived from exploitation. By exposing the structural fragility of business models that rely on extraction, I aim to replace the false efficiency of the current system with economic justice– building an economy where every community owns a stake in our collective future.
“Build with the people around you.”
– Issa Rae
My Growing Rolodex
Keiley Thompson
Isaiah Joseph
Nathan Tran
Nikolas Palafox
Kennedy Austin
Nicholas Hawkins
Dominique Roitman
Ian Mulhern
Josh Mollison
Jeffrey Sims
Bryan Beremo
Cailynn Winford
Jasmine Rashid
Yasmin Abdulhadi
Anaïs Monique
Mandisa Styles
Dr. Shennette Garrett-Scott
Dr. Brandon Winford
Kenya Tyson
Kofi Boone
Dr. A.D. Carson
Justin Nash
Terri Friedline, Ph.D
Darion Curtis
Norris Williams
Donovan Bridgeforth
Bank Black USA Team
Hip Hop Caucus
Just Economy Institute
Beneficial State Foundation