Join us for this vital discussion with Hope Policy Institute & Sixth Avenue Baptist FCU
on Tuesday, February 27 at 2 PM ET!
Black History Month Webinar: Advancing Economic Opportunity for Black Communities in the Deep South
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On Tuesday, February 27 (2-3 PM ET), Inclusiv will celebrate Black History Month by hosting a special conversation with three dynamic leaders from HOPE Policy Institute and Sixth Avenue Baptist Federal Credit Union. They will share highlights from their work serving Black communities, recent research insights, and policy recommendations that have an impact on Black families, particularly those living in the Deep South.
Meet Our Speakers
Kiyadh Burt
Director, Hope Policy Institute
Kiyadh Burt is the Director of Hope Policy Institute (HOPE). In this position, he serves as primary liaison with advocacy partners locally, regionally and nationally. He works to advance HOPE’s mission of financial inclusion for historically undeserved communities through oversight of analysis and visualization of HOPE programmatic activities for the production of reports, briefs, and blogs.
Notably, he has testified before the House Financial Services subcommittee on Housing, Community Development on solutions to increase homeownership in persistent poverty communities in the Deep South. He leads Hope’s work on inequities in capital access in the CDFI industry, the Paycheck Protection Program, the State Small Business Credit Initiative, and criminal justice reform. Throughout his tenure at HOPE, his breadth of work includes issues on consumer protections, financial inclusion, affordable housing, and access to fresh food.
Courtney Thomas
Senior Policy Analyst, HOPE Policy Institute
Courtney is a Senior Policy Analyst at HOPE Policy Institute. In her position, she coordinates and leads public policy efforts to advance economic opportunities for working families in the Deep South by using research, outreach, education, and advocacy. Her primary areas of research include consumer protection, financial inclusion, and community and economic development.
Prior to joining HOPE, Courtney worked in policy and advocacy at a community development organization in Memphis, TN, and completed a national research fellowship on urban poverty. She is a member of the Memphis Urban League Young Professionals, a graduate of Leadership Memphis, and a 2021 America Walks Walking College Fellow.
Courtney has a bachelors in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Michele Days
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sixth Avenue Baptist Federal Credit Union
Michele is the CEO of Sixth Avenue Baptist FCU where she has been managing the helm since August 1998. She has a B.S. degree in accounting as well as auditing and prior credit union management experience.
Founded in 1963, Sixth Avenue Baptist is a $5.2 million credit union based in Birmingham, AL which serves a predominantly African American membership. Among many historic moments, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke many times from the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church pulpit, and mass rallies were held at the church. The funeral of three of the four girls killed in the bombing of a sister church (Sixteenth Street Baptist) in 1963 was held in the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church sanctuary with the world community in attendance. The credit union is a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Minority Depository Institution (MDI), and was a participant in Inclusiv’s first MDI Learning Center cohort.