Kira BanksSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

Banks’ served at the Ferguson Commission as a racial equity consultant for her expertise was sort after and continued at Forward Through Ferguson as the Racial Equity Catalyst. In the St. Louis region, her writing and thinking has assisted in framing racial equity.

Also, at Saint Louis University in the Department of Psychology, an APA-accredited Clinical Psychology doctoral program; Banks is a tenured Associate Professor. Her research looks into inter group relations, the experience of discrimination and its effects on mental health. Her courses cuts across the Psychology of Racism to Abnormal Psychology.

Banks has written and published over two dozen articles in peer-reviewed outlets such as the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, American Psychologist, Journal of Black Psychology, Ethnic Minority Psychology and Cultural Diversity. Lending her contributions to popular media outlets such as The Atlantic and Huffington Post as well as The Harvard Business Review.

Banks created a YouTube Channel to interpret psychological concepts for lay persons. She considers research to be useful and can be used to educate in our every day lives.

Raising Equity is one of the series on the channel, which examines how children are raised intentionally with the knowledge and understanding of systemic inequities, with an equity mindset and provides them with the tools to create an unbiased society instead of accepting the status quo.

Banks develops customized curriculum to meet companies’ long-term needs as co-principal of The Mouse and the Elephant. She earned her MA and PhD from the University of Michigan and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at Mount Holyoke College where she also received her BA.