Put Your Money Where Your Values Are: Re-envisioning Retirement
Erin Axelrod, Rachel Fagiano, and Courtney Wicks
In philanthropy, when we think about all of the ways we are invested in our communities, we often don’t think about our retirement savings. Yet, around $20 trillion is invested in retirement savings across the United States. However, who gets to participate in our retirement systems, how decisions are made about our retirement money, and how that money is used before we retire are often complex and, frankly, hard to navigate in ways that align with our values.
In this podcast episode, Rachel Fagiano (Philanthropic Consultant and Former Senior Fellow with Funders for Justice) interviews Erin Axelrod (LIFT Economy), Courtney Wicks (Racial Justice Investing Coalition) about ways foundation staff can start thinking about a spectrum of interventions and community care when we think about retirement – at the tactical, organizational, and worker levels – and how that can impact you and your community. The Center for Cultural Innovation commissioned Rachel Fagiano to author a toolkit called Envisioning Retirement that explores these themes. Listeners interested in next steps should be encouraged to follow an upcoming working group from Racial Justice Investing, co-sponsored by LIFT Economy and Just Futures.
This episode was recorded on February 24, 2026.
L to R: Erin Axelrod, Rachel Fagiano, and Courtney Wicks
Resources + Links
Jaime Sharp:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to a podcast by Grantmakers in the Arts. My name is Jaime Sharp, and I'm the senior program manager here at GIA. In philanthropy, when we think about all the ways we are investing in our communities, we often don't think about retirement savings. Yet, around 20 trillion is invested in retirement savings across the United States. However, who gets to participate in our retirement systems, how decisions are made about our retirement money, and how that money is used before we retire, are often complex, and frankly hard to navigate in a way that aligns with our values. In this podcast episode, we hear from experts from the field about ways foundation staff can start thinking about a spectrum of interventions and community care when we think about retirement at the tactical, organizational, and worker levels, and how that can impact you and your community.
The Center for Cultural Innovation commissioned Rachel Fagiano to author a toolkit called Envisioning Artists Retirement that explores these themes. For those interested in learning more, we encourage you to follow an upcoming working group from racial justice investing co-sponsored by LIFT Economy and Just Futures. There will be a link to these pages on the landing page for this podcast. Now, please enjoy today's podcast episode.
Rachel Fagiano:
Hello, everyone. I am Rachel Fagiano, a former senior fellow with Funders for Justice, and the author of Re-envisioning Retirement: A Spectrum of Interventions in Community Care, a free toolkit to support individuals, organizations, foundations, policymakers, and values aligned financial professionals in re-envisioning the retirement landscape. I am joined today by Courtney Wicks and Erin Axelrod. Courtney is the executive director of the Center for Mission Aligned and Ethical Investing with over 15 years of experience in the development and implementation of strategies, policies, and practices that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. Erin is a partner and worker owner at LIFT Economy, where she accelerates ecological and justice-centered business in the next economy. Welcome, you two. So happy to be in conversation today.
Courtney Wicks:
Thank you for having me.
Erin Axelrod:
It's such an honor. And Courtney, it's such an honor to meet you. I am really excited to dive into this conversation with you.
Rachel Fagiano:
We are here today to chat about retirement. When we think about all of the ways we are invested in our communities, we often don't think about our retirement savings, if we have them. Yet, the total retirement assets in the US is about $44.1 trillion, and accounts for 34% of all household assets. Of that, 12.4 trillion is currently invested in defined contribution plans. Think your 401ks, and 8.9 trillion in pensions. That's a lot of money. However, who gets to participate in our retirement systems, how decisions are made, and how that money is used is often complex, and frankly, hard to navigate in a way that is aligned with our values. This is true for artists and cultural workers as well. Like many gig workers, retirement savings are often less accessible due to lack of an employer sponsored plan, and income disparities that make it harder to save for retirement.
There have been some interesting experiments that have ultimately been unsuccessful in this space, including the establishment of an artist pension trust. What are the options out there, and how do we take a community-centered approach to retirement? Erin, let's start with you. We often don't talk about retirement savings beyond individual economic security. What is the broader conversation we should be having?
Erin Axelrod:
Courtney, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this, but my first thoughts are racialized capitalism, white supremacy, right? The retirement system, and particularly the ERISA, Employee Retirement Investment Securities Act law, Investment and Savings Act law is explicitly built over many, many decades to control wealth and power into financial intermediaries and fiduciaries, and revoke power away from the people. And we've learned this through our collaboration with the Sustainable Economies Law Center since 2019, diving into the legal details. But, there's much bigger systems at play that created an institution of retirement assets that really explicitly is designed to take power away. I don't know, Courtney, what would you add?
Courtney Wicks:
And I think we get the world that we invest in, and this world that we're invested in right now is largely invested in a system that harnesses and generates a return for retirement. But, it's also the same system that's producing the affordability crisis. It's also the same system that's invested in atrocity crimes. It's also the same system that's investing in activities, business activities that are contributing to the climate crisis. And there's just not enough say from workers and from those that actually drive this economy every single day through their hard work and contributing through their deferred wages on, they have no consent over the world that we are, that this system is producing. And so, we have to have a broader conversation about how do we change that paradigm.
Rachel Fagiano:
Well, you preempted my next question. Courtney, I guess, building on that a little bit, I'm curious what you see as the current landscape of retirement savings, and how it's impacting community maybe in a little bit more detail.
Courtney Wicks:
Yeah, it's so crazy to me, because there's so much gaslighting around the system about, "Oh, it's so complex, you don't understand how it works. Just rely on your investment consultants, just rely on your asset managers." But, I think the outcomes are pretty clear. The same people that are working on, whether it's a sanitation worker, a nurse, anyone that's contributing to their 401k, and whatever sector they're working in, could potentially also be living in a community where that same system is invested in the refineries that's making them sick. It's the same sort of system that's saying, "Hey, we'll take your deferred wages, but we're going to deny people who look like you economic opportunity in the same sector that is making these decisions."
And so, when I look at the landscape right now, I don't see the system working for the people that are driving it. I see a system that is largely right now supporting authoritarian drift. I see a system that is largely driving the climate crisis, as I said before. And I'm also really deeply concerned about the fact that this same system is investing in companies that are propping up the infrastructure for agencies like ICE, while also contributing to the same system that is driving atrocity crimes around the world.
And I think part of what the fiduciaries, and asset managers, and all of those that are part of this capital chain rely on is that the public is unaware, and that it has to become financially material. The harm has to become financially material in order for it to mean something. And so, how many people must be sacrificed in that? How far do we have to get to the brink of a climate crisis that might become irreversible? And so, I think we do need to start to drill down and really get at the inner workings of this. And yeah, so that's what I see in terms of the landscape.
Rachel Fagiano:
Given that this is the landscape, each of you has been involved in different efforts to re-envision the ways we think about this capital. I want to hear from both of you, but maybe Erin, you could start us off. Tell us a little bit more about your efforts and what you've been learning.
Erin Axelrod:
Well, Courtney, I'm so grateful for what you just shared. It's actually really regulating to my nervous system to be in a room talking real talk. One of the initiatives that we launched in 2019 in collaboration, LIFT Economy, the Sustainable Economy's Law Center and Michael Schumann was a project called The Next Egg that still exists today as a project of LIFT Economy, and folks can join and be a part of our community of practice of more than 300 folks. And part of the reason we started that initiative was that the cultural, normative, mainstream attitudes and belief systems, I sometimes call them BS, belief systems, around retirement are so well established, and that this culture of retirement savings as just this benign thing that we do as smart, prudent people, and that it's just what you do to make sure you have enough when you retire.
And I want to bring a lot of self-compassion and universal compassion when we talk about those cultural aspects, because it's not like people are malintentioned when we reify these cultural tropes around retirement. And I think that that culture is an outgrowth of those systems that you were naming so explicitly, Courtney. And so, the Next Egg was an initiative to start to build compassionate, communitarian reeducation movements to really challenge some of those assumptions that retirement is just inevitable, and that complicity with these systems is just an inevitable part of being a smart adult in society. Rachel, is that a good ... I think that's a good place to start, because we could talk about the journey of the Next Egg, but really, that's essentially what we're trying to do is just create pathways for people to realize that there are other ways to save and achieve personal security, and also, that the systems that are offering us these 401k retirement options don't have our best interest in mind.
Rachel Fagiano:
Thank you. Yeah, I'm curious, Courtney, for you, what have been some of the efforts you've been involved in or some of the conversations you've had around this?
Courtney Wicks:
Yeah, I would say the conversations around this have become far more expansive in the last year, because I think when you're ... I think previous to this past year, we talk a lot about systems, and it sounds so abstract to most people, right? It's like, okay, it's a system, but I can't actually visualize it. I can't see it. I don't see the highways. I don't even know what the names of the streets are. But, I think there's just so much about right now that has lit up the grid like a Christmas tree for so many people, because I can see online how people are just making the connections, looking at starting to question things around, "Hey, why does an Elon Musk get a trillion dollar pay package, and my retirement account is invested in that?" And I've had people ask questions around, "What should I be doing with my 401k? Is there anything I can be doing with my 401k," and just having more spirited conversations around some people are like, "Hey, it's just about the return." And more and more people are like, "It's not just about the return."
The return that we also have to be getting is a safe, democratic future, a livable planet, all of these things. And so, in order for me to generate this return to have ... What's the point of having retirement security if, one, I may not be able to even afford it, because the affordability crisis is not, it's not under control, or I have a retirement, but the planet is on fire. These things do not happen in isolation. The system very much exists. The economic system, the financial system, the retirement system that exists inside of all of that exists in real life. And so, it's not something that's like some separate thing that's not connected to the outcomes that we see in our own daily lives.
I think these conversations are starting to kick up, and I'm actually really hopeful about being part, and maybe even helping to drive a much more robust public conversation about this, and creating more awareness. We do not have to accept this paradigm. This is not inevitable. This is not something that was some divine creation. This is human made. These are driven by human decisions, and these human decisions have a lot of concentrated power at some of the most influential financial systems that manage retirement accounts. And so, I think ... But, this doesn't exist without everyday people going to work every single day, contributing every single day their hard-earned wages, regardless of their class. Everyone contributes to this system. And so, in some ways, I would like to see a world where it becomes more democratized. I would like to see a world where workers have a voice, where workers are on corporate boards, where there's just much more integration, where we as the people have more of a say of the kind of future we want to see, and that retirement security fits into that vision.
Rachel Fagiano:
Again, preempting me with all of the good thoughts. My next question for you all is, in an ideal world, what would retirement look like to you, and what are some steps folks can take toward that vision? And maybe Erin, we'll start with you.
Erin Axelrod:
Well, Courtney, I loved what you said, because it made me think about this hard work that people do day in and day out, and how so much of those wages are siphoned off to pay for things like barely making a mortgage payment, or barely making rent. And when I think about the big, big vision, at risk of sounding truly quite Pollyannish, I want to live in a world where there can accommodate the ebbs and flows of our lives without risking shelter, and food, and personal security, and healthcare when we don't have a bank account that's abundant. And the reason that's important to me is because the racial wealth chasm is such that even if marginalized folks, person of color, indigenous folks actually are really diligent about saving money in their 401k, right now, the gap is so huge. There's no overcoming that. We need dramatic wealth redistribution, particularly in so called US, but globally.
And so, the big vision of the world is that money is not the mitigator for meeting our basic needs. Now, there are people that are creating, and I really want to take a both/and approach to this in terms of the systemic piece, as well as the individual personal choices agency piece. In retirement, it feels ignorant to talk about one or the other because they're so interrelated. And so, when I think about systemic approaches pathways to having a world where it is the case that we can imagine a retirement for ourselves without hoarding half a million dollars in wealth in order to achieve that security, I think about recommoning housing, taking land and housing off of the speculative market, and holding it in common, so that the price to access the use of that housing can actually go down over the decades of our lives, into the future where we would like to not be working a wage job to meet our needs. And organizations across the country are doing this, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, Kensington Corridor Trust, the Guild Atlanta, LocalCode Kansas City.
And so, we actually have self-directed options for retirement accounts where we could have a mass movement, a mass exodus away from the Fidelity, State Street, and Vanguard, use those very retirement funds to invest in LocalCode Kansas City, and the Guild Atlanta, and Kensington Corridor Trust, and East Bay Permit Real Estate Cooperative. That's a very achievable campaign that we could collectively do with our assets. Courtney, I want to hear ... I have more, but you go.
Courtney Wicks:
I love that so much, because I came across Kensington Corridor Trust. We did a webinar for them last month through the Racial Justice Investing Coalition. And I was just like, this is what we need. We need more of this. We need to invest in more of this. We need to scale these types of ideas, and support this type of thought leadership. And just even the reconstructing and re-imagining how finance could work that's in service of community, versus community wealth building, versus the financial system itself. And I have some Pollyannish ideas too for this. I think you just see so many absurd things that don't make sense, and it's hard not to ... And I'm just one of these people that does not accept inevitabilities, right? I don't. I'm already computing, what are some of the alternatives? Are people thinking about this? Can I go meet them? Should I know them?
And so, I feel that it's crazy to me that we have pension funds that we'll invest in private equity that is buying residential housing, driving that residential housing, instead of investing in the communities that that housing is located in. And you can't tell me that there is no possible way of figuring a way for that to be possible at scale. And so, this constant idea that we have to invest, the only way to generate a return is to sacrifice the public constantly. And then, when these things ... I'd love to see a system ... Let me just backtrack. I would love to see a system where the risk isn't on us, that the risk isn't always on us, that the risk is placed where it should be, which is on the institutions themselves. I would also like to see our antitrust laws work so that these large asset managers aren't the ones dominating the decisions on what happens to capital.
And to your point, Erin, about shifting capital away from some of these institutions, but also having policy and a regulatory environment that's centered on the wellbeing of people, and planet, and as the first fundamental central point, versus trying to prop up a financial system that constantly just places all the risk on the American public, and on global society. And then, when it falters, and it breaks down, and there's a crisis, we all then have to rush and bail them out through our taxpayer dollars. How much more do we have to give to a system that does not prioritize people and planet?
Rachel Fagiano:
Thank you, both. I feel like those are both really powerful thoughts, and I'm wondering if you have anything additional that we haven't touched on, because you're both a wealth of knowledge that I think is really important for this conversation.
Courtney Wicks:
Maybe I can just add, how I arrived at this, is through doing a lot of work on shareholder advocacy. And I know a lot of people have their feelings about shareholder advocacy, and they are completely fair because I see it. But, I also, I think being someone that is also very committed in addressing racial capitalism, and then looking at that tool through that lens, there is a certain sort of interpretation of the system that happens. And I think right now, what's really troubling me is so many things are happening in specifically public markets with just a breakdown in corporate governance. We have big tech that's off the rails. We have blatant disregard for rule of law, and democratic processes, and we have ... I always say that the largest political machine in the country is not the Republicans or the Democrats, it's corporate America. And so, just this agenda that's being driven by a handful of people that have basically harvested the best of our society for their own benefit, only to abuse their power over and over again.
And I think part of the equation, and thinking about systems change is having accountable power that goes upward, and not just downward crushing the rest of us. And so, I think that has to be a part of the equation too, is just thinking about how do we build a society, and a financial system that has more safeguards from nefarious actors that can leverage their wealth and power to capture the financial system for their own personal aims and vision that no one consented to.
Erin Axelrod:
I'm so, so glad you said that, Courtney, because I was going to bring in, a lot of these plans are built on the notion that we get tax advantages to save for retirement. And setting aside the conversation around how those tax advantages aren't actually what they used to be in the decades ago when they set these systems up, A, there are other ways to reduce taxes if we really want to reduce our taxes, go to the war tax resistance. There's other ways to reduce taxes, and taxes aren't the problem. That two-way street between our government and us is the problem. Corporate control of that two-way democratic process is the problem. And so, I'm deeply inspired by the movement of citizens assemblies that's happening across this country that's helping overcome these very polarized issues, participatory budgeting movements. How do we really take back our democracy, not just by paying to play, by paying to get new candidates in the existing system? That's not what I'm talking about in taking back our democracy.
I'm talking about transmuting and transforming the entire system. And maybe that looks like some aspects need to crumble first, maybe that looks like creating the adjacent system, democratic ways of allocating funds in community. But, I think that yeah, it's really important to name that if we had a democracy that actually functioned, then it'd be okay to spend some of our wages on taxes that actually benefit the common good and create reinvestment in public infrastructure that's needed as opposed to this legacy of decades. And it's been Democratic and Republic can disinvestment in public infrastructure where we're set up with. Rachel, I also wanted to say if we wanted to go there, I could offer some hopeful case stories of what people have actually done.
Rachel Fagiano:
Please!
Erin Axelrod:
Because I don't want people to leave this podcast with just a doomsday approach. One of the things that's most inspiring to me is from out of the wealth redistribution movement, there are privileged folks who are saying, "I'm going to take the tax cut, and I'm actually going to take all of that tax-deferred retirement savings. I'm just going to take it out of those ERISA-controlled retirement accounts, and I'm going to redistribute that wealth into my community, into folks like Seed Commons," which is a democratically managed fund of funds that has these grassroots organizations in strategic geographies all around the country, and folks can invest directly in Seed Commons. That would be an example of creating those democratic institutions to create public benefit goods.
Another example that's really hopeful is taking checkbook control of your retirement savings, so rolling it out of a Fidelity, or a State Street, or a Vanguard, doing what's called a rollover. And if you have self-employment income, you can start your own retirement account, and you roll over those assets into your retirement account, and then you have checkbook control. I've heard of folks investing in steward regenerative agriculture, which helps facilitate the transition from conventional agriculture to regenerative organic. I've heard of folks doing direct investments in local eco villages in their home communities. That's one other very inspiring movement that people are doing across the country, and you can learn more about the technical details of how to do that by joining the Next Egg community of practice, or Rachel, feel free to share my email with folks, or they can find me on LIFT Economy's website.
And then, the third piece, as I mentioned already, is reducing the financial overhead, financial burden. Really, there are aspects I've seen people make, even use community loan funds to get access to investment capital from their community to maybe buy an e-bike instead of a car so that we're reducing the financial overhead, so that we don't have to save so much money to meet our needs. And then, with that e-bike purchase, maybe the overhead of your car money goes to paying off a mortgage sooner.
Things like this that are really creative ways to get community investment from our community to help us make sizable investments to reduce the cost over the long term. And so, we also offer a course called Next Economy Living that helps people through a structured process of how to think about those types of investments with a community of practice. But, I don't think it's totally a doomsday scenario, and I do think there are options people can take that are both systemic and behavioral. And Courtney, I'd be curious if you have examples too.
Courtney Wicks:
Yeah. Yeah, so there's this ... I think about a year ago, a group of us got in a lab with the Center of Economic Democracy, and Solidaire, and a few other organizations got together and created this body of work called Movement Finance Forum. And we came up with this framework called invest, contest, reinvest as a continuum. And a lot of my work sits in the contest, and I love what you said, Erin, because you're talking about this is how we reinvest. This is what we should be reinvesting in. This is what's out there that people are already putting their capital. They're already thinking about re-imagining how they want their capital to show up in the world.
I work a lot on the contest side, and it is ... I think over the last year, it was pretty scary initially trying to keep ... I always say to people like, hope is a practice. It doesn't mean that there's not despair, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you can always see the light at the end of the tunnel. It just means that every day we get up, we're just going to keep trying to move forward, and stay as best as possible in the light, and hopefully, more people will join that movement to brighten that light until we get to the other side. And so, investors have been coming together to challenge companies, leveraging their shares at companies, their wealth at various companies during a time where there's geopolitical pressure attacks both here in the United States, and abroad, and by companies themselves. I think that there's ways to get involved in some of those campaigns. We have some work going on with Flock Safety around Home Depot and Lowe's to address that particular piece of technology that ICE is using.
And in some cases, that movement has already been able to generate some really good outcomes in certain local communities where they've gotten these contracts canceled. Another thing is I'm a big proponent of just people being able to see examples of people with moral courage. And so, sometimes that helps to make it less scary for you to go out on a limb and take that step. And so, but there's a large investor group that has been challenging, for lack of better term, but have been engaging Microsoft very aggressively around its technologies, also being used in ICE, being used in local law enforcement in black and brown communities, and its technologies being used abroad in a wide range of human rights violations and atrocity crimes. And that is also extending across Alphabet and some other companies like booking.com and what have you. And I feel that ... And simultaneously, what people are starting to ask is like, oh my God, I didn't realize I had these companies in my portfolio. I did not realize what these companies were doing.
And I also want to explore ways to reinvest my capital more responsibly. And so, I see the contest as not a place for people to stay, but I see it as a place like, okay, there are still people being harmed by the existing system. And to the extent that we can confront that, we should try to do that as best as we can. But, we should also be simultaneously thinking of new pathways to shift capital where that capital isn't being leveraged to create the kind of harms that are impacting people and planet in real material ways.
Rachel Fagiano:
Yeah, the contest space is a very useful political education space for folks. I wanted to thank you both for sharing your thoughts on the spectrum of interventions and community care we can think about when it comes to retirement at the tactical, organizational, and worker level, and how that can impact you and your community. Listeners interested in learning more, especially about some of the interventions that Erin and Courtney mentioned, can check out the toolkit, which provides a whole spectrum of options from reducing harm to developing new systems for retirement. In addition, we are hoping to launch an upcoming working group from the Racial Justice Investing Coalition in partnership with LIFT and Just Futures on re-envisioning retirement. Stay tuned for updates on how to participate
Erin Axelrod:
And Rachel, I just want to say thank you so much for that recent report that you did. It was so helpful. LIFT Economy is really honored to be partnering more deeply with you. And I wanted to also mention that if folks do want to join the Next Egg, there's no one turned away for lack of funds. Please, come on board, join us, join the conversation. And I also wanted to say, Courtney, I'm so honored to now just be meeting you, and I would love to collaborate more together and scheme at ways to-
Courtney Wicks:
I love that.
Erin Axelrod:
... We really can not do this alone. We have to be really strategically connected to write some of these pieces of the puzzle.
Courtney Wicks:
Really grateful to you, Rachel. And likewise, Erin, it's been an honor to be part of this conversation with you, and I look forward to ... I know we're going to collaborate in the future. I already know it, so looking forward to that, and seeing what kind of magic we can make happen.
Jaime Sharp:
Thank you so much for listening to a podcast by Grantmakers in the Arts. To explore more of our podcast episodes, please visit giarts.reader.org. We'll catch you next time.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Erin Axelrod is a partner and worker-owner at LIFT Economy where she consults with individual and institutional funders to galvanize climate solutions. She facilitates a 9-month online social entrepreneurship learning journey called the Next Economy MBA, which has 800+ alumni. Erin is the Project Director for the Jonas Trees for Climate Health Initiative which deploys capital to catalytic Nature-based Solutions led by frontline communities. She is the co-founder of the Force for Good Fund - a $1.1M pilot fund that invested in 13 women and POC-led social enterprises. In 2019, she co-founded The Next Egg, an ambitious initiative to help people move a portion of the $44T in US retirement savings from wall street to main street. Erin lives in an off-grid tiny house with her partner and 2-year old daughter. She is a land steward alongside 7 sheep on a 90-acre cooperatively-run school.
Rachel Fagiano is a former Senior Fellow at Funders for Justice. They work to support people and organizations in pursuit of intersectional justice by designing grantmaking programs that advance racial, economic, and gender justice across the United States and internationally. In addition, Rachel serves on the leadership team of the Racial Justice Investing Coalition, a coalition of investors, asset owners, and business leaders who are taking action for racial justice within their own organizations, portfolio companies, and the field.
Farhad is a musician, a lover of film and literature, and an occasional bicycle snob. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics with Computer Science, and he lives in a housing cooperative with thirteen adults and five children on Tongva land in Los Angeles.
Courtney Wicks is a capital strategist and coalition builder advancing corporate accountability and financial system stewardship through the traditions of responsible and faith-based investing. She serves on the board of Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, is the Leadership Chair of the Racial Justice Investing Coalition, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Monitored and Ethical Investment, and a member of the Investment Advisory Board of the Maria Droste Foundation. Her work is grounded in the belief that capital shapes the conditions of our lives, influencing how risk is distributed, whose dignity is protected, and how institutions respond to systemic harm. Through investor coalitions, shareholder advocacy, and public-interest research, Courtney develops strategies that hold corporations accountable for governance failures, human rights impacts, environmental harm, and the long-term consequences of financial and corporate decision-making. At CMEI and the Racial Justice Investing Coalition, she helps lead coordinated efforts that connect racial justice, fiduciary responsibility, and system-level investing. Her work focuses on strengthening investor stewardship, challenging the concentration of power in financial markets, and advancing approaches that move beyond disclosure toward accountability, repair, and structural change. Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching and shaped by a 13-generation legacy of navigating American racism, Courtney brings a moral and spiritual lens to finance, emphasizing dignity, collective well-being, and ethical responsibility in capital stewardship.
