Kat Taylor

Kat Taylor works in service of restoring social, racial, gender justice, and environmental well-being for an equitable and inclusive world. She is active in a variety of social enterprises and philanthropic ventures focused on deep systems change.

Currently, Kat serves as the Co-Founder and Board Chair of Beneficial State Bank, a Community Development Financial Institution and certified B Corporation that makes banking more accessible to under-resourced communities in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner – and to change the banking system for good. Beneficial State was founded on the principle that banks should be most useful to their clients, not their shareholders. Therefore, Kat does not own the Bank; instead, it is wholly owned by nonprofits with the mandate to redistribute excess funds to the Bank’s communities.

Kat is also a Founding Director of TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation (TKREF), which is dedicated to inspiring a sustainable food system through ranching, training, tours, research, and school food and garden programs. TKREF owns the social enterprise LeftCoast GrassFed, humanely raising cattle and other livestock for the benefit of healthy soils.

Kat proudly served or continues to serve on the following boards and advisory bodies: Beneficial State Bank, Beneficial State Foundation, Central Kitchen Advisory Board (co-Chair) for the Oakland Unified School District, Community Development Bankers Association, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, Ecotrust, Evrnu, Forager, Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, Harvard Board of Overseer, KQED, NextGen Policy (Board Chair), Propublica, TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation (Chair), UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute External Advisory Board, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and many more.

She graduated from Harvard College and earned a JD/MBA from Stanford University.