Intersections with Phil Allen, Jr.

Episode: 013 “When She Wins We Win”

Airdate: February 22, 2021

Length: 1:16:39

Guests: Ebony Thomas

While I am honored to have conversations with all of my guests and every guest is special each for their unique reasons. This episode is special because I get to collaborate with a friend and fellow North Carolina A&T Aggie. Ebony Thomas is one of the most influential Black women in the country. She is the Racial Equality and Economic Opportunity Executive for Bank of America where she is responsible for a $1B, four-year initiative to drive racial equality and economic opportunity for people and communities of color. In this episode she shares gems mined from her journey from educator to a global leader in corporate America.

What I love about Ebony, and it comes out in this episode, is her sincere passion to empower women and see them win. She is unapologetic about that. She passes on what has been given to her. With the rewarding work of racial equity and equality built into her role at Bank of America and yet the challenges that come with being a Black woman in executive leadership in corporate America, she brings us back to the resiliency required to survive and in fact thrive where she is.

She introduces us to the “beautiful burden:” the beauty of being a part of the pipeline for people of color, especially women of color, and the burden of too often being the only one in the room, at the table. Pull up a seat and sit at her table and glean from this woman’s wisdom.

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Phil Allen, Jr. is a Los Angeles-based pastor, social justice activist, filmmaker and author. Allen’s book Open Wounds explores the murder of Nate Allen—Phil Allen’s grandfather—in the Jim Crow era of South Carolina and how that traumatic event resonated through generations of his family. Open Wounds – which is based on the Allen-produced documentary of the same name – was published on February 9, 2021. Allen is a Ph.D. student studying Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.