Dr. Joy Banner is Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Descendants
Project, a nonprofit foundation committed to the liberation of the Black
descendant community through the dismantling of inequitable and
discriminatory economic, environmental, and social systems inherent in the
violent legacies of slavery. As part of this work, Dr. Banner is on the front
lines of the struggle against environmental racism in the form of
petrochemical plants along Louisiana’s River Road, otherwise known as
“Cancer Alley.” After earning a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, she
taught business communications, marketing, and entrepreneurship at the
university level where she advanced to Chair of the Management program.
Joy is a proud member of the local descendant community with rooted
ancestry that can be traced to the 18th century. She also served as the former Director of
Communications of Whitney Plantation, the only plantation museum in Louisiana that centers
the lives of the enslaved, and is a descendant of those enslaved at Whitney Plantation. Joy has
used her 20+ years in heritage and tourism to champion the preservation of Black historic sites,
heritage, and communities. Dr. Banner is the 2023 recipient of the National Trust for Historic
Preservation’s Emerging Leader Award and was recently named 2024 Preservation Action’s
Hero of the Quarter.