Kemi Role is the People and Culture Manager at the Kataly Foundation. In partnership with team members, Kemi focuses on developing and executing a transformative people strategy centered on Kataly’s culture and shared values. This includes: developing values-aligned policies, procedures, and programs; supporting staff development, engagement, and political education; and ensuring a thoughtful and holistic transition for staff as Kataly moves towards spend-out.
Kemi has spent more than 20 years working in spaces building toward racial justice, gender and reproductive justice, health equity, and worker power. Prior to Kataly, Kemi worked in workers’ rights advocacy, leading a team focused on removing barriers to employment for people with records; addressing employment discrimination and segregation for Black, immigrant workers; and expanding structural solutions that center Blackness.
Previously, Kemi was in executive leadership at a community-based health clinic in San Francisco, where she focused on direct clinical services, innovative workforce and community engagement, developed curricula and trainings for a variety of audiences, and led the clinic’s racial equity transformation. Kemi also has an extensive and varied research background focused on cognitive attention and learning, student learning styles, and maternal mortality.
Kemi received her B.A. from UC Berkeley and her M.P.H. from UCLA. Kemi is restored by the warmth of Caribbean water, her generous and beautiful family and community, and the easeful solitude of solo travel.
Photo by Bethanie Hines.