Kat Taylor

Kat works in service of restoring social, racial, and 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.

Kat is 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. Beneficial State was founded on the principle that banks should be most useful to their clients, not their shareholders. The bank is wholly owned by nonprofits with the mandate to redistribute excess funds to its communities.

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

Kat 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, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, Ecotrust, Evrnu, Forager, Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, Harvard Board of Overseers, KQED, NextGen Policy (board chair), ProPublica, 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.