Cultivating Partnerships to Build Wealth and Financial Inclusion
Lois Rodgers
City of Long Beach – City Manager's Office
LOIS RODGERS is an operations project manager with keen business acumen in the financial services sector. She has served banking institutions such as Bank of America Corporation, Wells Fargo & Company, CIT Bank, N.A., and MUFG Bank in leading stakeholder engagements for business process optimization, risk and compliance operations, strategic client management, and operational merger-resilience projects. Rodgers is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with an MBA in Finance and a core competency in regulatory compliance process improvement. She helps teams focus on key elements that improve operational efficiencies and fully align with their corporate strategy.
Project
Long Beach is addressing economic disparities in West Long Beach, the neighborhood surrounding the Port of Long Beach, through the Westside Promise initiative. Despite being home to a major economic engine that handles $200 billion in goods annually, the Westside experiences poor air quality, below-average household incomes, and high childhood poverty rates. This project will expand wealth creation and financial inclusion programs through strategic partnerships, helping residents build household assets, access formal banking services, and create sustainable pathways to economic empowerment in this predominantly (90%) community of color.