Desmond Banks, PhD, MPH, is a national leader and recognized expert in identifying gendered racism and describing its impact upon Black men.

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Born unto a young single mother in Atlanta, GA, Dr. Banks overcame poverty, father absenteeism, racism, classism and other plagues that disproportionately impact Black men in the United States.

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From high school, Dr. Banks attended Columbia University where he majored in Psychology. Upon graduation, Dr. Banks used his degree to assist Medicaid beneficiaries with substance abuse and behavioral health comorbidities address social determinants of health (e.g., homelessness, food insecurity, low educational attainment, and unemployment) as a case manager for Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York.

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After spending several years assisting hundreds of individuals establish sobriety, earn employment and secure housing, Dr. Banks decided to take the lessons learned working directly the community members to public policy making, and enrolled into the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy where.

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Despite working full-time, Dr. Banks excelled in the classroom, and decided to continue his education at the doctorate level, and became the first Black male to earn the prestigious C. Sylvia and Eddie C. Brown Community Health Scholarship at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Upon graduation Dr. Banks worked as health policy consultant for several years, where he used his unique combination of on-the-ground and in-the-classroom training to assist State Medicaid Directors create, implement, and evaluation local policies and programs to improve the health and wellbeing of Medicaid beneficiaries.

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In 2019, Dr. Banks was hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to help inform policies and practices to protect impoverished individuals, rural residents, the elderly, communities of color and other vulnerable populations from COVID-19.

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While working to protect our country against COVID-19, Dr. Banks saw how the suffering incurred from the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on Black men, particularly in terms of employment and incarceration. 

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Dr. Banks' insights lead to the development of the first published narrative of gendered-racism being applied to unique experiences of Black men. Prior to Dr. Banks' work, the concept of gendered racism had focused on Black women exclusively, and had never before been applied to Black men, neither at CDC nor anywhere else.

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Dr. Banks' pioneering courage and leadership lead to CDC adopting an agency-wide training on gendered racism, which Dr. Banks co-developed alongside Dr. Denise Carty, the Director of the Office of Women's Health at CDC.

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Dr. Banks currently accepts opportunities for public speaking, research and consultation.

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Dr. Banks obtained a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Columbia University, a Master of Public Health degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, and PhD in Public Health Policy from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.