THE FUTURE OF ECONOMICS
IS A BLACK WOMAN.
In 2018, Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Fanta Traore co-founded The Sadie Collective to address the pipeline and pathway problem of Black Women in economics, finance, data science, and policy.
2018
Inaugural Sadie T.M. Alexander Conference for Economics and Related Fields at Mathematica Policy Research.
2020
The Sadie Collective launches membership portal serving Black women worldwide.
2022
Fanta Traore and Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman co-found The Sadie Collective.
2019
The Sadie Collective begins partnering with The Urban Institute on Sadie T.M. Alexander Conferences for Economics and Related Fields.
2021
The Sadie Collective transitions to having an external Executive Director to further reach and impact.
Our Mission
The Sadie Collective is on a mission to close the diversity gap in economics, finance, policy, and data science with a special commitment to Black women. We are committed to creating pathways to success for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds and low-income communities by promoting both personal and community empowerment. We envision a future where Black women and diverse talent play a key role in the growth and transformation of our fields through innovation, research, and leadership.
Our Story
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, then an undergraduate at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and Fanta Traore, then a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, co-founded The Sadie Collective after their own personal experiences of being 'the only one' in predominantly white economic institutions. After feeling isolated within the field, the two found community with each other and idealized The Sadie Collective, the first and only American non-profit organization that addresses the pipeline and pathway problem for Black women in economics, finance, data science, and policy across the world.
The Sadie Collective is named after Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, who in 1921 became the first African American to earn a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, due to racial barriers that persisted at the time, she was unable to find work in the economics profession and instead pursued a career in law, holding a variety of positions such as Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia and President of John F. Kennedy's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The organization now aims to bring together Black women at different stages of their academic and/or professional careers in the quantitative sciences to share resources, network, and advocate for broader visibility in the field. The Collective strives to create safe spaces where Black women in these fields can obtain the resources they need to thrive. The Collective is working to center Black women in the economy while shifting inequitable power structures that create barriers to access in economics so that everyone can fully participate in these fields.