Sarah Bainton Kahn will guide and lead Living Cities’ City & Community Engagement team and provide programmatic leadership as a member of the Living Cities Executive Leadership Team. She brings an extensive background in financial institutions, the nonprofit sector, government affairs, social impact investment, and a depth of knowledge in strategies that center on closing the racial wealth gap.
Most recently, Sarah was the Executive Director of Consumer Strategy and Social Impact for the JPMorgan Commercial Bank. In this role, Sarah supported the needs of tenants and embedded social impact strategy into the commercial bank’s strategies. Previously, Sarah was Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at JPMorgan Chase & Co. where she managed a grant portfolio of national nonprofits focused on financial health, housing, racial equity, disability inclusion, and consumer protections. She also collaborated with strategic nonprofits involved in advocacy and thought leadership to support economically disinvested communities.
Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, Sarah worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). During that time, she helped start the Office of Financial Empowerment and developed and managed the bureau’s work related to financial coaching and access to credit for consumers.
Before her time at the CFPB, Sarah was the Program Manager for Financial Stability at Goodwill Industries International. She has also worked for the National League of Cities where she focused on the Bank On Cities Campaign, an effort to connect underserved consumers to lower-risk financial products and services, and for U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI).
Sarah has a dual undergraduate degree in Sociology and Spanish from Villanova University, and dual Master’s degrees in Social Work and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. She serves on the board of Change Machine, a national nonprofit headquartered in New York that builds financial security for low-income communities through people-powered technology.
Sarah lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two sons.
