Jo Banner is the founder and director of The Descendants Project, a nonprofit she co-founded with her twin sister, Dr. Joy Banner, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Holding bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications, she uses her education to honor the legacy of enslaved people while defending descendant communities.

Living in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, Jo is a fierce advocate for environmental justice, working to eliminate pollution from grain to petrochemicals. She represents frontline communities in global spaces like the UN Plastics Pollution Treaty, highlighting the health toll of plastic production on Black communities and other fenceline residents.

Jo’s mission includes preserving the burial grounds of the enslaved and protecting the last 11 miles untouched by industrial development in Cancer Alley. Through her work, she envisions a just transition for people and land to achieve economic and environmental liberation.