FUTURIST • STEWARD • STRATEGIST
CREATOR OF
Restorative
Economics
FUTURIST • STEWARD • STRATEGIST
Nwamaka Agbo is a woman of deep inquiry.
She calls us into the kinds of questions that transform us, individually and collectively—questions that center the practice of care in a world that often devalues it.
Nwamaka’s
Story
✦
As a queer Black woman and daughter of Nigerian immigrant parents, Nwamaka has always paid attention to how care moves through her communities—the way mutual aid, joy, and resilience are woven into everyday life, and how these practices hold thepower to heal, sustain, and transform.
Witnessing how care circulates so powerfully through her communities has also made her more attuned to what threatens it: the violent forces of capitalism—the maximization of profit through extraction and exploitation—and how it chips away at people’s dignity, stability, and well-being.
When profit comes before people and the planet, we risk normalizing exploitation as the cost of survival. We risk erasing our capacity to care for one another and determine our own futures.
To Nwamaka, economics is fundamentally the practice of caring for one another and the land, and ensuring everyone has what they need in a world already rich with resources. How might reshaping the flow of wealth, resources, and power help us build a future that is just, free, and abundant for all?
Nwamaka Agbo is a strategist, advisor, speaker, changemaker, systems thinker, and the visionary behind the Restorative Economics framework.
She is the CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund.
With a background in community organizing, electoral campaigns, and policy advocacy work on racial, social and environmental justice issues, Nwamaka is deeply committed to advancing projects that build resilient, healthy, and self-determined communities rooted in shared prosperity.
Nwamaka resides in the East Bay with her wife and son. When she’s not chasing her little one around, you can find Nwamaka crushing milestones on the Peloton, cheering on the Golden State Valkyries and Warriors, or getting lost in the pages of her favorite Black feminist authors.
Explore
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Learn more about Nwamaka’s Restorative Economics framework
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Explore Nwamaka’s Talks, conversations, and published works
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03
Book Nwamaka for a live speaking event, podcast, lecture, or something else
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✦ MORE ON
Nwamaka’s Experience & Leadership
Prior to her roles with Kataly Foundation, Nwamaka built an independent consulting practice guided by her Restorative Economics framework. As a consultant, she provided technical assistance and strategic guidance to community-owned and -governed community wealth building initiatives like Restore Oakland, REAL People’s Fund, Black Land & Power, and others.
Her work with these community-driven projects led her to provide trainings and advisory services to donors, foundations, and impact investment firms including institutions like The San Francisco Foundation, Solidaire Network’s Black Liberation Pooled Fund, and RSF Social Finance.
Nwamaka has previously served as a fellow for the Center for Economic Democracy and the Movement Strategy Center and as board chair of Thousand Currents and Restore Oakland, Inc.
She graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and African American Studies and holds a Master’s of Public Administration specializing in Financial Management from San Francisco State University.
Core Values
Sankofa
No single strategy, framework, or approach holds all of the answers. Each should be treated as an experiment to test ideas, gather insights, and inform the next step.
Experimentation
The wisdom and knowledge held in our Indigenous traditions can offer insight into the challenges we navigate today. It’s important that we draw from our roots, learn what we can, and let it guide our path.
Transparency
Building the world we want will bring some victories—and many more failures. Let’s embrace a culture of radical, pragmatic transparency and be honest about our challenges so others can learn from our mistakes and achieve beyond what we imagined.
Discipline
Every day offers a chance to move closer to our vision of a just and equitable economy. Turning that vision into reality requires dedicating yourself to taking demonstrable, daily actions towards implementing that vision.
Embodiment
Dreaming and talking about justice, equity, and collective liberation is not enough. Every day, in everything we do and everywhere we show up, we must embody the values and practices of the liberation we seek.
Courage
Every meaningful journey asks us to stretch beyond what we know. Courage is the antidote to fear, inviting us to move with openness rather than hesitation. It helps us step toward joy, possibility, and the growth that comes from choosing what aligns with our deepest values.