Barbara Van Kerkhove is a researcher/policy analyst in Empire Justice Center’s Rochester Office where she does research and advocacy on a variety of consumer finance and economic justice issues. She is the principal author of “#AllTogetherNow: Improving Small Business Lending in the Rochester NY Community,” a January 2018 report which found disparities in lending to Rochester area small businesses. In 2015, Barb completed two reports examining mortgage lending on Long Island and in the Rochester metro area to see how low-moderate income families and communities of color were recovering from the Great Recession.
Barb co-convenes the Greater Rochester Community Reinvestment Coalition (GRCRC). The coalition was one of the key players in negotiating the $16.5 billion KeyBank Community Benefits Agreement. Barb also works with state and national coalitions, including New Yorkers for Responsible Lending (NYRL) and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), on access to responsible credit and financial services and public access to lending data.
Barb received her Ph.D. from the University at Albany, SUNY.
