Shannel Heath: Coming Full Circle, Serving the Community that Saved Her

On a chilled Tuesday evening, I walked into the downtown Hyatt Regency's lobby, where I met Shannel Heath, Cincinnati Community Manager and Vice President at JPMorgan Chase. Heath greeted me with a warm smile as we quickly went upstairs to a much quieter area. As we got settled in Heath flashed another smile as we began the interview. She answered my first question, telling me her job title and explaining her role, "My job is to teach financial literacy to our inner city communities." She is one of the 150 Community Managers hired by Chase as part of their $30 billion Racial Equity Commitment to help bridge the wealth gap in the inner city communities. As a Community Manager, Heath holds a very special role. She is boots on the ground, meeting with not-for-profit organizations, local small businesses, and key community leaders to be an advocate to help figure out the gaps and how Chase can help. With nine years of experience in the banking business and a few months in her new role, Heath has really found her niche, but it was not always something she knew she wanted to do. Her desire to get a "big girl job" lead her to her passion.

When we are young most of us get our first job either working at a restaurant or at a retail store. For Heath it was no different, she worked at the mall at a shoe store called Baker's. She moved around various stores within the mall until one day she had the urge for a change, "When I originally took a position as personal banker which started my banking career, it was more so, just like a job because I wanted a big girl job," she said. Her big girl job soon turned into more. She began working at the call center, really finding her niche. So much so that she was awarded the Annual Pinnacle award for making her company a significant amount of money in six months. After receiving the award, she was motivated to keep going and help people face-to-face.

Seeing her impact, she was eager to learn more and wanted to contribute more to her community. Reflecting back, she can remember people laughing at her working on Saturday mornings with her realtor friends hosting home-buying workshops. Heath likes to believe that she has manifested her career in banking. What she used to do for fun on the weekend, is now what she is getting paid to do in her current role.

Understanding trust is a key component in banking, especially in Black and Brown communities. One of the biggest lessons she has learned is that often, Black people do not trust banks and that is a huge barrier when it comes to bridging the wealth gap. Knowing that banks are essential for life milestones, she urges her community residents to build good relationships with their banking establishments.

Heath has grown and learned a lot during her years in banking. Embarking on her own personal financial journey, she has first-hand experience of growing up not being taught proper money management as it simply wasn’t discussed in her home. Heath often hears this similar story from other Black and Brown families. She has since utilized the knowledge that she has gained throughout the years to overcome and break the generational pattern for her family, passing down her wisdom to her daughter and others, "I'm proud of being able to come from where I come from and be able to give the knowledge that I've learned to our communities because you don't know what is not taught," she says. Telling her story is super important. She wants to let those that she teaches know that she understands their challenges and wants to be the representation that there is light at the end of the tunnel, particularly once you’re armed with the information. “The nonprofit organizations that I teach financial literacy to, are the homeless shelters that I grew up in. Soup kitchens that I am volunteering and making donations to are ones that once fed me. And here I am now, walking in to teach these people that once were me. It’s time to change the trajectory and stop saying I don’t have a chance,” she said. She takes pride in telling her story to the people she teaches.

The financial journey is something that is always in progress. Even with the knowledge that Heath has, she still has to remember to stay disciplined when it comes to budgeting for the things she wants. She advises people to be realistic, have grace for themselves, and have discipline when it comes to basic financial rules to live by, “I think anything worth having, you're going to have to put a lot of work into it and it is not going to be easy. You're going to have to be disciplined to decipher between wants and needs," she explained. In addition, when it comes to finding a financial institution people should interview their potential bank to see what they can do for them. Especially when it comes to finding a bank for a business. Along with the $30 billion Racial Equity Commitment, Chase has hired trained senior business consultants in 21 U.S. cities. The team offers free one-on-one mentoring and advice to Black, Hispanic, and Latina business owners on everything from boosting creditworthiness to managing cash flow to effective marketing. And you don’t have to be a customer. Having access to available resources, education and tools can put you in a position to succeed.

Chase has collaborated with Google to invest a half-a-million-dollars in their Career Certificates program that offers Black women interested in Tech the to take courses and earn a certificate that will possibly lead them to a job that makes upward of 65K per year.

Heath has made an incredible community impact so far and is just getting started. She is hopeful to start a not-for-profit organization for Black and Brown individuals in honor of her mother and brother, which she lost in 2020. She hopes to be a pillar in the community and leave behind a legacy of being a trusted and transparent leader, “Being able to leave a legacy and mark in the community is a dream for me," she said. For now, she is putting in continued hard work and dedication as Cincinnati’s Community Manager, allowing her big girl job to further fuel her passion.