Dell Gines is a lead community development advisor at the Kansas City Fed's Omaha Branch. Gines specializes in small business, particularly entrepreneurship-led development. This approach says that entrepreneurship is an effective way to establish sustainable wealth from employment and ownership, which results in thriving markets and a healthy society.
Gines’ most recent work is the Small Business Owners of Color Recovery guide. Co-authored with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, it shares ways communities can support small businesses of color working to recover from the pandemic.
Gines joined the Kansas City Fed in 2011. He began his career in banking then managed a small nonprofit business incubator. After that, he worked for Habitat for Humanity and then ran a small non-profit health care organization.
Gines received his master’s in business administration from the University of Nebraska Omaha, his master’s in finance from Bellevue University and, in 2021, received his Ph.D. from University of Nebraska Omaha’s College of Public Administration.
He is a commissioner on the Nebraska’s inaugural African American Commission and serves on the equitable economic development committee for the International Economic Development Council.
Gines lives with his wife and two of his five children in Omaha. In his free time, he serves as the assistant basketball coach for Omaha Christian Academy.
Highlights of his work include:
- External LinkGrow Your Own, guides and eBooks for community development practitioners, educators and funders to help them apply entrepreneurship principles to create community economic growth.
- Black Women Business Startups. Businesses owned by black women have experienced unprecedented growth over the past two decades. This report, based on national data and a series of interviews with black women business owners, presents a summary of business owners' motivation, challenges, support and financial trends.
- External LinkBuilding Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in Communities of Color. Learn about inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem building and how it can be accomplished in communities of color.
About the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up our nation's central bank. We work in the public’s interest by supporting economic and financial stability. The Kansas City Fed’s territory includes Colorado, Kansas, western Missouri, Nebraska, northern New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Our headquarters is in Kansas City, with branch offices in Denver, Omaha and Oklahoma City.
The Kansas City Fed Community Development Department promotes economic development and public understanding that leads to progress for lower-income individuals and communities. Our focus areas include community development investments, digital inclusion, small business / entrepreneurism, and workforce development.