Edgar Villanueva, MHA, is an award-winning author, activist and expert on issues of race, wealth and philanthropy. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe.

“We need healing across this country today, now more than ever before. One thing we believe in Indigenous communities is that the oppressor has to be at the table for healing to take place,” he says, which is a philosophy he expands upon in his bestselling book Decolonizing Wealth.  This means, “that we all hold a role in the process of healing.”

At the Gillings School’s 2022 Commencement celebration on May 7, Villanueva will offer insights from his experiences as the founder of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and its fund, Liberated Capital.