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For the month of February, Vanderbilt Financial Group (VFG) honors Black History Month through sharing the stories of significant contributions made to the finance and banking industry. In true Vanderbilt fashion, we highlight individuals whose impact rippled out in service of others.

For our first in a four-part series, we’re slightly breaking with tradition to highlight a woman of color who is not an American, yet impacted the lives of many Americans with the financial concept she developed and pioneered on the continent of Africa. We are proud to highlight the contributions of Ghanaian social entrepreneur and an early innovator of micro-lending, Esther Afua Ocloo.

On Christmas Day 50 years ago, America was a divided nation. It was a tough year of troubled times and assassinations. We lost Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and the Vietnam War was in full swing with massive rampant protests. I can see the parallels between the issues we dealt with during that difficult year of 1968 and today, including moments and opportunities to bring us back together.

Is it actually possible to create investments that offer impact while at the same time returning market-rate financial returns? We interviewed Gloria Nelund of TriLinc Global, an investment sponsor with the mission of doing exactly that.

The 2008 mortgage crisis marked a turning point in climate related disclosures. We interviewed Greg Rogers, founder of management consultancy Eratothenes, global disclosure database Envonet, and one of the pioneers of the movement to increase the level of climate-related disclosure.

People ask me how I experienced so much growth in my business over such a short time given all the things I am involved with. The answer in a word is passion.