Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman (born 1996) is a Ghanaian-born American researcher, activist, and writer. She is a co-founder and former CEO of the Sadie Collective, as well as a co-founder and co-organizer of Black Birders Week. Opoku-Agyeman is the editor of The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System and author of The Double Tax: How Women of Color are Overcharged and Underpaid.

Early life and education Opoku-Agyeman was born in Kumasi, Ghana, and moved to the United States as a child.

Opoku-Agyeman graduated from St. John's Parish Day School in Ellicott City, Maryland in 2007, and from Glenelg Country School, also in Ellicott City, in 2014. In 2019, she earned a B.A. in mathematics with a minor in economics from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). As an undergraduate, Opoku-Agyeman was a Meyerhoff Scholar and NIH MARC U*STAR Scholar, and was enrolled in the UMBC Honors College.

After graduating from college, Opoku-Agyeman attended the American Economic Association’s summer training program, which aims to increase diversity in economics "by preparing talented undergraduates for doctoral programs in economics and related disciplines". She then spent the 2019–2020 academic year enrolled in the Harvard University Research Scholar Initiative postbaccalaureate program. and was affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is currently a doctoral student in Public Policy and Economics at the Harvard Kennedy School as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, a Ford Foundation Graduate Fellow, a Russell Sage Foundation Dissertation Fellow, Roosevelt Institute Graduate Fellow, , a Stone PhD Scholar in Inequality and Wealth Concentration, and a Women and Public Policy Program Doctoral Affiliate. In 2023, she was among those selected for Forbes 30 Under 30 Local Boston class. In 2025, she earned her M.A. in Public Policy with a concentration in Economics.

Career The Sadie Collective In 2018, Opoku-Agyeman and Fanta Traore co-founded a nonprofit organization called the Sadie Collective, which aims to increase the number of Black women working in quantitative data fields, including economics, data science, and public policy. The collective offers mentorship and hosts programming, including the annual Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Conference for Economics and Related Fields. Opoku-Agyeman served as the CEO of the organization until March 2021. Several of her published works and media features, which advocate for the advancement and inclusion of black women in economics, have been the result of collaboration with Lisa D. Cook, the first African American woman and first woman of color to sit on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Black Birders Week In 2020, Opoku-Agyeman co-founded and co-organized Black Birders Week, a series of online events organized to highlight and celebrate Black birders, naturalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. Her aim was to improve the visibility of Black people in non-stereotypical situations, and to advocate for science organizations to give Black people the platform and resources to engage in engagement and outreach activities. Additionally, the inaugural Black Birders Week produced content in collaboration with the National Audubon Society and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Opoku-Agyeman, alongside the founding members of Black Birders Week, received the Richard and Patricia Kane Conservation and Education Award in 2020.

The Double Tax In 2025, Opoku-Agyeman wrote The Double Tax: How Women of Color are Overcharged and Underpaid with a foreword from Chelsea Clinton. The book analyzes the costs associated with racism and sexism women face across a lifetime. Opoku-Agyeman explores topics across beauty, career, housing, motherhood, caregiving, and retirement using quantitative and qualitative data. The term "the double tax", as defined by the book, has been used to describe racial and gender disparities in Unemployment, Homeownership, and the Cannabis industry. Several organizations and academic institutions have hosted talks about the book such as the Bank of England, The Century Foundation, and St. Catherine University. In 2026, Opoku-Agyeman delivered the CEW+ Mullin Welch Endowed Lecture at Ford School of Public Policy based on the book. On tour, Opoku-Agyeman was joined by Chelsea Clinton, Hope Walz, Governor Tim Walz's daughter, and Mikki Kendall, the author of Hood Feminism. The Double Tax was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best science books of 2025 by Alie Ward, the host of Ologies (podcast).

Awards and honors

LA Times Best Science Book Selection, 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 Local Boston, 2023

Publications Academic publications

Selected other publications "The Double Tax: How Women of Color are Overcharged and Underpaid," by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, with foreword by Chelsea Clinton. "The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System," Edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, with foreword by Tressie McMillan Cottom and essayists including Dr. Sandy Darity, Dr. Hedwig Lee, Mary Heglar, and Janelle Jones.