Our Team

Jo Banner

Co-Director/Co-Founder, The Descendants Project

Jo Banner is the founder and director of The Descendants Project, a nonprofit she co-founded with her twin sister, Dr. Joy Banner, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Holding bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications, she uses her education to honor the legacy of enslaved people while defending descendant communities.

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Living in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, Jo is a fierce advocate for environmental justice, working to eliminate pollution from grain to petrochemicals. She represents frontline communities in global spaces like the UN Plastics Pollution Treaty, highlighting the health toll of plastic production on Black communities and other fenceline residents. Jo’s mission includes preserving the burial grounds of the enslaved and protecting the last 11 miles untouched by industrial development in Cancer Alley. Through her work, she envisions a just transition for people and land to achieve economic and environmental liberation.

Joy Banner

Co-Director/Co-Founder, The Descendants Project

Visible Dr. Joy Banner is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Descendants Project, a nonprofit organization founded to protect the health, land, and lives of the Black descendant community in Louisiana’s River Parishes—an area known as “Cancer Alley.” The Descendants Project champions historic preservation and environmental justice, mobilizing

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community power and demanding accountability to confront the harmful impacts of toxic industrial pollution on historically Black communities. Joy has 20+ years in heritage and tourism, which she has leveraged to champion the preservation of Black historic sites, heritage, and communities.

Through The Descendants Project, Dr. Banner and Jo founded the Descendant Culture and Education District in Wallace and spearheaded the acquisition of Woodland Plantation—1811 site of the largest slave rebellion in the United States—putting the plantation under Black ownership for the first time. 

Sultana Harris

Executive Director, Woodland Plantation Museum

Sultana Harris is a social practice artist and the Executive Director of The Descendants Project’s Woodland Plantation Museum.

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Her professional interests foreground ecosystems and ecologies, and internal and external landscapes at the intersections of art, culture, somatics, and the psyche. She has curated and produced projects of large scale public art, horticulture, and film.

Sultana has also participated as both presenter and panelist at arts conferences and professional development and cultural adaptation workshops. Her background in anthropology, psychotherapy, and cultural resource management allows her to articulate and navigate the precarious relationship of equity, solidarity, and collaboration while exploring Black creative processes in the visual and performing arts.

Amaya Cooper

Senior Administrative and Exhibitions Coordinator, Woodland Plantation Museum 

Amaya Cooper is the Senior Administrative and Exhibitions Coordinator at Woodland Plantation Museum, helping shape the museum’s development from the ground up.

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With a background in arts administration, arts writing, and interviewing, Amaya brings a thoughtful, process-driven approach to coordinating projects, strengthening organizational systems, and supporting strategic planning. Guided by curiosity, clarity, and a commitment to community, they help advance the museum’s emerging programs and exhibitions with intention and care.

LaToya Taylor

Director of Operations, The Descendants Project

Latoya Taylor is a U.S. Army veteran and an experienced operations and technology professional.

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She has managed large-scale technical environments, including serving as Operations Manager for the New Orleans Navy Enterprise Data Center, and has supported nonprofit organizations focused on advocacy, community programming, and organizational coordination.

At The Descendants Project, Latoya oversees operations across multiple campuses, including facilities, vendor management, procurement, and safety protocols. She also leads the organization’s technology and data systems, strengthening infrastructure to support programs and track impact. Her work includes building partnerships with community organizations, faith groups, local businesses, and funders to advance community-centered initiatives.

She holds a BS in Internetworking Technology and an MEd in Educational Technology Leadership.

Your Support

Woodland Plantation Museum & Cultural Center is in LaPlace, Louisiana, 30 minutes from New Orleans, along the Mississippi River in Louisiana’s River Parishes

Sponsors & Partners

Much gratitude to those who walk with us

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