Empowering Individuals Through Education and Community Leadership

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. ROSA MARIA TAYLOR BANKS

RETIRED ASSOCIATE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF SDA

(AND SECRETARIAT LIAISON BETWEEN THE GENERAL CONFERENCE AND CONTINENT OF AFRICA)

                  Dr. Rosa Maria Taylor Banks was born in Gainesville, Florida, and raised in nearby Ocala, is the second of 12 children born to Eddie and Albertha Taylor. She graduated from Howard High School with High Honors and was voted by her classmates as “Most Likely to Succeed.”

              She joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the age of 13 and was baptized by Elder H. L. Cleveland, the evangelist. It was sitting under the big tent that she took an interest in the piano as she sat near and watched Mrs. Elizabeth Cleveland, the wife of the evangelist and formerly from Connecticut, play the piano every night.

              After graduating from Central Florida Community College in Ocala, with an Associate of Arts in Business Administration in 1962 and working for three years for the Marion County Board of Public Instruction, as well as attending Florida A&M University in Tallahassee for a stint, she matriculated at Oakwood College (now University) where she received a B.S. degree in Business Administration. 

Her additional earned educational credentials include: Master’s degree and Doctor of Education degree in Business Administration and Higher Education Administration from the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania.  

Dr. Banks’ Church work experience includes: 22 years at Oakwood College:  5 as teacher of Business subjects; 4 as Chair of the Business Education Department; 4 as Executive Assistant to the President, and 9 as Vice President. She was Oakwood’s firstfemale vice president. A series of FIRSTS for her followed this Oakwood election.

In 1989 she was elected by the World SDA Church as the first female director of the Office of Human Relations with a work assignment to help the Church fully include people of color, women, and people with disabilities into the full life of the Church. It was the work her Office coordinated that assisted the Church in the establishment of the Office of Women’s Ministries.  Two years later the title of Associate Secretary of the North American Division was added to her responsibilities making her the first female officer of the Division, where she addressed diversity and inclusion for 16 years.

              In 2005 she was elected Associate Secretary of the General Conference, which

made her the first  female to serve in that position in the Church’s then 142-year history. In this position the Church entrusted her, a woman at that, with two major responsibilities that only men had held: to be the first woman to direct the delegate registration process for the Quinquennial General Conference Sessions in Atlanta, GA and San Antonio, TX; and to be the first woman to serve in the GC Secretariat Unit of the Church as the Liaison between the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the continent of Africa, where  the SDA Church had three divisions and seven million members resided, which was more members than in any other continent upon which our members resided.

              Dr. Banks retired in 2015 at the General Conference Session in San Antonio, TX. At this Session she was very pleased to hear that the work she had done in Africa was reported as the highest of any of her other male associates, in that more unions had been established in Africa than on any other the other continents.  She retired after 48 years of service

              Dr. Banks has received many awards, plagues, and other commendations for her work in the Adventist Church.  She is an author, having written one published book and edited two published books, “A Woman’s Place,” and “The God of Relationships.” She has written chapters in six books and over 25 articles in various magazines. She has written 3 books related to her family on both sides and is currently writing her memoir.

              Dr. Banks has also conducted evangelistic meetings in London, England (twice); Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Seoul, Korea; and has participated in the baptisms where they were conducted. She continues to preach in churches as her time permits.

              Last but no means least, 1970, in 1970Rosa Maria Taylor Banks married Halsey Banks, of North Carolina, also an Oakwood College graduate.  He passed away in 2020. They are parents of three: Kevin, Karmala, and Marcellus. They are grandparents of five: Kai, Faith, Liam, Keanna, Phoenix and Michael Wes.  They are god-great grand parents of two: Nina and KaiRell. Their only daughter, Karmala, and first granddaughter, Kai, are with her today.

              It is her joy to have arrived here safety to share the word of God with the members of Queensborough Temple today.  We ask your prayers in this regard.

The Rosa T. Banks Foundation is dedicated to empowering individuals through education, career preparation, independent living, and community leadership to foster personal growth and sustainable practices.