Nicole Bascomb Green(she/her)

Nicole Bascomb Green is a Vice President and Community Affairs Manager at U.S. Bank, covering Washington and Idaho. With over 30 years in banking, mortgage lending, and real estate, she has built a career that sits at the intersection of finance, community advocacy, and social justice. She started as a summer teller in high school — a connection her dad made — and worked her way through mortgage underwriting, community development, and eventually into one of the most impactful roles a bank can offer: deciding where money flows into underserved communities. Nicole wears three major hats in her role. She manages the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) process, which holds banks accountable for lending fairly in low-income communities — a law born directly out of the fight against redlining. She also leads Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for her region, building partnerships with nonprofits, government agencies, and other financial institutions. And she manages the U.S. Bank Foundation for two states, directing philanthropic dollars toward low-income individuals, women, and people of color. Her salary range is $99K–$165K base, with additional bonus potential. Nicole's path wasn't straight. She started college at Clark Atlanta University (a historically Black college she loved), transferred to the University of Washington, and struggled without the right guidance — until she found a counselor who focused her. She earned a bachelor's in marketing and an MBA with a focus on community development. She's also a licensed real estate broker, inspired by her father who spent 45 years fighting for Black homeownership. Her career is deeply personal: she grew up knowing homeownership as normal, then realized how rare that was for most Black families — and made it her mission to close that gap. As a Black woman in banking, Nicole faced real barriers: being passed over for promotions despite top performance, having lies told about her by colleagues, and being written up without evidence while white coworkers got second chances. She didn't always have mentors or advocates in her corner. But she learned to stand her ground, run issues up the chain when necessary, and do her research on leadership before accepting roles. She's clear that leadership culture makes or breaks your experience at a company — and she wishes she had known that sooner. For students considering banking, Nicole's message is this: don't sleep on it. Banking isn't just working a teller window. There's mortgage, commercial real estate, corporate social responsibility, trust services, community development, and more. Starting in a branch is actually a great foundation — you learn the whole system from the ground up. And if you care about your community, finance can be one of the most powerful tools you have to create real change.