Kiran Kaur Bains

President & CEO, SA2020

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Kiran Kaur Bains is the president and chief executive officer at SA2020, a nonprofit organization that drives progress toward a shared community vision in San Antonio, Texas.

Before joining SA2020, Kiran was the first chief equity officer for the City of San Antonio, where she helped ensure that local government policies, budgets, and services increasingly met the different histories, challenges, and needs of San Antonians. In less than three years, with the support of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, Kiran trained the city’s top 100 executives and advanced racial equity in six city initiatives with a combined impact of over $150 million.

Prior to joining local government, Kiran worked in international development and peacebuilding in South Asia and East Africa. This experience included supporting the revitalization of traditional micro-financing groups in northern Uganda and securing safe working conditions for migrant workers largely responsible for the city’s waste management in Lucknow, India. Kiran also worked at the Social Science Research Council, where she coordinated the day-to-day operations of a multi-million-dollar program supporting the research of African scholars. 

A proud first-generation college graduate, Kiran is passionate about racial equity in education. She has taught classes on leadership, power, and dismantling anti-Black racism to young women of colour in New York public high schools and aspiring teachers and school administrators at the University of Texas at San Antonio. 

Kiran holds a B.A. in International Relations from St. Mary’s University and an M.A. in Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.