Stella Adams is the founder and CEO of S J Adams Consulting a full-service civil rights research and consulting firm located in Durham, NC. S J Adams Consulting provides a broad range of services to non-profit community-based organizations, government, and industry to assist them in meeting their fair housing, fair lending, diversity or environmental justice goals.

Most recently, Ms. Adams served as Chief of Equity and Inclusion for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. The Division of Equity and Inclusion was designed to empower, organize and support economically vulnerable, individuals, communities and small businesses. Combining advocacy, organizing, technical assistance and direct services the Division promoted economically viable, sustainable, inclusive communities for all Americans free from discrimination.

Ms. Adams is a nationally recognized expert on the Fair Housing Act and its implementing regulations. She is also a nationally respected authority on Predatory Lending and Small Business Lending Investigative techniques. Ms. Adams is cited in “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States.”
Ms. Adams is a highly sought after speaker and has appeared on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry Show” and Al-Jazeera’s “Faultlines”. She has presented at numerous national and regional conferences sponsored by HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, The Federal Reserve Banks, and NAACP.

Ms. Adams was honored by Legal Aid of North Carolina when they established the Stella J. Adams Fair Housing Advocacy Award (2013) in her honor. She is the recipient of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition William Proxmire Lifetime Achievement Award (2019) She was named 2014 Woman of the Year in Civil and Human Rights by Spectacular Magazine. Ms. Adams is the recipient of the Individual Achievement Award of the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies (2006), the Civil Rights Award granted by the National Association of Human Rights Workers (2005) and many others.