Susan Halverson Fonseca

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT SUSAN HALVERSON FONSECA

I lead Elemental Initiatives, which collaborates with communities to create healthy, livable environments through policy, advocacy, and research. We started Elemental because we believe that members of a community should have meaningful input into the future of that community; we work in partnership with residents, community organizations, municipalities, developers and other community stakeholders, engaging people in the design, development and implementation of their ideas for improving their communities. I am also a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at Portland State University, where I am researching community power related to a preference policy in affordable housing.Previously, at Arizona State University Entrepreneurship & Innovation, I led a team creating, funding, implementing and evaluating programs to expand access to entrepreneurship resources and support to groups underrepresented in entrepreneurship: women, people of color and low-income people. And prior to that, I organized low-income neighborhoods, led campaigns and development at Arizona Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).