 Lilli Ambort — Intern, Energy Democracy Initiative
Lilli Ambort is an Energy Democracy Intern with the Energy Democracy initiative where she contributes to blog posts and interactive features. She is currently studying Global Studies, Political Economy and Environmental Change, with a minor in Chinese Language and Culture at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Recent Posts |
Michelle Andrews — GIS and Data Visualization Researcher
Michelle Andrews is a GIS and Data Visualization Researcher with the Community Broadband Initiative. She received her Masters of Science in GIS from Clark University and served for two years in CTEP AmeriCorps in the Twin Cities. She pairs her data analysis and mapping background with the on-the-ground digital equity work to make data both applicable and easily understandable to a wide range of audiences.
Contact |
Jordan Ashby — Communications Intern
Jordan Ashby is the Communications Intern for the Institute of Local Self-Reliance. She assists in research for the communications team as well as content development for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and the Building Local Power podcast. She is currently a rising Junior at Yale University studying American Studies with a certificate in Education Studies.
Contact |
 John Bailey — Development Director
John is the Director of Development and is responsible for coordinating fundraising and related outreach for ILSR. He was a senior researcher at ILSR from 1992 until 2011, specializing in decentralized energy policy and analysis including topics of renewable energy, climate change, efficiency, tax policy and electric vehicles.
Contact – Twitter |
Linda Bilsens — Project Manager, Composting for Community Initiative and Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Program
Linda is the Project Manager for ILSR’s Composting for Community project and Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders community composter training program. Her role is dedicated to fostering a skilled, collaborative network of composters who are regenerating their communities, both socially and ecologically.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts – Twitter |
 Drew Birschbach — Intern, Energy Democracy Initiative
Drew Birschbach is an Energy Democracy Intern working as a producer on the Local Energy Rules podcast and blog posts. He is studying Professional Journalism with minors in Sustainability Studies, Information Technology and Computer Science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Recent Posts |
Jessica Del Fiacco — Communications Manager
Jessica Del Fiacco is the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Communications Manager. She works closely with all of our initiatives to build community power and combat monopolies, and she runs ILSR’s social media networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Jessica also produces the Institute’s Building Local Power podcast.
Contact Jessica for media inquiries.
Contact – Recent Posts – Twitter
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 John Farrell — Co-Director & Director, Energy Democracy Initiative
John Farrell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its work on energy democracy. John is best known for his vivid illustrations of the economic and environmental benefits of local ownership of decentralized renewable energy.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts – Twitter |
 Sean Gonsalves — Senior Reporter, Editor, and Researcher, Community Broadband Networks Initiative
Sean Gonsalves is a a senior reporter, editor and researcher for ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative. Sean was a longtime former reporter, columnist, and news editor with the Cape Cod Times. He is also a former nationally syndicated columnist in 22 newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune, Kansas City Star and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His work has also appeared in the Boston Globe, USA Today, the Washington Post and the International Herald-Tribune.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts |
 India Gorden — Operations Manager
India Gorden is the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Operations Manager. India has managed day-to-day office operations for non-profit organizations since 2003 and maintains her professional relationship with various vendors. Her focus is in office management, finance and general human resources.
Contact |
 Susan Holmberg – Senior Editor and Researcher, Independent Business Initiative
Susan Holmberg is Senior Editor and Researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Independent Business Initiative. She writes on corporate power and inequality and has been published in the New York Times, Time, The Atlantic, The Nation, and Democracy Journal.
Full Bio – Contact – Twitter |
 Sophia Hosain – Baltimore Project Lead, Composting for Community Initiative
Sophia Hosain is the Baltimore Lead on ILSR’s Composting for Community project and Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders community composter training program. A graduate of the Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders program and part-time vegetable & flower farmer, Sophia now works in sustainability and is interested in alternative energy, permaculture and circular economies.
Contact |
 Katie Kienbaum – Senior Researcher, Energy Democracy Initiative
Katie Kienbaum is a Senior Researcher with ILSR’s Energy Democracy initiative, where she researches and writes about equitable and decentralized clean energy and its impact on communities across the country. Before joining the Energy Democracy initiative, she was a Research Associate with the Community Broadband Networks initiative
Contact |
 Linda Knapp — Director, MACREDO Project
Linda Knapp is a Senior Program Manager for ILSR, overseeing the Mid-Atlantic Consortium of Recycling and Economic Development Officials, a recycling market development group funded by US EPA Region 3. Her current work focuses on increasing on-farm composting.
Full Bio – Contact |
Ron Knox — Senior Researcher and Writer
Ron Knox is the senior researcher and writer for the Independent Business Initiative. He has studied and written about antitrust and monopoly power for more than a decade. Before joining ILSR, he worked in various senior editorial roles at Global Competition Review, and his antimonopoly writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Slate, The American Prospect and elsewhere. He is based in Kansas City.
Contact – Twitter
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 Ry Marcattilio-McCracken — Senior Researcher, Community Broadband Networks Initiative
Ry Marcattilio-McCracken is a Senior Researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative. He is interested in the democratizing power of technology, systems engineering, and the history of science, technology, and medicine. Previously, Ry worked as an Adjunct Professor of American History in Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Minnesota. Ry holds a PhD in American History from Oklahoma State University.
Contact – Twitter |
 Maria McCoy — Research Associate, Energy Democracy Initiative
Maria McCoy is a Research Associate on the Energy Democracy initiative, where she contributes to blog posts, podcasts, video content, and interactive features. Her research focuses on how communities can transition to clean, decentralized energy systems that are both equitable and economically viable.
Contact – Recent Posts |
 Virgil McDill — Communications Director
Virgil McDill has more than 20 years of experience developing and executing media campaigns for government and non-profit organizations. Before joining ILSR in 2020, Virgil served as Associate Director of Public Affairs at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he led key national media campaigns focused on saving historic places and revitalizing communities.
Contact |
 Christopher Mitchell — Director, Community Broadband Networks Initiative
Christopher’s work focuses on telecommunications — helping communities ensure the networks upon which they depend, are accountable to the community. He has published several reports, articles, and interviews while also offering technical assistance to communities around the country.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts – Twitter |
 Stacy Mitchell — Co-Director & Director, Independent Business Initiative
Stacy is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its initiative to decentralize economic power and level the playing field for independent businesses. She has produced many influential reports and articles, designed local and federal policies, and collaborated to build effective coalitions and campaigns.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts – Twitter |
 David Morris — Distinguished Fellow
David Morris is co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and currently ILSR’s distinguished fellow. He writes the blog, From the Desk of David Morris. He has served as an adviser or consultant to local, state and national governments and to private businesses large and small.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts – Twitter |
 Jeffrey Neal, PE — Urban & On-Site Compost Consultant, Composting for Community Initiative
Commander, Jeffrey H. Neal is a retired United States Navy Civil Corps Engineer Officer and a graduate of ILSR’s Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders (NSR) Composter Training Program program. He provides his unique skill-set and expertise in composting, and facilities and program management to organizations and businesses that are considering composting.
Full Bio – Contact |
 Brenda Platt — Director, Composting for Community Initiative
Brenda Platt is a recycling expert and composting advocate, and directs ILSR’s Composting for Community project.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts – Twitter |
 Ronaldo Reyes — Intern, Composting for Community Initiative
Ronaldo is a Composting for Community Initiative Intern. His primary responsibilities are to provide support for the initiatives’s ongoing projects as well as researching and documenting policies and resources to advance composting. He recently completed majors in International Studies and French Language & Culture at Towson University.
Contact |
 Neil Seldman — Director, Waste to Wealth Initiative
Neil Seldman, Ph.D., co-founded the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and is Director of the Waste to Wealth Initiative. Seldman is a leading recycling and zero waste activists assisting citizen, environmental and small business organizations in stopping garbage incinerators in scores of US cities. Subsequently, he works with these cities to increase recovery of materials from the waste stream and grow the local economy by adding value to materials through local processing, manufacturing and job creation. Prior to founding ILSR Seldman was a manufacturer of consumer products and professor of political science.
Full Bio – Contact – Recent Posts |
 Kennedy Smith — Senior Researcher
Kennedy Smith is a Senior Researcher with ILSR’s Independent Business initiative. Kennedy is one of the nation’s foremost experts on commercial district revitalization and independent business development. Her work focuses on analyzing the factors threatening independent businesses and developing policy tools that communities can use to address these issues and build thriving, equitable local economies.
Full Bio – Contact |
 Shaoul Sussman — Legal Fellow, Independent Business Initiative
Shaoul Sussman is a Legal Fellow at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. His research focuses on the intersection of antitrust law and big tech. Shaoul has published an academic paper and a number of articles about Amazon’s anticompetitive practices and the company’s negative influence on firms that rely on its e-commerce platform.
Full Bio – Twitter |
 Mary Timmel — Small Business and Consumer Organizer, Independent Business Initiative
Mary Timmel is ILSR’s Small Business and Consumer Organizer. She supports and develops the leadership of small businesses and consumers to win policy changes that check Amazon’s outsized power and address rising corporate concentration across the economy. She brings decades of small business, social justice, and community organizing and advocacy to the role. Prior to joining ILSR, Mary worked with Girls Who Code, Missouri Jobs With Justice, and the Small Business Majority.
Contact |
Nora Goldstein
Jolie Jones
Chris Lewis
Kirk Marckwald
David Morris
Roy Priest
Gina Schaefer
Neil Seldman
