The Rural Action Roundtable on Equity (RARE) serves as Aspen CSG’s equity partner, providing strategic direction, setting priorities, building relationships, and ensuring critical analysis to guide Aspen CSG’s work.
RARE is composed of leading rural practitioners and thought leaders. Their leadership has been instrumental in guiding and grounding the ongoing development and implementation of the Thrive Rural Framework.
Together, Aspen CSG and RARE focus on building and connecting the field of equitable rural development and content using a race, place, and class equity lens to ground and proof our analysis, content, and strategies.
Alissa Benoist
Director of Programs, Four Bands Community Fund
Brandy Bynum Dawson
Senior Program Director for Rural Prosperity and Investment, MDC
Stephanie Tyree
Executive Director, WV Community Development Hub
Jessica Stago
Director of Business Incubator, Change Labs
Ines Polonius
CEO, Communities Unlimited, Inc.
Felecia Lucky
President, Black Belt Community Foundation
Janice Ikeda
Executive Director, Vibrant Hawaiʻi
Ernestor De La Rosa
Local Government and Community Affairs Regional Manager, ITC Holdings Corp
Nils Christoffersen
Executive Director, Wallowa Resources
Justin Archer Burch
President & CEO of Delta Compass and the Washington County Economic Alliance