Full Circle Indigenous Planning + Design
Join Just Communities Director Tsedey Betru for a conversation with Sam Olbekson, Founder and CEO of Full Circle Indigenous Planning + Design, on what it means to build projects with communities rather than around them. Drawing from Indigenous planning principles and community-led development practices, this discussion will explore how people can shape the decisions that affect their land, neighborhoods, and futures.
At a time when communities across the country are navigating rapid change, this discussion will focus on how planning processes can honor local knowledge, build trust, and expand opportunities for residents to help shape the future of their communities. This is not a conversation about growth at any cost. It is a conversation about who gets to shape the future. The people most affected by decisions should have the relationships, information, and influence needed to help determine what happens in their community.
Meet the Faculty
Tsedey Betru
Tsedey is the Director of Just Communities at the Partnership for Southern Equity. Originally from Ethiopia, Tsedey’s experiences immigrating to the U.S. and growing up in Memphis, TN, have shaped and informed her 20-year career advancing racial equity in community and economic development.
She started her career as a community organizer for the National Voting Rights Institute and the 7th St. Community Improvement Initiative in Oakland, CA. After completing her graduate studies in urban policy analysis and nonprofit management, Tsedey worked at PolicyLink and at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy in NYC before becoming the Vice President of Community LIFT in Memphis, TN.
More recently, she has moved into economic development and philanthropic advising, working as the Manager of Community Affairs & Strategic Initiatives for Invest Atlanta, as an economic development advisor to Memphis Mayor Wharton, and a philanthropic advisor to the Estee Lauder Charitable Foundation, Waverley Street Foundation, and Gates Foundation.
Tsedey currently serves on the City of Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission, the Atlanta BeltLine Public Arts Advisory, and raises funds for the African Diasporic Arts Museum of Atlanta.