Faculty

Rob Bennett, Senior Advisor, Just Communities

Rob is a senior advisor to the Partnership for Southern Equity and the founder and former CEO of EcoDistricts and Portland Sustainability Institute. With over 30 years of experience, he is a recognized leader in the sustainable and equitable cities movement, specializing in municipal sustainable development projects, standards, and policies at the intersection of green and equitable urban design, planning, and development. Before founding EcoDistricts, Rob established the Portland Sustainability Institute (PoSI), a mayoral think tank dedicated to accelerating sustainability policy and project innovation in Portland. His career also includes work with the Clinton Foundation, where he supported climate action initiatives across North America, and with the cities of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Canada. In these roles, he developed green development market transformation initiatives, including catalytic projects such as Lloyd Crossing (now the Lloyd EcoDistrict in Portland), Brewery Blocks (Portland), South Waterfront (Portland), and the 2010 Olympic Village (Vancouver).

Tsedey Betru, Director, Just Communities

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.

Jennifer Cobb, Just Solutions Manager, Partnership for Southern Equity

Jennifer Cobb serves as the Just Solutions Manager for the Partnership for Southern Equity and helps organizations create and implement racially equitable policies, services, and programs. Jennifer has 5 years of consulting experience, focused on growth strategies with inclusion at the core, and over 10 years of experience in project management, program design and assessment, and partnership development. Prior to joining PSE, Jennifer worked in workforce development where she partnered with companies to increase the pipeline of opportunities for people in under-resourced communities while HR professionals on inclusive hiring practices. Jennifer has held project management roles at Barnes & Noble and First Book, a social enterprise expanding access to quality books in disadvantaged communities, and community development roles at Georgia Tech and Morehouse College. Jennifer served on the board for the Young Nonprofit Professional Network DC from 2014 – 2016, launching their signature mentorship program to provide training and coaching to 50+ nonprofessionals each year. She currently serves as a co-organizer for The Free Black Women’s Library Atlanta, a mobile library and community project centering literature as a tool for liberation.

Kirsten Cook. Research & Analytics Director, Partnership for Southern Equity

Kirsten Cook is a racial equity practitioner with experience and education in the fields of city planning, social science, and data and research. For the last seven years, Kirsten Cook has worked at the Partnership for Southern Equity, where she currently serves as Research & Analytics Director. In this role, she built the organization’s data equity framework and provides ongoing data analysis and research support for the organization’s issue area portfolios, which focus on equitable development, energy equity, health equity, and economic inclusion. Kirsten has also worked on projects related to racial equity in planning, development, and infrastructure while serving in PSE’s Just Growth portfolio. She contributed to the Equitable Strategic Plan for the City of East Point, the first of its kind in Georgia, the Water Equity Roadmap for the City of Atlanta. And resident academies that contribute to building the equity civic infrastructure in metro Atlanta. Outside of PSE, she has worked in local government as a County Planner and in non-profit planning organizations in both Atlanta and Chicago. Having spent the first 18 years of her life in Southeast Asia, Kirsten thrives in diverse settings and approaches her work with a global perspective.