Just Communities Accredited Practitioner (AP) Foundation Course

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.

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).

Sterling Johnson is a systems thinker and economic strategist committed to advancing equitable economic opportunity across public, private, and social sectors. A native of Atlanta, Sterling’s passion for economic justice is grounded in the legacy of the Southern freedom movement and his early community experiences serving his community alongside his family. Sterling currently serves as Director of the Just Opportunity Portfolio at the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), where he leads initiatives to advance economic mobility and security through advocacy, research, grantmaking, and direct service, all grounded in values of equity, justice, and shared prosperity. With PSE, he plays a vital role in addressing the region’s economic mobility challenges head-on, deploying programming and advocating for policies that democratize economic development, increase access to capital, and create pathways to upward economic mobility. Since coming to PSE, he has provided over $500,000 in non-dilutive capital investment in Atlanta’s small businesses and youth entrepreneurs of color, while providing countless hours of coaching, technical assistance, and community organizing.

Prior to PSE, he served as Director of Public Policy at Griffin & Strong, P.C., where he led disparity studies and diverse contracting and workforce initiatives for major public-private projects, including Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. Sterling is also the founder of Umoja Lab, a consultancy focused on equitable organizational development and social sector innovation.

Sterling holds a Master of Public Administration degree with a concentration in planning and economic development from Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Furman University, where he was also a Gates Millennium Scholar, track athlete, and 4 year football letterman. His insights have been featured in Governing Magazine, he is a recurring contributor for Next City, he was named a 2022 Emerging Leader by the Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Program, a 2023 Everyday Hero by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and most recently, a 2025 Fulcrum Fellow with the Center for Community Investment. Sterling continues to serve his community as a member of the Outstanding Atlanta Class of 2022, LEAD Atlanta Class of 2024, and through board service as a member of the Clark Atlanta Public Administration Department Advisory Committee, The South DeKalb Tribe, and The Guild’s Community Stewardship Trust.

Suzanne Burnes brings more than 30 years of experience in sustainability, community development, and environmental justice to her role as director of the Just Growth Portfolio for the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE). Highlights of her accomplishments at PSE include: facilitation of the Atlanta Water Equity Task Force from 2018-2020, resulting in the Atlanta Water Equity Roadmap; leadership in the development, delivery, and adoption of Georgia’s first local government Equitable Growth and Inclusion Strategic Plan for the City of East Point in 2021; and leading the acquisition and evolution of EcoDistricts to form Just Communities, a new national framework for neighborhood-scale equitable, climate-resilient community development. Her career includes serving as an EPA and Department of Defense consultant on Superfund research, litigation support, and environmental compliance, and founding an Atlanta community development corporation. She led Georgia state government’s efforts to create public-private sustainability partnerships; served as executive director of local nonprofit Sustainable Atlanta; and founded Collective Wisdom Group, an Atlanta-based firm serving nonprofit, local government, higher education, and philanthropic clients. Through her practice, she notably advised local governments across the Southeastern US on their sustainability efforts, particularly around partnership development and integration of equity into their climate resilience and green infrastructure projects. Suzanne’s strengths are in building relationships among diverse voices for community and ecosystem benefit.