The Practical Guide to the Green Economy

Across cities and regions, sustainability plans and economic development plans have been developed separately from one another. As carbon reduction and regional resilience become increasingly important to companies, how should economic developers adjust how they work and who they work with to stay on the forefront of competitiveness?

Our Presenter:

Bethia Burke is the president of the Fund for Our Economic Future, a nonprofit organization working to advance a more equitable economy in Northeast Ohio.

As president, Bethia brings critical leadership to Northeast Ohio’s most pressing challenges—working with diverse stakeholders to find common ground while advancing real solutions to drive a more equitable, growing economy. Bethia leads the Fund’s governing body—a board representing cross-sector, regional perspectives from the Fund’s 18-county footprint—and team of staff and consulting partners in advancing the organization’s strategic priorities to drive systems change that reduce racial inequities and set the course for a more prosperous, resilient Northeast Ohio economy.

Before being elected as the Fund’s second president in December 2019, Bethia served as its vice president and has been shaping the Fund’s strategy and championing key initiatives for more than a decade. Her leadership is evident in such efforts as The Paradox Prize, Where are the Workers?,  The Two Tomorrows and most recently The Practical Guide to the Green Economy.

Bethia is consistently recognized across Northeast Ohio for her leadership and influence in philanthropy and economic development, for example as a Crain’s Cleveland Business Women of Note (2022), on Ohio Business Magazine’s ‘Ohio 500’ list of Ohio's most powerful and influential people (2022, 2023), with a Medical Mutual’s Pillar Award for Community Service as a Nonprofit Executive Director of the Year Award (2022) and with a Progressive Woman Award from Smart Business Northeast Ohio (2024). She was a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2023, recently joined the board of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and serves on several nonprofit boards and advisory committees throughout the region.

Bethia attended Case Western Reserve University where she earned dual undergraduate degrees in economics and English. She spent her early career in the greater Washington, D.C., area conducting cost risk reviews of major defense programs while earning her master’s degree in applied economics at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to that, Bethia spent a year teaching English to high school students in Epernay, France. She grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Bethia is happily married with three young children—and therefore does not relate to the idea of “free time,” but on occasion she enjoys reading (specifically light, escapist, preferably funny fiction), cooking (especially unnecessarily complicated recipes), and running (though not particularly far or fast).

The Fund for Our Economic Future is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to advance a more equitable economy in Northeast Ohio. This civic collaborative brings together leaders across sectors and throughout the region to collectively invest in, test and amplify strategies to enable the region to achieve its full potential. Since 2004, the Fund has developed enduring strategies to grow the everyone economy—where good jobs and rising incomes are within reach for all residents. Learn more at thefundneo.org.