1Berkshire is excited to announce the arrival of its new Economic Recovery Corps fellow, Lani Willmar. The ERC Fellowship is a national program run by the International Economic Development Council thanks to funding from the United States Economic Development Administration. For the next year, Lani will be working with the Economic Development team at 1Berkshire, in partnership with the Berkshire Innovation Center, to inject additional capacity to assist existing and new efforts focused on supporting and accelerating the region’s innovation economy. 1Berkshire is one of only 64 host organizations across the country selected to host an ERC fellow, making it an exciting and rare chance to leverage highly skilled and passionate professional capacity for regional good.
The ERC Fellowship role in the Berkshires is focused on four primary areas, including:
- Bridging opportunities for youth to engage significantly in entrepreneurial activities within small and innovative businesses in the region.
- Helping to build additional connective tissue across partners and qualified referral resource providers across the four counties of Western Massachusetts.
- Identifying and pursuing new funding and technical assistance opportunities to bring into the region to support current and future business success.
- Sharing the authentic narrative of existing innovative businesses, entrepreneurs, and powerful stories being written across the region’s diverse economic landscape.
Lani is a Vietnamese American entrepreneur who began her journey in the Berkshires as a QuestBridge Scholar for low-income, first-generation students at Williams College. As the founder of Ethos Pathways and Ethos Admissions, she leads two youth-centered social impact organizations focused on education access, climate justice, and workforce development.
Drawing on both lived and professional experience, Lani strives to bridge gaps in educational and economic mobility for students. She brings a decade of expertise building cross-sector youth development programs along with private tech-sector experience in early stage talent acquisition and scaled hiring. Lani’s work draws from both a global and local lens, including her time as a Fulbright Scholar in rural Slovakia working with beekeepers and at an agriculture trade school, and most recently as a member of the Berkshire Innovation Center’s Stage 2 Accelerator. Lani’s work is grounded in her lived experience and driven by a deep commitment to youth agency, class solidarity, and place-based economic resilience.
1Berkshire Vice President of Economic Development, Dr. Ben Lamb notes “We are ecstatic to have Lani joining our team, and based on how quickly she has embraced this role, we can’t wait to see, and share, all the high-impact work that she collaborates with us on over the next 12 months.”