Emily Edmonds is an experienced government and nonprofit professional, with over 15 years of experience in projects across the East Coast. Her work has primarily focused on regional and local governments, building relationships between rural and urban communities and advocating for policies that support underserved rural populations. She holds a BA from Western Carolina University in Social Philosophy & Policy and an MPA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed her graduate thesis on modern approaches to rural economic development.
Emily currently serves as the Membership and Programs Director for Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL), a national local government association, where she manages membership and national programming on behalf of 4,000+ passionate government professionals. She specializes in grant writing and administration, food systems assessment and planning, cross-sector engagement, research & evaluation, and project and program management. As a native of the Appalachian region of Western North Carolina, she splits her time between Raleigh and the far western counties of the state and enjoys travel, typewriters, learning to skate with her teenage daughter, reading, and growing and eating food.