Welcoming New Leadership Council and Core Team Members for the Alliance
With the 2025 Leadership Council election complete, we’re excited to welcome new leaders stepping into key roles across the Alliance.
By Andy Stoll, Founding Executive Director
Executive Director Update
August 11, 2025
We’re excited to share the results of the 2025 Leadership Council election and introduce you to some folks stepping in (and out) of leadership roles across the Alliance.
ESHIP Alliance Leadership Council
The Leadership Council serves as a shared leadership and decision-making body focused on advancing the entrepreneurial ecosystem building field. Its primary role is to provide a forum for discussion, deliberation, and addressing field-level issues to support ESHIP Alliance’s ongoing work. The ESHIP community elects at least 10 seats on the council through our online digital community, the ESHIP Commons, and up to 10 additional members are appointed by the ESHIP Alliance Core Team to ensure broad representation across geography, demographics, and experience. Council members collaborate closely with the staff, Core Team, and the wider network to ensure our mission, vision, and priorities reflect the needs of ecosystem builders everywhere. Council members serve in this role as volunteers.
ESHIP Alliance Core Team
The Core Team is the Alliance’s operational and strategic oversight group, functioning as a “working board.” This team ensures our activities align with our mission, oversees day-to-day operations, and serves as ex-officio voting members of the Leadership Council. Core Team members are appointed by the Executive Director, in consultation with existing team members, and commit to a minimum of 10 hours of volunteer work per month. This service is voluntary and not compensated.
Together, the Leadership Council and Core Team provide the vision and backbone for the Alliance’s work is the manifestation of our commitment to the shared leadership model at the center of the Alliance’s work.
Newly Elected Council Members
We’re excited to welcome five newly elected members to the Leadership Council—all likely familiar faces to many in the ESHIP community. Elected through our community voting process on the ESHIP Commons in July, they will each serve a two-year term. Please join us in congratulating them!
National Eccosystem Building Resource Provider (NRP) Representatives:
An (NRP) representative is someone who works within an organization that supports entrepreneurial ecosystem building practitioners across multiple U.S. states.
Kevin Carter (Baltimore, MD) – Director of Business Development at EcoMap Technologies, where he has helped more than 100 ecosystems worldwide, co-founded the PLACE Builder Fellowship, and has attended more ecosystem building conferences than probably anyone (see this story). Learn more…
Gustavo Ustariz (Mundelein, IL) – Director of Entrepreneur & Small Business Support at Main Street America, where he leads programs to strengthen small business ecosystems nationwide, co-led a two-year national equitable ecosystem building pilot in 30 communities, and brings an international background in sustainable tourism and community development. Learn more…
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Building Practitioners:
Tarsha Hearns (Dallas, TX) – Founder of Economic Growth Strategies, leveraging 20 years as a founder, SBA Women’s Business Center leader, and community leader with deep experience building inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems that expand capital access and opportunity for underrepresented entrepreneurs. Learn more…
Kristin Leutz (Amherst, MA) – Founder of Petra Impact Partners, where she supports national resource providers with strategy, fundraising, and operations, and former Executive Director of the Startup Champions Network and co-leader of the Ecosystem Building Leadership Project (EBLP), the precursor to the ESHIP Alliance. Learn more…
Jason Schneider (Bend, OR) - Founder of Civic* Possible, bringing two decades of cross-sector experience to build inclusive, resilient rural and civic ecosystems, drawing on earlier roles as a county economic development manager and chamber director. Learn more…
If you missed the election, you can still explore all the candidates' profiles on ESHIP Commons’ Election Central. We’ll be hearing from each of the newly elected members on the Commons later this month, so if you’re not already a subscriber, please sign up.
Thank you to all nineteen candidates who put themselves forward in this summer’s election. Your leadership, experience, and contributions made this an inspiring and meaningful election. And to everyone who voted and engaged, thank you for showing up to shape this community.
Newly Appointed Core Team & Council Members
Along with the elected seats, we’re also excited to announce two new additions to the Core Team, who will also join the Leadership Council as ex-officio voting members:
Amy Beaird (Orlando, FL): Ecosystem builder, senior Platform Manager at The Builder Platform, and curator of The Ecosystem Builders Edge newsletter. Amy joined the Core Team and Leadership Council this past May to serve as the Alliance’s new volunteer treasurer, where she provides financial guidance and oversight for the Alliance, alongside Community Initiatives, our fiscal sponsor.
Anika Horn (Staunton, VA) – Ecosystem builder, curator of Social Venturers, and host of the Ecosystems for Change podcast. Anika is joining the Core Team and Leadership Council this month to help develop the Alliance’s storytelling strategy and communications infrastructure.
Changing Roles
Fay Horwitt (Chattanooga, TN) – Elected to the inaugural Leadership Council in 2023 as an NRP representative from Forward Cities, where she formerly served as President & CEO. Fay was elected as the Council’s first chair and has been a key force in shaping the Alliance’s direction. This summer, she is stepping into a new role as the Alliance’s first Field Builder-in-Residence (FBIR), joining the staff part-time to continue her work as lead designer and architect of the ESHIP Commons. In this capacity, she will transition off both the Core Team and the Leadership Council as she assumes this role. We’re excited to pilot the FBIR role and, if successful, hope to create similar opportunities for more people in the future.
Mo Collins (Des Moines, Iowa) – Elected to the inaugural Leadership Council in 2023 and serving as an NRP representative from IEDC, where she served as Senior Director of Entrepreneurship. Mo is stepping down from the Leadership Council following her retirement in July. We are deeply grateful for her contributions to the Alliance and her many decades as a pioneer in our field. We will continue to celebrate her as she moves into her next life chapter.
Future Opportunities To Join The Leadership Council
The next Leadership Council elections will be held in Spring 2026, and all ESHIP Commons community members are welcome to self-nominate and run for an open seat. The Core Team may also appoint additional Council members this year to bring in skills vital to a startup nonprofit and to ensure diverse representation across geography, demographics, and experience.
Learn more about the full 20-member Leadership Council, Core Team and staff on the Alliance website.