Online Zoom Forum: Community Wealth Building: Spiritual, Social, and Policy Perspectives.
Date: Wednesday 1 October 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Sue Cooper:
Bio: Sue is a Nurse with over four decades of nursing experience in clinical care, management, research and health education, a Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher and an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Educator. Her passion is in the science and art of holistic integrative care practices. Sue is Founder of MOMM, Moments Of Mass Mindfulness and Self Care World, both are dynamic, volunteer-led initiatives rooted in care and compassion, connection and collaboration and experienced through co-creating compassionate community gatherings, engaging in citizen, business, charity and governance action to raise awareness of mindfulness practices for conscious health and vibrant well-being.
Sue holds many voluntary roles in community, locally, she is a member of The Lieutenancy Commonwealth Group and non-executive director of Positively Empowered Kids CIC. Nationally, as a member of the Welfare and Wellbeing Advisory Group for The Queens Nursing Institute of Scotland and internationally as a co-founder of Living Cities Earth and co-director of Feast for the Soul. Sue is deeply honoured to be awarded Meshworker of the Year 2024 for her passion of holistic well-being in individuals and integrating compassionate communities which are creative and empowered.
Speakers:
Sarah McKinley:
Bio: Sarah McKinley is a global expert in Community Wealth Building (CWB). A trained urban planner with a background in community development, Sarah works in partnership with local governments, community practitioners, and movement organizers to develop CWB strategies that deliver lasting local economic transformation. For over 12 years, Sarah worked with The Democracy Collaborative, the leading think-and-do tank advancing the democratization of the economy and was instrumental in helping to develop their CWB frame. She has written numerous articles and chapters and co-authored reports including: Action Guide for Advancing Community Wealth Building in the United States, A New Era for Community Wealth Building, Democratic by Design: A new Community Wealth Building vision for the British economy after COVID-19, Cities Building Community Wealth, and The Anchor Dashboard: Aligning Institutional Practice to Meet Low-Income Community Needs. She currently resides in Brussels, Belgium.
Geoff Gusoff:
Title: Healing Systems through Community Wealth Building.
Description: This talk will examine the role of community wealth building initiatives in addressing the economic pathologies that lead to poor health.
Bio: Geoff Gusoff is a family physician, public health researcher, and assistant professor at UCLA in Los Angeles, California.
His work as a researcher and practitioner focuses on community wealth building as a health intervention, including evaluating and supporting worker-owned home care cooperatives in their efforts to improve both job quality and care quality in home care.
Dr Thad Williamson:
Bio: Dr. Thad Williamson is professor of leadership studies and philosophy, politics, economics, and law (PPEL) and a civic activist. His research focuses on the intersection of theories of social justice and public policy, particularly as applied to urban politics and economic policy. In addition to his teaching and scholarship, he has made significant contributions to local policy and governance through his work for the city of Richmond during the past decade.
Following the November 2024 municipal elections, Williamson served as transition director for Richmond Mayor-elect Dr. Danny Avula. In January 2025, Mayor Avula appointed him senior policy strategist, a position in which he serves part-time while continuing to teach at the University of Richmond.
Williamson and University colleagues Drs. Julian Hayter and Amy Howard co-authored The Making of 21st Century Richmond: Politics, Policy & Governance, 1988-2016, published in 2024. Currently, Williamson is engaged in a long-term research project concerning democracy and inequality in the United States, focusing on the promise of community wealth building. The first major publication to come out of this project was the 2020 book he co-edited with Melody C. Barnes and Corey D.B. Walker, Community Wealth Building and the Reconstruction of American Democracy: Can We Make American Democracy Work?
As the first director of the city of Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building (OCWB) from 2014–16, Williamson led the effort to implement a comprehensive poverty reduction initiative encompassing education, employment, housing, and transportation. From 2017-2018, he served as a senior policy advisor for Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and led the development of the RVA Education Compact. The Richmond City Council appointed him chair of the City Charter Review Commission in 2022. He currently serves on the boards of the Richmond Public Schools Education Foundation and the Richmond Health Equity Fund.
Williamson has received multiple awards at the University of Richmond, including the University’s Distinguished Educator Award in 2012. He served as president of the University Faculty Senate during the 2020-21 academic year.
Dr Mallory Lynn Rahe:
Bio: Mallory Rahe is an associate extension professor at the University of Missouri. She approaches her work in the area of regional and agricultural economic development with an emphasis on assisting producers or stakeholders that are engaging in on-farm investments or considering public investment options. She provides applied research, data analysis and trends, and supports strategic decision making. She has worked on a variety of value-added industry studies, studied farmers market vendor sales and retention, rural population migration and retention, and implemented a regional rural wealth creation program. Her research is often undertaken collaboratively with partner organizations.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Booking: By Paypal.
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you are having a difficulty paying by Paypal, then you can pay by bank transfer instead.
NB: you must also email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can send you the Zoom sign-in details.
Here are the bank transfer details:
Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000
Some international transfers also ask for an IBAN number:
The IBAN number:
GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59
BIC:
BOFSGB21168