Copyright berkshireeagle
PITTSFIELD — 1Berkshire welcomes Lani Willmar as its new Economic Recovery Corps fellow. The ERC Fellowship is a national program run by the International Economic Development Council thanks to funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. For the next year, Willmar 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. The ERC Fellowship in the Berkshires focuses on four key areas: Expanding youth engagement in entrepreneurship, strengthening collaboration among regional partners, securing new funding and technical assistance for businesses, and promoting the stories of local innovators and entrepreneurs. Willmar 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, Willmar 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. Willmar'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. Her work is grounded in her lived experience and driven by a deep commitment to youth agency, class solidarity and place-based economic resilience.
