Ed Whitfield is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was a long time social justice activist before becoming involved in community development, cooperative development and philanthropy. Ed was Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director of the Fund for Democratic Communities (F4DC) and continues to serve on the boards of the Seed Commons: A Community Wealth Cooperative and the New Economy Coalition (NEC).

Ed spent 9 years as Board Chairman of the Greensboro NC Redevelopment Commission and was the board chair of Greensboro’s Triad Minority Development Corporation before becoming involved with the cooperatives and the world of democratic non-extractive finance. Ed serves as a consultant to the Los Angeles group, Downtown Crenshaw Rising, working in the arena of capital formation and securing Socially Responsible Investors. He was also recently named Senior Fellow with Seed Commons working on business development training, organizational development and investor relations. He is also part of the Delta Commons group.