Ed Whitfield

Ed Whitfield represents the Southern Reparations Loan Funds (SRLF) in Seed Common’s Full Member Assembly, on the Board, and on the Sustainability Committee and has served in those roles since November 2016. Ed is also currently Senior Fellow at Seed Commons, a role that he has held since January 2020. Ed’s responsibilities include researching, teaching, and applying the historical and conceptual frameworks underlying Seed Commons’ community-based approach to non-extractive lending, within numerous aspects of Seed Commons’ operations. Ed’s broad network and public intellectual stature is crucial to helping Seed Commons raise investment funds and form diverse partnerships. Prior to joining Seed Commons, Ed was the co-founder and co-Managing Director of the Fund for Democratic Communities (F4DC), a private operating foundation in Greensboro, North Carolina, a position that he held from August 2007 until F4DC sunset in December 2020. Ed’s portfolio at F4DC included organizing funders to support Seed Commons and strengthening the Southern Reparations Loan Funds (SRLF). Ed is the chair of the board of SRLF, one the founding Peer Members of Seed Commons, and he is also a board member of the New Economy Coalition. Ed recently completed a three year term on the board of Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee, which specializes in grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South. Ed spent nine years as board chair of the Greensboro North Carolina Redevelopment Commission and was the board chair of Greensboro’s Triad Minority Development Corporation. Ed currently serves as a consultant to community groups on matters of community cooperative economic development and community wealth building, as well as working in the arena of organizational anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion improvement. Ed attended Cornell University.