Elizabeth Guernsey is a program officer with Open Society-U.S., overseeing grant making related to local progressive governance, with an emphasis on supporting local elected and appointed officials and tackling the state preemption of local democracy. She manages the Leadership in Government Fellowship, which she helped launch in 2016. She also now oversees Open Society-U.S.’s emerging strategy on climate change and the Green New Deal.
Prior to joining OSF in 2014, Guernsey spent five years in New York City government, most recently serving as the director of policy and operations at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the largest municipal housing agency in the country. She began her career at the Urban Institute, where she conducted research on public housing and neighborhood change.
Guernsey holds a master’s of urban planning degree from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, where she was a David Bohnett Public Service Fellow, and a BA in economics and public policy from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
