Plenary Sessions

Currency and Community
with Gwendolyn Hallsmith
Wednesday, June 24, 1:30pm-3:00pm

Gwendolyn Hallsmith is the founder and Executive Director of Global Community Initiatives and has been a leader in the sustainable communities movement for more than fifteen years, working with municipal, regional, and state governments in the United States and internationally. She is the author of The Key to Sustainable Cities: Meeting Human Needs, Transforming Community Systems, and the co-author, with Belgian economist Bernard Lietaer, of a forthcoming book on complementary currencies.

Gwendolyn has served as a City Manager, a Regional Planning Director, Senior Planner for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy Resources, the Deputy Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and as an international specialist on sustainable community development. Her international experience has included work with the United Nations Environmental Program, the United Nations Development Program, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the International City/County Management Association, the Academy for Educational Development, and Earth Charter International.

Her books are being used by several communities to initiate an innovative new planning process – including the City of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and the City of Newburgh, NY. The approach is based on using universal human needs as a starting point for engaging in a multi-stakeholder process, building on assets, and using a whole system understanding that identifies critical leverage points for change.

Gwendolyn lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with her husband, George, and her son, Dylan, and is a member of the Plainfield Friends Meeting.