Locus
Lauren DeSimone serves as the Director of Food Systems Investment Strategy at Locus, where responsibilities include managing a capital fund and development services to promote equitable access to capital within regional food systems. Additionally, Lauren co-leads the Southeast USDA Regional Food Business Center. Prior to this role, Lauren worked as a consultant in product development at The Change Decision, offering advice on change management and workplace culture. Experience also includes consulting and mentoring at the Greater Richmond Small Business Development Center and THRIVE Mentoring, along with a position as Vice President of Engagement at EngageMore, where Lauren acted as an account manager for a SaaS startup. Other roles encompass involvement with community partnerships at Gather, project management at Community Food Lab, and serving as Program Director at YMCA of Greater Richmond. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts and completed the altMBA program in 2018.
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Locus
We create equitable access to capital by developing community partnerships and innovative tools that tackle systemic challenges and advance promising opportunities. We believe we must understand the unique challenges of every community we work with to find a solution that meets their unique needs. Too often, community development organizations attempt to “fix” a place without the partnerships or time spent to fully grasp the opportunities and assets that exist. The fact is that communities know best what they need but often lack the necessary resources to drive impactful change. We believe working as a unified community development organization puts us in a unique position to go deep in partnership with communities to help them achieve the long-term, equitable prosperity they envision. Our process starts with finding like-minded partners in a place. We want to talk to the organizations who already understand community strengths, needs, and visions. Once we know who the changemakers are, we listen. As our potential role in realizing those visions takes shape, we offer our unique expertise, products, and services as tools to make real impact possible. We envision a world in which people and places have the capital and ecosystem partners needed to realize prosperous futures.