Economic development is a powerful tool to foster equitable growth, but traditional economic development policies and programs often focus on short-term gains and have shortchanged people of color, immigrants, and low-income communities. To help cities orient their economic development practices toward equitable growth, the National League of Cities, PolicyLink, and the Urban Land Institute launched the Equitable Economic Development Fellowship in June 2016.

Each year, fellowship teams from six cities are selected to receive technical assistance to make equity, transparency, and community engagement driving forces for how they conduct economic development. During the fellowship year, each city develops a project focused on spurring inclusive economic growth, and the fellowship provides them with opportunities for peer learning and exchange as well as technical assistance and advice from the project partners. The inaugural fellows included 18 economic development leaders from Boston, Charlotte, Houston, Memphis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. In 2017-2018, fellows were selected from Austin, Baltimore, Louisville, Nashville, Phoenix and Sacramento.