Blogs

The City of Spartanburg and the Spartanburg Academic Movement are launching two FUSE Executive Fellowships side by side, with one to write the strategy and one to build the deals.

The Spring 2025 cohort has wrapped, and the impact speaks for itself. Across cities, FUSE Executive Fellows spent the past one to two years embedded in local government building programs, passing policy, and creating change that will outlast their time in office. As we celebrate the close of this cohort, we're spotlighting two fellows whose work stands as a testament to what's possible when talented leaders bring their skills to public service.

As a FUSE Executive Fellow, Nathan Chai (2023–25) worked with the Salt Lake City Department of Sustainability to inform workforce planning and analysis under the City’s new Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP), aiming to increase green job opportunities for residents. He completed Salt Lake’s first regional clean energy jobs landscape and gap analysis, sharing forecasts to support a $1M city grant. He built public-private partnerships and hosted two innovation labs engaging 50+ stakeholders. Additionally, he analyzed the City’s and other leading apprenticeship models to inform the development of a new apprenticeship program for the Department of Sustainability.

This fall, FUSE is proud to partner with five agencies in the Northwest Arkansas region on seven projects as part of our Fall 2026 cohort. Each fellowship embeds an experienced FUSE Executive Fellow inside local government to tackle a specific, pressing challenge, bringing new capacity, fresh perspective, and dedicated focus to work that matters. Below, we're spotlighting the partners and people behind this work.

What does it take to close a jail, open a beach, or house a city's most vulnerable residents? It takes people who know how systems work and how to change them. This spring, FUSE welcomes eight executive fellows bringing decades of private-sector expertise to some of the most pressing challenges facing local government. From Los Angeles to Louisville, meet the fellows bringing operational rigor and strategic vision to regional challenges.

The Taylor Yard Equity Strategy (TYES) is a community-driven initiative in Northeast Los Angeles that emerged alongside plans to transform a former contaminated industrial rail yard into green and open space. This transformation was aimed at ensuring benefits for local residents and businesses through housing stability, economic opportunity and workforce development, cultural preservation, and environmental improvements, while preventing displacement and green gentrification. At TYES, we made a deliberate choice early on: Equity would not be an aspiration. It would be operationalized through structure, process, and accountability.

A Moment of Transition and Opportunity After more than a decade leading FUSE together, James Weinberg and Nancy Gage have decided to begin a thoughtful leadership transition over the coming year. This decision is grounded in the shared belief that FUSE is ready for its next chapter and well-positioned for new leadership to continue its … Continued

The City of Phoenix Office of Sustainability has already taken important steps, including adopting ambitious 2050 Sustainability Goals and completing its first Residential Energy Access Plan, which includes six goals focused on participation, increased access, and resilience. But having a plan and living it are different things. Moving from a strategy document to tangible, household‑level change requires focus, coordination, and a shared sense of what “success” looks like for low‑ and moderate‑income (LMI) residents. That gap between plan and practice is where my FUSE Innovation Lab—and my fellowship—came in.

In January 2026, city leaders, agency partners, and community-minded innovators convened in Salt Lake City for the FUSE Innovation Lab to explore how the City’s transportation vision can be translated into real-world implementation.