Caroline Kim Palacios

2021-2022 | City of Los Angeles - Economic & Workforce Development Department

CAROLINE KIM PALACIOS is a social sector leader, fundraiser, and entrepreneur dedicated to helping organizations navigate change, achieve sustainable growth, and amplify impact. For over a decade, Caroline has led programmatic initiatives to improve education, health, and lifetime outcomes across California through creative, cross-sector strategic partnerships. Her most recent work as principal at dsrptq ventures has focused on helping nonprofits and small businesses adapt to disruption. Caroline received her Master’s of Public Administration and Certificate in Public Policy from the USC Price School of Public Policy and her B.A. in Diplomacy & World Affairs from Occidental College.

Project

Since the start of the pandemic, Los Angeles has reported the highest number of business closures in the nation, with over 7,500 of those closures expected to be permanent. To enable small businesses’ survival, the City is working to adapt programs and resources provided through its BusinessSource Centers. FUSE will partner with the City to build the BusinessSource Centers’ capacity to supply high-value technical and programmatic resources to small business owners, with a focus on women and people of color. FUSE will work directly with the small business community to capture critical needs and implement process improvements in the centers through an equity lens.