Rebecca Petzel
Research Collaborator
Rebecca Petzel has been a contributor to the research process since 2015, through participating in numerous interviews, virtual co-learning events with fellow breakout actors, and through reviewing draft content for the book manuscript Beloved Economies.
Rebecca Petzel
Rebecca Petzel is the director of learning and innovation at the Partnership Funds, and co-founder of the Emergence Collective, a consulting cooperative focused on increasing our ability to chart new paths in the social sector through strengthened collaborative practice. She works with philanthropic and non-profit partners to shift practice and culture from one of top down, command and control ways of working to true co-creation -- centering the needs of those closest to the work -- that makes more possible in the world. Her gift is designing and holding space where individuals have full agency and dignity while the collective builds connection, alignment, and movement towards truly meaningful action.
Formally trained in the academic traditions of systems change, collective intelligence, and transformational leadership through a unique, interdisciplinary masters program at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden, her real teachers have been organizers in her home town of Chicago fighting every day for truly transformational change. She serves on the board of Chicago Votes, a collection of young folks regularly reminding her not to get stuck in an experience rut, and how to take on serious work without taking yourself too seriously.
