ACCE - American Chamber of commerce executives

The Ford Foundation Fellowship for Regional Sustainable Development (RSD)

Thanks to the the generous support of the Ford Foundation, ACCE has graduated three waves of chamber and regional leaders through the Fellowship for Regional Sustainable Development. This unique and exclusive 12-month program instills a deeper understanding of regional thinking, strategies and opportunities that helps Fellows grow and develop competitive economies and communities. With the assistance of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship, ACCE provides this educational program to chamber and business leaders of today and tomorrow.

The Fellowship provides hands-on training, peer knowledge exchange, research and examination of working models on a wide-range of sustainability issues, such as:

Infrastructure;
Land use;
Environmental stewardship;
Housing;
Social inclusion;
Workforce development;
Education;
Immigration; and
Inner-city challenges.

Fellows become part of a cadre of influential leaders who are ready to apply their knowledge to make their own regions more prosperous, vital and inclusive. The growing cadre will, in turn, reinforce the national and global movement benefiting regional economies everywhere.

Program Format

Each cohort group meets for three in-person, symposium-style sessions taught by carefully selected scholars and professional practitioners. In addition, Fellows prepare and implement individual regional action projects targeting their service area. Between meetings, Fellows remain engaged with readings, DIALogue webinars, and one-on-one coaching and guidance to help with their regional action projects.

At the conclusion of the program, new findings and additional best practice lessons will be incorporated into the policy-practice library of resources offered through the Alliance for Regional Stewardship. You can read summaries of past regional action projects, sorted by category, here.

Meet the Fellows

Three waves of chamber of commerce and regional leadership professionals have graduated from the Regional Sustainable Development Fellowship. Click here for a list of graduates from past Fellowship Classes.

Fellowship Reports

The inaugural class of Fellows contributed to the development of a policy and practices white paper that outlines how business-civic organizations can advance a regional agenda for growth, titled "Sustainable Economies and Strong Communities: Regional Chamber Strategies for Growth." Click here to download a copy of the report, authored by FutureWorks and co-published in August 2008 as a monograph with the Alliance for Regional Stewardship.

Aligning leadership from multiple sectors behind regional goals and strategies is a well-known challenge in the chamber world. During the second year of this program, FutureWorks developed a report that explores how leaders connect and collaborate, using the Leadership Philadelphia Connectors project as a model for the development of a peer leadership network. For a pdf of this September 2009 report, "Regional Networks Report: The Case of Leadership Philadelphia's Connector Project," click here.