Grant Swanson, Associate

Grant Swanson has an extensive background in strategic and financial planning, community engagement and capacity building, and environmental conservation.

He began his career with the National Civic League, an advocacy organization that promotes the principles of collaborative problem solving and consensus-based decision making in local community building. He was a Fellow with El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs and later served as assistant director of the Student Leadership Institute at the University of Colorado where he focused on expanding the organization's leadership training offerings throughout the CU system.

Swanson later spent three years with The Nature Conservancy in Mexico, building the financial management and fundraising capacity of Mexican environmental NGOs. As an independent environmental consultant based in Austin, Texas, he continued his strategic and financial planning work and designed reforestation projects in Mexico, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. He also served as an associate at the Clean Energy Incubator where he evaluated renewable energy companies seeking admission to the business incubator and coached entrepreneurs. Swanson holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a M.B.A. and a M.A. in Latin American Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.