1Berkshire Welcomes New Economic Recovery Corps Fellow

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — 1Berkshire announced the arrival of its new Economic Recovery Corps fellow, Lani Willmar.

The ERC Fellowship is a national program run by the International Economic Development Council thanks to funding from the United States Economic Development Administration. For the next year, Lani will be working with the Economic Development team at 1Berkshire, in partnership with the Berkshire Innovation Center, to assist existing and new efforts focused on supporting  the region's innovation economy. 1Berkshire is one of only 64 host organizations across the country selected to host an ERC fellow, making it an exciting and rare chance to leverage highly skilled professional capacity for regional good.

The ERC Fellowship role in the Berkshires is focused on four primary areas, including:

• Bridging opportunities for youth to engage significantly in entrepreneurial activities within small and innovative businesses in the region.

• Helping to build additional connective tissue across partners and qualified referral resource providers across the four counties of Western Massachusetts.

• Identifying and pursuing new funding and technical assistance opportunities to bring into the region to support current and future business success.

• Sharing the authentic narrative of existing innovative businesses, entrepreneurs, and powerful stories being written across the region's diverse economic landscape. 

Willmar is a Vietnamese American entrepreneur who began her journey in the Berkshires as a QuestBridge Scholar for low-income, first-generation students at Williams College. As the founder of Ethos Pathways and Ethos Admissions, she leads two youth-centered social impact organizations focused on education access, climate justice, and workforce development.

Drawing on both lived and professional experience, Willmar strives to bridge gaps in educational and economic mobility for students. She brings a decade of expertise building cross-sector youth development programs along with private tech-sector experience in early stage talent acquisition and scaled hiring. Willmar's work draws from both a global and local lens, including her time as a Fulbright Scholar in rural Slovakia working with beekeepers and at an agriculture trade school, and most recently as a member of the Berkshire Innovation Center's Stage 2 Accelerator. 

Youth Alive & ROPE: Stepping Toward the Future

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
10:07AM / Sunday, November 16, 2025

Youth Alive step, dance and drumline participants.

 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Every year, the nonprofits Youth Alive and the Rites of Passage and Empowerment step toward a stronger, more equitable community.

 

This year marked Youth Alive's 30th anniversary and ROPE's 15th anniversary. It was no coincidence that the organizations celebrated it with multiple step performances during their fundraising dinner last Saturday at the Berkshire Innovation Center. 

 

"Every step that they took, we knew that they were stepping further away from oppression. They were stepping further away from social injustice," said keynote speaker the Rev. Nakeida Bethel-Smith, pastor of Hood-Shaw Memorial AME Zion Church of Providence, R.I. 

 

"They were stepping further away from all the things that we were told that we couldn't be in the community that was supposed to hug us." 

 

Bethel-Smith is also an eligibility and outreach specialist for the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance. 

 

"It was people like Shirley Edgerton, [referred to as Misses E to her students] it was people like the late [Bishop Jerome Edgerton Sr.,]  that saw their potential to step with their purpose, to step boldly into that thing and say, 'we see you, even if nobody else sees you.'

 

"Every time they stepped, they took their authority back. Every time they stepped, they reclaimed their voice. Every time they stepped, you knew that they were stepping with purpose. You knew that they were stepping with a mission.