Deborah Frieze is an author, entrepreneur and professor with a focus on community-based investing, blended finance and economic democracy. She currently serves as Senior Economic Advisor to Principles for Peace, a Geneva-based organization that embodies a new approach to peace and security at the global, regional and local level.
Deborah is founder of the Boston Impact Initiative, an impact investing fund working to close the racial wealth divide in New England. She is also co-founder of the Unlock Ownership Fund that seeks to build wealth in historically underinvested households through home and employee ownership. Deborah teaches Community-Based Investing to communities around the world, including at Tufts University’s Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. She is co-author (with Margaret Wheatley) of Walk Out Walk On, an award-winning book that profiles pioneering leaders who walked out of organizations failing to contribute to the common good—and walked on to build resilient communities. She is also founder of the Old Oak Dojo, an urban learning center in Boston, MA.