In the final event hosted by Kai Entrepreneurship Wesleyan this semester, Erin Boggs ’93 will visit campus to speak about her work with the Open Communities Alliance, a Connecticut-based civil rights organization. She also discuss how gentrification and the segregation of neighborhoods creates unequal opportunities in terms of education, health care, and job prospects, and how we as individuals ca work toward changing this — meaningful entrepreneurship at it’s finest.

Erin Boggs, executive director of Open Communities Alliance, has worked on issues of equity, particularly in the context of housing, for almost 20 years. After dedicating six years to a range of fair housing issues — such as the foreclosure crisis, the housing challenges of people with disabilities, and housing discrimination — Ms. Boggs recognized the need for an organization specifically focused on the intersection of inequality and geography. Prior to joining the Alliance, she served in a range of roles, including as Deputy Director of the Connecticut Fair Housing Center. While at the Center she spearheaded the organization’s work on opportunity and race. She also worked for the CT American Civil Liberties Union, the Harrison Institute for Public Law, and the Center for National Policy, and practiced law with a national antitrust firm. She has extensive fundraising experience, having successfully obtained funding from national and local foundations as well as state and federal sources.