Elizabeth Garlow

Elizabeth is Lumina’s impact investment officer. She most recently served as a community solutions fellow and domestic policy advisor at The White House during the Obama Administration, where she managed the President’s Promise Zones initiative, working closely with local leaders to create jobs, improve educational outcomes, reduce crime and support overall economic growth.

Elizabeth previously served as the executive director of Michigan Corps, where she founded the Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge to develop and fund social enterprises across Michigan. She also served as a business development officer with ACCION USA, supporting the nation’s largest microloan program. Elizabeth has served as a nonresident fellow at the Council of Michigan Foundations where she consulted with foundations statewide on mechanisms to facilitate direct impact investing activities, and at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research where she helped launch a major research initiative focused on place-based strategies for human capital and economic development in small-mid sized U.S. cities, with a focus on postsecondary “promise scholarship” programs.

Elizabeth earned her masters in public affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and earned her B.A. in political science, Spanish and international economics from Kalamazoo College.