Kirsten Cook serves as the Just Growth Portfolio Manager for the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), where she works on projects related to racial equity in planning, development, and infrastructure. She currently takes part in advising equitable strategies in local and regional development projects, implementing an Equitable Strategic Plan for the City of East Point, assisting in the convening of the Just Growth Circle (a network of practitioners working towards equitable development), and collaborating on projects in the other PSE issue circles –energy, opportunity, and health. Kirsten also develops and organizes resident leader academies that contribute to building the equity civic infrastructure in metro Atlanta.  Kirsten has a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Wheaton College. In the past, she has worked in local government as a County Planner and in non-profit planning organizations in both Atlanta and Chicago. Having spent the first 18 years of her life in Southeast Asia, Kirsten thrives in diverse settings and approaches her work with a global perspective. 

Organization(s)

The Partnership for Southern Equity

The Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE) advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in the growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the American South. PSE has four areas of focus: equitable development, healthy equity, energy equity, and economic inclusion.

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