Elizabeth Maxwell is a writer, producer, researcher, and hopelessly optimistic human being. Born into a family of jazz musicians in New Orleans, Elizabeth has a double undergraduate degree from Louisiana Scholars’ College in Humanities/Social Thought and Theatre/Dance; she also earned a Masters in Public Administration at the University of New Orleans, with a focus on economic development and climate action. She currently works with The Idea Village, a non-profit that drives venture-scale entrepreneurship and startup innovation across the Gulf South. For 3 years, she ran the year-round national event series for SOCAP, the industry’s leading conference on the social capital markets and impact investing. She was also the inaugural Chief Dot Connector with the people-powered, non-governmental U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, a board member and former Artist Director of the international Art Monastery Project, an active part of the Impact Hub network for social innovators, and board member for Flowering Lotus which hosts Buddhist retreats across the Southern U.S. Liz can most frequently be found somewhere between progressive convenings, daytime dance parties, and scheming about strategic coalitions amongst social movements.