Economic Recovery
Corps

The national fellowship that made this work possible.

ERC fellows, hosts, and partners at the program kickoff

ERC fellows, hosts, and partners at program kickoff

The Economic Recovery Corps (ERC) Fellowship is a national program designed to build capacity in communities disproportionately affected by the COVID‑19 pandemic. Funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration through the CARES Act and managed by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), ERC places mid‑career professionals in host organizations across the country to accelerate inclusive, locally rooted economic revitalization.

The program is delivered by IEDC in partnership with a coalition that includes the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), the National Association of Counties (NACo), the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), the National League of Cities (NLC), and RAIN Catalysts.

The Antioch Fellowship

The City of Antioch applied to ERC as a host community, and Gaby Seltzer applied as a fellow. After a competitive selection and interview process on both sides, the program paired Gaby (fellow) and the City of Antioch/point-of-contact Bret Sweet (host), creating the foundation for the work described throughout this site.

Through this fellowship, Antioch gained:

Dedicated staff capacity focused on systems-level economic development.
Access to a national network of peers, mentors, and technical experts.
Visibility within a broader movement to advance equitable economic recovery.

The initiatives documented on this website—spanning small business support, business associations, procurement, workforce, industrial land, and clean technology—were all shaped or accelerated by this host–fellow partnership.

Learn more about ERC

Host, Fellow, and Sub-Cohort Lead at NLC Local Economic Futures Forum

What is Economic Recovery Corps?

The ERC Fellowship model places a full‑time fellow with a host community for a multi‑year term. Fellows work inside local organizations such as city governments, regional partnerships, and community-based organizations to advance strategic projects, while also participating in a national learning cohort.

Key features include:

Multi‑year contract, placed fellows embedded in local communities.
Focus on inclusive, long-term economic resilience rather than short-term responses.
Structured learning, coaching, and peer exchange for both fellows and hosts.

Benefits for Antioch

Deep learning and peer exchange

Collaboration at NLC Local Economic Futures Forum

Fellows and hosts participated in learning exchanges, webinars, site visits, and curated meetings, and used informal channels (like group chats) to share questions, solutions, and opportunities in real time.

Professional development

Representatives from cities, counties, and state learning together at CALED training.

Both host and fellow received targeted professional development and pursued economic development certifications through IEDC and the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED).

Real-time problem solving

Economic developers from East Contra Costa cities meeting to discuss shared challenges and opportunities

When new challenges emerged in Antioch, the team could draw on examples, templates, and advice from other communities that had faced similar issues, often returning with concrete roadmaps and contact points.

Positive visibility for Antioch

Livestream of a City Council meeting where Antioch is being presented an award.

Site visits, articles, and podcast features highlighted Antioch’s work as an example of innovation and collaboration, helping shift narratives about the community and build external support for local initiatives.

Charlotte visits CoBiz Richmond

Servola, Tracey, and Gaby at NLC convening

CA fellows at Golden Eagle Farm

Charlotte visits CoBiz Richmond

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Fellows learning from one another

One of ERC’s most powerful features is horizontal learning among fellows and hosts working on related challenges in different places.

For example, Antioch’s team connected closely with another fellowship site in Baltimore that was developing a small business support network. The two efforts, while tailored to their local contexts, shared similar goals and structures. Through this relationship, the teams:

Attended each other’s network meetings and exchanged tools and facilitation approaches.
Co-designed a series of visioning sessions to explore scaling Antioch’s small business support model beyond American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
Collaborated in person, with a fellow visiting Antioch to help facilitate local workshops.

California-based fellows also gathered at a peer site on the Mesa Grande Reservation for a retreat focused on reflection and intention-setting. These kinds of exchanges offered Antioch’s team both practical ideas and a sense of solidarity with others doing similar work.

The host-fellow relationship

The strength of the host–fellow relationship was central to Antioch’s outcomes. This pairing matched:

An innovative staff member within an under-resourced local government, and
A mission-aligned fellow with an independent, systems-focused perspective.

Several elements made the relationship especially effective:

Shared values and purpose
Both partners brought personal connection to the community and issues, and a commitment to equitable, long-term change.
Complementary skills
Each offered strengths in strategy, operations, and relationship‑building, but in different ways, allowing them to reach different audiences and roles.
Mutual respect and co-leadership
The partnership emphasized collaboration over hierarchy; ideas were tested based on their merits, not on who proposed them.
Comfort with experimentation
Both parties were willing to pilot new approaches, learn from failures, and iterate quickly when conditions changed.

This combination allowed a two-person team to advance multiple complex initiatives simultaneously, while maintaining trust with community members and with internal city partners.