Celia joins LISC Milwaukee as the Economic Development Program Officer with over twelve years of experience in economic and community development ingrained in grassroots leadership and neighborhood-directed initiatives. Celia’s drive for social justice and an equitable world are rooted in her bloodline, as she told me about her great aunts who were nuns that participated in the Milwaukee housing marches of the late 1960’s. “They were role models for how I wanted to model my life”, says Benton.
Celia always knew that she wanted to make a difference in the world, but the vision didn’t fully manifest until she joined Peace Corps. During her two years (2007-2009) as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador, she focused on small business development while becoming fluent in Spanish. During her time in El Salvador, Celia lived in a very remote town on the southeast side of the country, where over 85% of those families relied on remittance from their family members in the United States for survival. “I focused on supporting local economic development, one of the critical set of foundations needed for an equitable society”, says Benton. In particular, she focused on how to support immigrant communities through urban planning.
Prior to LISC, Celia spent six years at VIA CDC as the Economic Development Director where she successfully supported more than $1.6 million dollars in commercial real estate improvements, co-developed a neighborhood diner, managed a catalytic commercial real estate project, created more than 30 jobs and nine businesses, and started a neighborhood wealth building program. She received her master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University where she also completed a fellowship with the Ministry of Tourism in Belize.
When I asked what it means to have equitable economic development when supporting neighborhood development, Celia said, “it should always be rooted in what the residents want to see happen. It brings ownership back to the neighbors and provides them with physical real estate. As she looks ahead at opportunities within LISC Milwaukee, Celia looks forward to working with the Brew City Match program to continue incentivizing property owners to continue to invest in communities, so that they see the value of the neighborhoods and recognize the spending power of the neighbors.
She is also excited for the creative placemaking opportunities to invest physically in commercial to create more of a sense of place and relevancy for neighbors around those creative placemaking opportunities. She is also excited to work with our Financial Opportunity Clinics (FOC) to “learn how to better serve our clients and strategically providing more wealth building opportunities and growing living wages, so that they can be more financially prepared to take ownership of their communities and their own personal growth opportunities.”