Aaron Tanaka

Overview

Aaron Tanaka is a Boston based community organizer grantmaker and impact investor. As the director of the Center for Economic Democracy Aaron stewards funding and technical assistance to grassroots groups that build power and vision in low income communities of color for a new economy. As the startup managing director for the Boston Impact Initiative (BII) Aaron helped create Boston s first local impact fund directing loans and private equity investments toward Boston s growing localist economy. Until 2012 Aaron was co founder and executive director of the Boston Workers Alliance (BWA). From 2010 to 2012 Aaron served as a special commissioner appointed by the governor to advise on equitable job creation strategies for Massachusetts. He is a former Green For All Fellow a current Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) Fellow and a visiting practitioner at Tufts University and he is co chair of the Asian American Resource Workshop and the national New Economy Coalition. Aaron holds a BA from Harvard University and an MS in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University.