Michelle Long is the Executive Director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Previously Michelle was the founding executive director of Sustainable Connections, an organization that prompted NPR Marketplace to call Bellingham, WA, the ​“epicenter of a new economic model.” A regular keynote speaker, she is also the co-author of Local First: A How-to Guide. Michelle is an advisor to the Schumacher Center for New Economics, was named one of the West Coast’s ​“top five leading ladies of sustainability” by the Sustainable Industries Journal, and in 2014 was named one of The Purpose Economy 100 for North America.