Shanna Ratner is the Principal of Yellow Wood Associates, Inc., a consulting firm located in St. Albans, Vermont specializing in rural community economic development since 1985. Shanna has over 25 years experience managing complex research initiatives and analyzing rural economic development opportunities. She has worked closely with federal, state, and local governments, citizen groups, and non-profit organizations in identifying and implementing solutions to a range of natural resource-based economic development challenges. Shanna has worked with the National Network of Forest Practitioners in designing and implementing the National Community Forestry Center, Northern Forest Region.
Under Shanna’s leadership, Yellow Wood Associates has received four awards from USDA’s Small Business Innovation in Rural Development program and has produced three trademarked services, You Get What You Measure, See the Forest, and Green Community Technologies. Shanna was one of a dozen members of the Aspen Institute’s Learning Cluster on Rural Community Capacity Building and a member of the first class of Donella Meadows Fellows in Systems Thinking. Under Shanna’s direction Yellow Wood Associates is the managing grantee for Wealth Creation in Rural America, an initiative of the Ford Foundation. Shanna holds a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Value Systems from New College in Sarasota, Florida.
