Erin Barnes

President and CEO, Main Street America

Erin Barnes is President & CEO of Main Street America, a 45-year-old national nonprofit that leads an inclusive, impact-driven movement dedicated to creating vibrant commercial corridors in big cities, small towns and everything in between. Born and raised in Virginia, Erin now calls Brooklyn, New York, home. She began her career in independent book and music stores in Charlottesville and Alexandria, Virginia, then after college went into community organizing in the Pacific Northwest. After completing her masters at Yale in water economics, where she did research in Nicaragua, Bolivia and Brazil, Erin worked as an environmental writer for the United Nations, Vice President Al Gore, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Men’s Journal Magazine. Erin is one of three founders of ioby, a national nonprofit technology company that funded resident-led neighborhood projects. For her work at ioby, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded her the Jane Jacobs Medal and President & Mrs. Obama welcomed her into the inaugural class of Obama Foundation Fellows.