Susan Witt was the Executive Director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, seeing through its transition to the New Economics Institute, for which she now serves as Education Director and Ex-Officio Board Member.

In his book, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, Dr. Schumacher argued for a system of diverse regional economies based on social and ecological principles. The Schumacher Society was organized to implement these ideals. It maintained a research library, organized lectures and seminars, published papers, developed model economic programs, and provided technical assistance to groups working to build sustainable local economies by linking people, land, and community.

Susan Witt helped found the Society in 1980 and led the development of its highly regarded programs while at the same time remaining deeply committed to implementing Schumacher’s economic ideas in her home region of the Berkshires. She helped found the Community Land trust in the Southern Berkshires in 1980 and has been responsible for many of the innovative financing and contracting methods that the Land Trust uses to create more affordable access to land. In 2006 she co-founded the BerkShares local currency program that has won unprecedented international media attention as a model for other regions. She created and administered the SHARE micro-credit program, the precursor of BerkShares, and in 1985 helped Robyn Van En form the first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in this country at Indian Line Farm.

Susan Witt speaks regularly on the topic of citizen responsibility for shaping local economies. Her work has been described in various radio, TV, book, magazine, newspaper, and online interviews.

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