Bonnie Politz

Bonnie Politz is an independent, Youth and Community Strategy Consultant working on a variety of domestic and global projects. She has an extensive career focused on ensuring the positive and healthy development of children and youth who grow up in poor and under-served communities in the U.S. and around the globe. Through her work in the public and non-profit sectors as well as philanthropy, Ms. Politz provides leadership within and across sectors at the local, state, regional and national levels to promote the design and implementation of strategic approaches to child and youth success. Ms. Politz has worked with national, state and local governments, youth-serving systems, higher education institutions, corporations, membership associations, and community-based organizations to embed and integrate youth development principles, practices and policies that impact positive youth outcomes. Her areas of expertise include: technical assistance/support, cross-sector/multi-system process facilitation, youth-adult partnerships, strategic planning, training and professional development; and, system-building. During her tenure with AED and FHI 360, Ms. Politz served as a senior technical assistance provider on a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) global funding mechanism, Equip3. In this capacity, she created, organized and implemented youth development training and technical assistance sessions for USAID/DC and USAID Missions in partnership with the Educational Development Center (EDC) and USAID staff; and, provided in-country support to USAID Missions in Jamaica, West Bank-Gaza and Ethiopia in development of their cross-sectoral youth strategies. During her tenure with Creative Associates International (in consultant and staff positions), Ms. Politz provided technical and strategic guidance in preparation of global proposals, including USAID/YouthPower. In partnership with Clare Ignatowski, Ms. Politz formed the Youth Systems CollaborativeSM in 2018; a network of international organizations seeking to learn about comprehensive systems change efforts that improve life outcomes for youth in low- and middle income countries. Since 2021, she has served as Champion for the USAID/Youth Power/Youth Systems Strengthening Community of Practice. She currently serves on the boards of DC Action, the DC Public Defender Service and the Middle Passages Ceremonies and Port Markers Project.