Kara Wood is the Associate Vice President for Community Partnerships at Western Michigan University.  She has over 20 years of experience in community and economic development and has focused her career on the unique challenges of revitalizing urban core cities through public-private partnerships and policies and practices related to promoting equitable development.  She works collaboratively with business and industry to build civic and corporate partnerships of mutual benefit and leads the implementation of programs and initiatives that focus on developing and fostering community partnerships to support the development of talent, innovation and entrepreneurship.  She is an alumni of Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business, Western Michigan University's School of Public Affairs and Administration and serves on a variety of professional boards and associations such as the Michigan Community Capital Board of Directors and the Economic Development Foundation Board.