Michael Shuman

Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a globally recognized expert on community economics. He is one of the architects of the crowdfunding reforms that became the “JOBS Act,” signed into law by President Obama in April 2012. Shuman is currently Director of Community Portals for Mission Markets and a Fellow at Cutting Edge Capital and Post-Carbon Institute. He’s also a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He is also an adjunct instructor in community economic development for Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Shuman has authored or coauthored eight books. His most recent book, published by Chelsea Green, is Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity. His previous book, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006. In recent years Shuman has prepared studies the on the opportunities for food localization for New Mexico, Detroit, Cleveland, Boulder County, Denver, Michigan, Washtenaw County (MI), and Pioneer Valley (MA). He led another food study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Kellogg Foundation, analyzing case studies of 24 local food businesses worldwide. (www.communityfoodenterprise.org ). He has performed “leakage analyses” and related economic-development planning for Spokane (WA), St. Lawrence County (NY), the Katahdin Region (ME), Martha’s Vineyard (MA), Appalachia, Davidson County (NC), Kootenai County (ID), Cabarrus County (NC), Wabash County (IL), Biltmore Estates (NC), Central Park (NC), and the Port of Baltimore (MD). A prolific speaker, Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk per week, mostly to local governments and universities, for 30 years—in 47 states and eight countries. He has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, such as the Lehrer News Hour and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Shuman has written nearly one hundred published articles for such periodicals as New York Times, Washington Post, Nation, Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Parade, and The Chronicle on Philanthropy. In 1980 he won First Prize in the Rabinowitch Essay Competition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on “How to Prevent Nuclear War.” Shuman received an A.B. with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University in 1979 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1982. Between 1987 and 1990 he was a W.K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow. He is also a member of both the State Bar of California and the District of Columbia Bar. For additional information, click on the following: