Full Name
Tessa LeSage
Job Title
FutureMakers Coalition Director
Company
Collaboratory
Speaker Bio

Tessa LeSage is the architect and director of FutureMakers Coalition, Southwest Florida’s premier regional, collective impact initiative at Collaboratory. FutureMakers Coalition is a network of 250+ individuals and 140 partner organizations with a shared goal of transforming the workforce in Southwest Florida. FutureMakers Coalition is regarded as one of Florida’s most advanced workforce networks, prioritizing students who face the most significant challenges to attainment, whether traditional age, adults with some college but no degree, or those without post-high school education experience. Nationally, FutureMakers Coalition earned one of 25 national Talent Hub designations from Lumina Foundation in partnership with the Kresge Foundation. LeSage joined the Southwest Florida Community Foundation in August of 2014 as the Director of Social Innovation & Sustainability. She spearheaded and led the development of innovative solutions aimed at understanding philanthropic impact by mapping individual organization and local level outcomes to the Sustainable Development Goals, resulting in a framework that facilitates collective impact and increases the positive outcomes of philanthropic investment. LeSage worked to establish partnerships with government and business to facilitate collaboration and innovation around the region’s most pressing issues. She led the Foundation’s grant-making, scholarships and sustainability initiatives team, including the organizations inaugural collective impact initiative, FutureMakers Coalition. Prior to joining the Foundation, Tessa was the first Sustainability Director for the Lee County Board of County Commissioners. She has been recognized as one of Southwest Florida’s accomplished young leaders, receiving Gulfshore Business’ “40 Under Forty” award. She received the Urban Land Institute’s Trailblazer award; the U.S. Green Building Council’s Member of the Year for Southwest Florida; the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce’s, Women in Business APEX award; CAEL’s Pamela Tate Rise Award; and Gulfshore Life’s Men and Women of the Year award.

Tessa LeSage