Don Edwards is CEO and Principal of Justice and Sustainability Associates (JSA), a Washington, DC-based firm he co-founded in 1999. He is considered one of the most deft facilitator/mediators and civic engagement designers working today in the field of development.  JSA designs and manages inclusive, transparent and participatory decision-making processes taking place, primarily against the backdrop of urbanization and the conflicts it breeds. 

His introduction to sustainable development came in 1988 when he participated in a panel sponsored by the London-based Panos Institute about the role of under-development in the emergence of what became the global AIDS pandemic.  

Since then, Edwards has served as the executive director of the Panos Institute-Americas, co-founded the U.S. Citizens Network for the UN Conference on Environment and Development, represented the “CitNet” as a member of the U.S. delegation to the "Earth Summit" in 1992 and served as the CitNet’s Washington Representative and a National Co-Chair.  In the mid-90s, he organized town meetings across the US for the UN International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and the Second UN Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul. As director of the U.S. Network for Habitat II, he also helped manage the NGO International Facilitating Group. From 1993-96, Don served as chair of the Environmental Justice Working Group of the Sustainable Communities Task Force of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, the Clinton Administration’s post-Rio national sustainable development  process.  From 2000-10, Don also served as an external sustainability advisor to The Dow Chemical Company.  From 2005-2013, he was a senior associate of America Speaks.  Today, Don sits on numerous boards including EcoDistricts. Don is an urbanist and enjoys talking and writing about creating just, smart and sustainable cities that work for all.