About
Gateway Forward is community-centric, designing and facilitating collaborative processes and bringing strategic planning to communities and regions with a concentration of public lands and civic infrastructure. Delivering community and land use planning expertise, facilitating conversation and collaboration, and delivering added capacity, Gateway Forward advances cross-sector projects serving the common good to be found at the intersection of natural, cultural, recreation, and economic interests.
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More to come soon on projects with Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County, Maryland and with Tennesse's South Cumberland Tourism Partnership!
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Gateway Forward was launched in 2024 by Susan Elks, AICP to more directly serve communities. With 25 years of experience, Susan provides communities with planning expertise on natural, cultural, and recreation resources, housing, and economic development, and designs and leads collaborative processes to drive strategic action and deliver community benefit. Through her work Susan creates lasting economic opportunity that stewards public assets. She has worked with a range of entities to create implementable plans, build community capacity, and advance impactful projects.
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Prior to launching her small business, Susan worked in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors.
Background
Skills
Susan supports communities with planning expertise on natural, cultural, and recreation resources, housing, and economic opportunity, working across public, nonprofit, private, and academic entities.
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She designs and leads strategic planning and collaborative processes, engaging public officials, resource agencies, the public, and representatives from tourism, environmental, cultural heritage, and recreation interest groups in efforts ranging from one- or multi-day workshops to multi-year plan and program development efforts, spanning from a single municipality or county to multi-county or state regions.
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Building capacity within communities is a foundational goal for Susan.
Prior Experience
Prior to launching Gateway Forward Susan served as Program Manager for Balancing Nature and Commerce with The Conservation Fund. In this role she led the Appalachian Gateway Community Initiative, developed a pilot Gateways Community program with the National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways Office, and facilitated a multi-county recreation-focused initiative in the area surrounding Zion National Park.
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Her prior role was in the public sector, where she spent 13 years with the Chester County Planning Commission. Serving as the Community Planning Director, Susan was administrator of a countywide planning grant program and directed a team on long range and comprehensive planning efforts at the county and individual municipality level.
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In prior roles in local government and consulting Susan conducted land use and environmental planning and National Environmental Policy Act studies and compliance documentation.
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Susan is a Senior Fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program, an alumnus of the Rural-Urban Leadership program of Penn State Extension, and has completed extensive training in mediation and facilitation.
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She holds a Master’s in Geography from West Chester University, a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina-Asheville, and is a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners.
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Susan grew up in Unionville, Pennsylvania and continues to call it home with her husband and children.