Bradford Frost is Director of the Detroit Program at Capital Impact Partners, a national Community Development Financial Institution, where he leads inclusive growth strategies to increase density and secure healthy income diversity in Detroit’s mixed-use neighborhoods.
Bradford Frost is Director of the Detroit Program at Capital Impact Partners, an inclusive growth initiative in Detroit with support from The Kresge Foundation, The Ford Foundation, JP Morgan Chase and a strategic mix of Detroit’s revitalization stakeholders.
During his tenure with Capital Impact Partners, Bradford has led the launch of the CDFI’s third national office and first integrated place-based strategy that combines financing, policy and practice. By facilitating data driven analysis and catalytic capital, Capital Impact drives development financing towards meaningful income-mix and density targets in the city’s mixed-use districts. Bradford’s leadership has included commentary on Detroit economic inclusion imperatives while continuously forging effective strategic partnerships that forge lasting change in Detroit.
As a past Detroit Revitalization Fellow at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Bradford led the design and execution of over 1M in new projects including the ArtPlace America “Cultural Living Room” transformation of Kresge Court and a community engagement project to empower over 1,000 residents to creatively respond to a contemporary museum exhibit. In 2013, Wayne State University Press published Bradford’s commemorative book, Reveal Your Detroit: An Intimate Look at a Great American City.
A former AmeriCorps and United Way professional, Bradford has a proven track record for executing innovative community change strategies. He serves as chair for Declare Detroit, a local civic group, and past chair for the Afghan Scholars Initiative.
Bradford holds a MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, including a semester on Social & Urban Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Mary Washington University. A published commentator in the Detroit New, Detroit Free Press and New York Times, Bradford resides in Detroit.
