Executive Fellowship | Revitalizing Neighborhoods Blight Reduction Strategies

FUSE Executive Fellowship | Revitalizing Neighborhoods Through Blight Reduction Strategies

Join to apply for the FUSE Executive Fellowship | Revitalizing Neighborhoods Through Blight Reduction Strategies role at FUSE.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, is working to address blighted and vacant properties that impact neighborhood safety, reduce housing stability, and limit long-term economic growth. The FUSE Executive Fellow will develop and implement strategic recommendations to streamline enforcement, consolidate property data, and improve rehabilitation programs. Ultimately, this work will help Tulsa reduce vacancy, expand affordable housing opportunities, and foster safer, more resilient neighborhoods that promote long-term stability and opportunity for all residents.

Fellowship Dates:
April 27, 2026 – April 23, 2027

Salary: Executive Fellows are FUSE employees and receive an annual base salary of $95,000. Fellows can also access various health, dental, and vision insurance benefits. Compensation for this year of public service is not intended to represent market-rate compensation for the experienced professionals in our program.

FUSE is a national nonprofit working to expand social and economic opportunities, particularly for communities that have been limited by a history of systemic and institutionalized racism. FUSE partners with local governments and communities to more effectively address pressing challenges by placing experienced professionals within city and county agencies. These FUSE Executive Fellows lead strategic projects designed to advance racial equity and accelerate systems change.

Since 2012, FUSE has led over 250 projects in 40 governments across 20 states, impacting the lives of 25 million people.

Blighted and vacant properties impact neighborhood safety, reduce housing stability, and limit long-term economic growth. These properties are often abandoned homes, deteriorating commercial strip centers, or neglected hotels. They create health and safety hazards, attract crime, and accelerate neighborhood decline. Concentrations of blight reduce property values, weaken incentives for upkeep, and erode community confidence, creating a cycle of disinvestment that disproportionately impacts historically underserved neighborhoods.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, North and East Tulsa have experienced significant disinvestment stemming from historic and systemic inequities, including the lasting impacts of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, redlining, school closures, and suburban flight. These factors have compounded cycles of vacancy and decline, leaving neighborhoods with disproportionate concentrations of blighted properties and fewer opportunities for stable housing and generational wealth-building. While the City has taken steps to consolidate property data, pilot new housing programs, and leverage state legislation such as House Bill 2147, challenges remain.

Beginning in April 2026, the FUSE Executive Fellow will work with the City of Tulsa’s Housing Office, Planning & Neighborhoods Department, community partners, residents, and state and county stakeholders to develop and implement strategic recommendations to reduce blighted and vacant properties. The fellow will begin by conducting a comprehensive listening tour involving city staff, neighborhood associations, and place-based community organizations, such as Northside Neighbors, Eastside Rise, and Growing Together, as well as legacy community residents, large-scale property owners, and state and county officials, including the Tulsa County Assessor and Treasurer.

The fellow will also engage departments such as Code Enforcement, City Legal and Legislative Affairs, which oversee foreclosure and ordinance processes. The listening tour will gather insights into barriers that affect blight such as fragmented data, code enforcement backlogs, rehabilitation challenges, including identifying and classifying housing that may need to be rehabilitated in the near future, the repair and stabilization needs of housing stock that could still be saved from demolition, and limited redevelopment pathways.

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