Annie Contractor

Through AB Contractor LLC, Annie partners with mission-driven businesses, nonprofits, foundations, and public agencies on policy strategy, stakeholder engagement, equity-centered research, and implementation support. Her work spans rural economic and community development, childcare and education policy, and participatory governance, with a focus on ensuring that policy decisions are informed by the people they affect.

She works toward concrete outcomes: stronger rural economies, expanded access to child care and education, more equitable housing and environmental policy, and governance systems in which community wisdom shapes the decisions that affect people's lives.

With more than 20 years of experience in policy research and stakeholder engagement, Annie has led engagement for federal legislation, developed policy playbooks for states, designed community-based research protocols, and published peer-reviewed scholarship on housing justice and environmental equity.

Annie's roots run through rural Wyoming, where she grew up and attended the University of Wyoming. That upbringing grounds her commitment to the rural communities she partners with today, and she remains closely tied to the region through family and ongoing work across the rural West.

Earlier in her career, Annie served as Policy Director at a national rural organizing organization, setting its federal policy agenda across rural economic development, agriculture, child care, and emergency management. She is also the former Executive Director and Board Chair of Africa's Tomorrow, where she rebuilt the board to prioritize lived experience, doubled philanthropic revenue, and expanded programming.

She holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois and a B.A. from the University of Wyoming.