Practice Areas
Executive facilitation 路 Process architecture 路 Strategic planning 路 Conflict navigation
Issue Areas
AI Governance 路 Transit 路 Education 路 Workforce Development 路 Criminal justice 路 Civil Rights 路 Housing 路 Fiscal Policy路 Workforce Development 路 Public safety 路 Healthcare
Geographic Reach
Colorado 路 North Carolina 路 Florida 路 National
Appointed
Colorado Commission on Higher Education 路 2019, reappointed 2023
Focus Areas
Engagement operations 路 Stakeholder coordination 路 Process continuity 路 Deliverable management
Background
Investment banking 路 Nonprofit management 路 Political consulting 路 Government affairs
Sector Experience
Education 路 Workforce 路 Criminal justice 路 Transportation 路 Housing 路 Civil rights 路 Fiscal policy
Carrie鈥檚 background spans public policy, government affairs, nonprofit management, and corporate finance. Before co- founding Confluence, she served as Vice President of Investment Banking at a FINRA and SEC licensed broker-dealer and held senior roles in nonprofit management and political consulting, including production of large-scale events and initiatives for high-profile clients requiring the highest level of discretion and operational precision.
On every Confluence engagement, Carrie serves as thought partner to the facilitation team, providing the operational continuity that allows complex multi-session processes to build on themselves rather than restart.
At Confluence, she has managed the full project lifecycle for working groups and task forces across education, workforce development, criminal justice, transportation, housing, civil rights, and fiscal policy. She handles the full range of engagement operations, from agenda architecture and participant communications to materials production and deliverable management, across multiple active engagements simultaneously. The process discipline Confluence is known for does not exist without her.
Carrie is passionate about animal welfare and rescue organizations. Her deepest satisfactions are time with her family, including two children and a grandson, and time outdoors hiking, camping, and traveling to new places.
Focus Areas
Background
Sector Experience
15+ years in facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and community-centered process design
Trace Faust brings more than 15 years of experience in facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and conflict resolution to Confluence PSG’s engagements. Their work has centered consistently on a challenge that is harder than it sounds: creating the conditions for communities most affected by a decision to have a genuine voice in making it. Not a performative seat at the table, but real influence on what gets decided and how.
Before joining Confluence, Trace served as Senior Program Director at a Colorado-based non-profit, where they built a portfolio of and led complex, high-conflict processes for clients across the local, state, and federal level. That work included facilitating the bipartisan Property Tax Commission, leading a two-year statewide task force studying runaway behaviors among youth in foster care and residential facilities, and facilitating a two-year statewide task force examining mandatory reporting requirements for suspected child abuse. Trace also co-wrote and secured a five- year, multi-million-dollar federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement a statewide family and community engagement center for the state.
The process has to actually work for the people it was designed for. That standard shapes everything Trace brings to a room.
Trace’s background runs deeper than policy process. They have been a classroom teacher, a school leader, a district-level public affairs director, and a community organizer. That range, from the front of a classroom to the halls of a state legislature to a federal agency engagement, shapes how they enter a room. They understand what it means to be the person a process is supposed to help, and they design accordingly.
Trace loves spending time with friends, family, and neighbors in their cohousing community, especially their two young sons, who keep them busy, tired, and fulfilled. Otherwise, you can find them ranking sandwiches across the city, hosting weekly garage ping pong, and curating the perfect playlist for every occasion.
State agency leaders, Governor鈥檚 offices, county governments, and organizations navigating problems that have resisted every standard approach reach out directly. The engagement starts with a conversation.
CO 路 NC 路 FL 路 National
