Executive Fellow | Building Stormwater and Floodplain Framework and Implementation Plan

The City of Rogers is working to turn recent missing-middle housing policy and design into tangible housing outcomes that expand access to attainable housing and strengthen neighborhood stability. The FUSE Executive Fellow will help the City launch and scale its Pattern Zones program by aligning local builders, financing partners, local utilities, and internal City workflows to support housing development on a scale that allows anyone to be a housing developer.

The fellowship will ensure Pattern Zones integrate with regional growth priorities, creating complete, sustainable neighborhoods. This is a two-year fellowship, with Year One focused on discovery, strategy development, and early implementation, and Year Two focused on scaling impact and embedding sustainable practices within City operations.

Fellowship Dates:
October 26, 2026 – October 22, 2027

Salary: Executive Fellows are FUSE employees and receive an annual salary of $95,000. Fellows can also access various health, dental, and vision insurance benefits. This amount is not representative of market-rate salaries for the experienced professionals in our program but is intended as compensation for a year of public service.

FUSE is a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the capacity of local governments to work more effectively for communities. We embed private sector executives in city and county agencies to lead projects that improve public services and accelerate systems change. Since 2012, FUSE has led over 400 projects in 58 governments across 26 states, impacting a total population equivalent to 1 in 10 Americans.

FUSE conducts a full executive search for each individual project to ensure that the selected candidate has at least 15 years of professional experience, the required competencies for the role, and deep connections to the community being served.

Executive Fellows are embedded in government agencies working with senior leaders for at least one year of full-time work. Prospective responsibilities may include thorough data analytics and research, developing enhanced operations and financial models, building change management and strategic planning processes, and/or building broad coalitions to support project implementation efforts. Executive Fellows are data-driven and results-oriented and able to effectively manage complex projects.

They build strong relationships with a broad array of stakeholders, foster alignment within and across various layers of government, and build partnerships between governments and communities.

Expanding access to attainable housing is critical to ensuring that growing cities remain livable, inclusive, and economically resilient. When communities lower barriers to small-scale housing development, they can increase housing choice, support neighborhood stability, and create opportunities for residents to build wealth and age in the community. Missing‑middle housing, such as duplexes, accessory dwelling units, and small‑footprint homes, plays a key role in this ecosystem by providing flexible options that fit within existing neighborhoods and infrastructure.

Rogers, Arkansas has taken meaningful steps to enable missing‑middle housing as part of its broader growth and planning efforts. The City adopted a form‑based code that allows a wider range of housing types and recently launched a Pattern Zones program that provides free, publicly funded, pre‑approved residential designs tailored to local parcels and neighborhood contexts. This initiative significantly reduces design costs, permitting timelines, and regulatory uncertainty, particularly for small builders and individual property owners.

These policy and design tools are now in place, and the City is now positioned to activate the Pattern Zones program at scale.

Rogers will partner with FUSE through a two‑year Executive Fellowship to move the Pattern Zones program from policy‑readiness to tangible housing outcomes. In the first year, the fellow will focus on launching and activating the program, generating early projects, and establishing feedback mechanisms based on real‑world use. In the…