Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay ConnectedInfinite Earth Radio is a weekly podcast produced by Skeo and the Local Government Commission and hosted by Mike Hancox and Vernice Miller-Travis. Each week they interview visionary leaders, dedicated government officials, savvy businesses and forward thinking individuals who are working to build smarter, more equitable, sustainable, and prosperous communities through social and economic inclusion that values the contribution of all citizens and seeks meaningful lives for everyone.
You will discover new leading edge strategies for lifting up and building great 21st century communities, along with cutting edge strategies for revitalizing under resourced communities and empowering excluded populations. Smart Growth, Prosperity and Sustainability are not possible without social, civic, and economic inclusion for people of all economic, social, and racial backgrounds.
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Raj chairs the National Academies committee on “Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning” and serves on the boards for Public Lab and the Anthropocene Alliance. He was a founding member of the board of the Citizen Science Association and has helped lead education and diversity related activities for the American Meteorological Society. As part of TEX, Raj helped launch the Resilience Dialogues – a public-private partnership that uses facilitated online dialogues to advance community resilience.
Mayor Cabaldon’s work on transportation, land use, water, air quality and climate change, housing, and economic development at the local, regional, and statewide scales has won numerous awards, and has become the model for effective regional collaborative action. Mr. Cabaldon earned his B.S. in environmental economics from UC Berkeley, and a Master of Public Policy & Administration degree from CSU Sacramento, where he received the Distinguished Alumni Award.
The Side Yard is an urban farm, supper club and catering company located in the NE Cully Neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. They have been providing local restaurants with creative organic produce and the community with food, education and opportunity since 2009. The farm is largely operated by volunteers and interns who gain hands on experience with the urban seed to plate movement. The Side Yard offers farm suppers & brunches, 
In Twenty Years of Life, award-winning health journalist Suzanne Bohan exposes the disturbing flip side of the American dream: your health is largely determined by your zip code. The strain of living in a poor neighborhood, with sub-par schools, lack of parks, fear of violence, few to no healthy food options, and the stress of unpaid bills is literally taking years off people’s lives. Residents living in distressed communities die upwards of 20 years earlier than those living in wealthier neighborhoods often just miles away. But there is another way. In Twenty Years of Life, Bohan tells a success story that has resulted in the passage of more than 500 new policies and laws that are improving millions of resident’s lives.
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Tennis Wick has served as Sonoma County’s Permit & Resource Management Department Director since November 2013. The agency balances environmental protection and sustainable development of Sonoma County’s natural resources through the agency’s planning, engineering, building, well and septic, code enforcement and customer service authority.
Angelica Quirarte, “Angie,” is the Assistant Secretary for Digital Engagement at the CA Government Operations Agency (GovOps) and the founder of NxtGov. She started her career in public service as an Executive Fellow in 2013 and has been leading efforts in open data and web user-centered design through the management of data.ca.gov and ca.gov. She was part of the team that launched the Lean Academy, partially project managed the Civil Service Improvement Initiative, and most recently helped coordinate the creation of the new Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Angie was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and migrated to the Bay Area with her parents and two younger brothers when she was 10 years old. She has a BA in History of Public Policy from UC Santa Barbara.
Jonathan Parfrey is the Executive Director and Founder of Climate Resolve, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, founded in 2010, that is dedicated to creating practical solutions to meet the climate challenge while making Southern California more livable and prosperous today and for generations to come by inspiring people at home, at work, and in government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution, as well as prepare for climate change impacts.
In Firestorm, journalist Edward Struzik visits scorched earth from Alaska to Maine, and introduces the scientists, firefighters, and resource managers making the case for a radically different approach to managing wildfire in the 21st century. Wildfires can no longer be treated as avoidable events because the risk and dangers are becoming too great and costly. Struzik weaves a heart-pumping narrative of science, economics, politics, and human determination and points to the ways that we, and the wilder inhabitants of the forests around our cities and towns, might yet flourish in an age of growing megafires.
Roseann Weiss is the Director of Artist and Community Initiatives for the Regional Arts Commission. The Regional Arts Commission leads, strengthens, and gives voice to a creative community where every citizen can be proud to live, work, and play in a world-class region. In short, we are proud of our St. Louis cultural identity and want to do whatever we can to grow, sustain, and promote that identity in the future. We are at the forefront of helping transform St. Louis into a more vibrant, creative, and economically thriving community through the arts – and want everyone to know just how special the creative community is within the region.
Linda Steele is Founder & CEO of ArtUp, an innovative startup based in Memphis, Tennessee that uses arts, culture and design strategies to redevelop and revitalize disinvested communities. Linda spent 3 years incubating the work of ArtUp at local arts agency and United Arts Fund, ArtsMemphis including launching the game changing Fellows Program which has received the Robert E. Gard award from Americans for the Arts and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Linda has worked in various arts and cultural organizations including performing arts center, museums, and arts education organizations. Linda is a graduate of Amherst College where she has served as a Wade Fellow and Harvard University.
Laura Clemons is the founder and CEO of Collaborative Communities Management Company, LLC, (CCMC) and serves as the company’s head project team leader. Ms. Clemons is a LEED Accredited Professional with a specialty designation in Building Design and Construction and has been working in the sustainable built environment since 2008. She transitioned into disaster recovery after the devastating tornados of April 2011 and has combined her diverse background into being a foremost expert on resiliency. 
Laura Clemons is the founder and CEO of Collaborative Communities Management Company, LLC, (CCMC) and serves as the company’s head project team leader. Ms. Clemons is a LEED Accredited Professional with a specialty designation in Building Design and Construction and has been working in the sustainable built environment since 2008. She transitioned into disaster recovery after the devastating tornados of April 2011 and has combined her diverse background into being a foremost expert on resiliency. 
Arjun Patney is the Policy Director of Winrock’s American Carbon Registry, which engages with regulators in California and other jurisdictions to help ensure that market-based climate change mitigation programs address the full range of emissions reduction opportunities. In this way, he advances greenhouse gas mitigation that delivers economic opportunities as well as environmental and social benefits. Patney’s diverse experience in the environmental field spans technical, policy and business spheres. Practical sustainability solutions have been the common thread of his work in the U.S. and Asia, whether he was negotiating carbon credit deals, implementing environmental management systems, engineering spill controls, or helping foreign clean tech companies enter Asian markets. Patney previously established the U.S. carbon trading desk at the multinational corporation Cargill and subsequently worked with USAID to advance international forest carbon markets. He received a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.S. in environmental management and policy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
Photo by Eddie Ostrowski
The California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP) is a non-partisan civic engagement research and outreach initiative for the state of California and the U.S. Founded and directed by Mindy Romero, it is housed at the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. The CCEP provides data and analysis to inform public dialogue about representative governance. We believe that inclusive civic engagement can help overcome disparities in social and economic well-being, and can improve health, education and employment outcomes for all Californians. The CCEP has become a go-to source for electoral and civic engagement research, including the examination of nationally relevant election reforms such as automatic voter registration, online voter registration and vote centers. Legislators, public agencies, advocates, researchers, media (state and national) and community leaders use its pioneering research to track disparities and opportunities in civic participation by place and population.
Michele E. Reeves is an urban strategist with significant private sector experience revitalizing districts. Her qualifications, derived from over 16 years of work in various facets of renewal, include facilitating public/private partnerships, marketing unknown or undesirable districts, pre-development consulting, siting manufacturing facilities, strategizing acquisitions and development with private sector investors, and creating retail leasing plans. 
Michele founded Civilis Consultants to assist mixed-use districts, small businesses, property owners, and public sector organizations to recognize and leverage their strengths, identify and accomplish economic development goals, and craft their unique stories to create compelling, multi-faceted brands. Michele has a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Bill Armbruster manages the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities, which is a program within AARP Livable Communities. He has been with AARP since 2000, joining as an associate state director for AARP New York. In that role he served the upstate and western region of the Empire State and was responsible for the development, implementation and assessment for community outreach programming. That body of work included livable and age-friendly communities initiatives, partner development and grassroots volunteer organizing for a 30 county region both near and far from his Rochester home base. In addition to his work at AARP, Bill has extensive experience in corporate wellness programs, occupational rehabilitation and ergonomics, pain treatment and physical therapy.
Kathy Sykes is Senior Advisor for Aging and Public Health at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Since 1983, Kathy has held policy positions in the U.S. Senate and Congress and in federal agencies: U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, with Congressman Obey and at the NIOSH within CDC and for almost 20 years at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she developed the Aging Initiative that focused on environmental health issues and the built environment. She also serves on Washington, D.C.’s the Mayor’s Age-Friendly Task Force. She is a fellow of the GSA and currently Chair of the Social Research Policy and Practice Section. Ms. Sykes holds a master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration and a certificate in Health Services Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kalahari deserts and, from his mountain bike in 1994, he researched the first guidebook to Lebanon since the end of that country’s civil war.
Cecilia Aguiar-Curry is an American politician who has been elected to the California State Assembly. She is a Democrat representing the 4th Assembly District, encompassing Wine Country and parts of the Sacramento Valley.
Trish Kelly is the Managing Director of Valley Vision. Trish joined Valley Vision as Senior Vice President in 2014, having been involved with Valley Vision on several projects over the years. As a consultant, Trish has contributed to Valley Vision initiatives in such areas as regional food systems and agriculture, broadband, economic vitality, and quality of life indicators. She is managing Valley Vision’s agriculture and food system projects and the Connected Capital Area Broadband Consortium, and is supporting other Valley Vision regional leadership efforts. Trish has a passion for projects that provide strong research and accessible information as the basis for engaging community leaders, stakeholders and partner organizations in collaborative, solution-driven strategies that will ensure a Triple-Bottom Line for the region – with shared opportunity, environmental quality and economic prosperity for all.
As a senior planner at ChangeLab Solutions, Erik Calloway focuses on the links between the built environment and health. He conducts research, prepares strategies, and develops tools to help communities support healthy living and sustainability. Prior to joining ChangeLab Solutions, Erik worked for 13 years as an urban design consultant. He has led multidisciplinary teams on streetscape and public space design, district and corridor restructuring, city planning, neighborhood development, and downtown revitalization projects.
Miguel Vazquez, currently serves as the Healthy Communities Planner for the Riverside University Health System-Public Health (RUHS-PH) (formerly known as Riverside County Department of Public Health) in California. Our work directly impacts the quality of life of 2.2 million people living in 28 cities and the unincorporated area of Riverside County. For the past five years, my leadership role has focused on the integration of planning and health through policy, programs and outreach.
Recently, Mr. Zeanah led the development of the Mid-South Regional Greenprint and Sustainability Plan, a unified vision for a regional network of green space connecting across the Greater Memphis area, and Shelby County’s Greenprint for Resilience initiative, which received over $60 million in HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition. Mr. Zeanah holds a BA in Political Science from Rhodes College and a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of Memphis.
Jim Brasfield is Emeritus Professor of Management at the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University, and former Chair of the Department of Management for nineteen years. He has been on the faculty of Webster University since 1976. He has a Ph.D. in political science from Case Western Reserve University (1973) and MA in Political Science from St. Louis University. He was Mayor of the City of Crestwood from 1996 to 2002 and on the Crestwood Board of Alderman from 1978 to 2006. He has been President of the St. Louis County Municipal League and the President of the Board of the Greater St. Louis Health System Agency. Since 2000 he has been a member of the Government Relations Committee of the Gateway Chapter of the MS Society. He was President of the Webster University Faculty Senate from 2001 to 2007. Currently he is a member of the Municipal Parks Grant Commission and the Board of Directors of Voyce. He is a past President of the Organized Section on Health Politics and Policy of the American Political Science Association, and was Book Review Editor of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law from 2010 to 2016. In 2011 his book Health Policy: The Decade Ahead was published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. 
Dr. Sarah Coffin is an associate professor of urban planning at Saint Louis University in the School of Social Work where she directs the masters in Urban Planning and Development Program. Trained as an urban planner, Dr. Coffin’s work focuses on the impacts of brownfields on weak market economies and examining the role that common development tools like tax increment financing and tax credits play in local economic development planning practice in these post-industrial regions.
Her work draws on both primary and secondary data sources, focusing primarily on property data. She has published work that examines the impacts of brownfields, vacant properties, and more recently development incentives on weak market economies and whether new ways of framing the redevelopment question might provide positive benefits for distressed communities. In addition, Dr. Coffin served as the principal investigator for the university team that supported data support for the St Louis Region’s sustainability plan, OneSTL. In that role she lead the effort to establish a regional data portal called the St Louis Regional Data Exchange as a means to promote further open data opportunities across the region. Dr. Coffin holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master’s degree in Urban Planning, Design, and Development from the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Lake Erie College and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. 
Robert (Bob) M. Lewis, FAICP, CEcD, is the Principal at Development Strategies. Bob directs economic planning and implementation assignments at Development Strategies, based in St. Louis. He was part of the team that created Development Strategies in 1988 after ten years with Team Four and two years with the St. Louis County Department of Planning. 
The focus of his professional work is analyzing the market, economic, and organizational forces that influence urban development and economic growth. His consulting services yield strategic recommendations for clients seeking to maximize economic value. Clients include state and local governments, private property owners and developers, corporations, government agencies, non-profits, and institutions all around the USA. A native of Glencoe, Illinois, in the Chicago area, Bob holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (1976) and a bachelor’s degree in business economics from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1973). 
The R Street Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan, public policy research organization (“think tank”). Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government.
Gateway Greening isn’t just about gardens and plants. It’s about working together to create something beautiful — safer, more colorful neighborhoods for our children; food for the underprivileged and opportunities for the homeless; and a city that embodies our vision of sustainability and hope. Gateway Greening is a community of gardeners, neighbors, friends and volunteers. And we believe that by educating and empowering our community through gardening and urban agriculture, we can continue to grow St. Louis into the city we know it to be.
Lift360 focuses on leadership every day – for individuals, in organizations, and throughout communities.Their mission is to inspire leadership, build stronger leaders, and to equip those leaders to tackle the critical issues faced in Maine. That focus takes them into communities and boardrooms, reaching all sectors and all areas of the state. They deliver programs and services working side by side with organizational and community leaders. The impact of their work and the stories they hear from those they collaborate with is an incredible reward. It’s their way to make Maine an even better place to live and work.
Darin Dinsmore is an urban planner & landscape architect with over 25 years of experience in community-based planning and design. He launched Crowdbrite in 2010 to bring plans to life and find solutions to improve civic engagement. His award-winning interactive online tools (
Crowdbrite’s mission is to work with cities and developers to help build more affordable, vibrant and walkable communities. In the first 12 months since launch Crowdbite has 400+ cities engaged in 47 states and 7 countries, won a national planning award, and have started a movement toward cities taking a proactive approach to SMART infill.
Plan4Health is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The American Planning Association’s Planning and Community Health Center is an awardee of the CDC’s National Implementation and Dissemination for Chronic Disease Prevention funding opportunity. Plan4Health is one community within the larger project — sharing lessons learned and expertise with the American Heart Association; the National Women, Infants, and Children; Society for Public Health Education; and Directors of Health Promotion and Education.
Prior to serving as Director of State and Local Policy at Grounded Solutions Network, Sasha was Senior Program Officer at Cornerstone Partnership, where she led Cornerstone’s inclusionary housing engagements and activities. Before that, Sasha worked in at the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development where she oversaw legislative affairs, strategic planning, and program evaluation projects as Public Policy manager.
rounded Solutions Network is supporting strong communities from the ground up. We work nationally, connecting local experts with the networks, knowledge and support they need. Grounded Solutions Network helps promote housing solutions that will stay affordable for generations so communities can stabilize and strengthen their foundation, for good.
EntreWorks Consulting works with communities, organizations, and civic leaders to design, implement, and promote innovative economic development strategies, policies, and programs. They help create and publicize the best of new thinking about community economic development. Their work is based on a belief that entrepreneurship in all its forms is the key to revitalizing our communities, ranging from the booming technology hot spots to distressed rural and urban communities.
The mission of Conejos Clean Water (CCW) is to build public awareness and encourage advocacy and education around environmental, social, economic, and food justice issues in the Conejos Land Grant Region. CCW operates under the basic premise that water is our life source; therefore, protecting the water and fostering a healthy environment promotes public health and serves as a natural resource management system. CCW works to protect public health by promoting environmental justice. CCW views the environment as people: where we live, work, play, and learn. CCW views environmental justice as a convergence of civil rights, environmentalism, and public health. Environmental justice is multicultural and multiethnic, it is grassroots, and it increases links to global struggles. Therefore, CCW is focused on social justice and pollution prevention in order to reduce cumulative health impacts from the built, social, political, and natural environment.
re:focus partners are social entrepreneurs with expertise in public policy and sustainable development. They design integrated resilient infrastructure systems — including water, waste, and energy projects —and develop new public-private partnerships to align public funds and leverage private investment for vulnerable communities around the world.
The major objectives of the NIEHS Worker Training Program are to prevent work-related harm by assisting in the training of workers in how best to protect themselves and their communities from exposure to hazardous materials encountered during hazardous waste operations, hazardous materials transportation, environmental restoration nuclear weapons facilities, or chemical emergency response, and to undertake brownfields and minority workforce development. A variety of sites, such as those involved with chemical waste clean up and remedial action and transportation-related chemical emergency response, may pose severe health and safety concerns. These are often characterized by the multiplicity of substances present, the presence of unknown substances, and the general uncontrolled condition of the site. A major goal of this program is to assist organizations with development of institutional competency to provide appropriate model training and education programs to hazardous materials and waste workers.
CivicSpark is a Governor’s Initiative AmeriCorps program dedicated to building capacity for local governments to address climate change and water management issues in California, administered by the Local Government Commission in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. The mission of CivicSpark is to build capacity for local governments to address climate change and water management needs.
Each year, CivicSpark recruits 68 fellows—48 Climate Action Fellows, and 20 Water Action Fellows—who contribute over 65,000 hours to help California communities respond to climate change and water management needs. In collaboration with local government staff, CivicSpark fellows implement a needed climate or water-focused project, while also building long-term capacity to ensure the work is sustained after their service year is completed. Local governments get dedicated project support from a focused team of enthusiastic emerging professionals who receive specialized professional development and sector training.
CivicSpark is a Governor’s Initiative AmeriCorps program dedicated to building capacity for local governments to address climate change and water management issues in California, administered by the Local Government Commission in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. The mission of CivicSpark is to build capacity for local governments to address climate change and water management needs.
The mission of the Pacific Forest Trust is to sustain America’s forests for their public benefits of wood, water, wildlife, and people’s well-being, in cooperation with landowners and communities.
CivicSpark is a Governor’s Initiative AmeriCorps program dedicated to building capacity for local governments to address climate change and water management issues in California, administered by the Local Government Commission in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. The mission of CivicSpark is to build capacity for local governments to address climate change and water management needs.
TSRC conducts research on a wide array of transportation-related issues, addressing the needs of individuals as well as the public. Research efforts are primarily concentrated in six main areas: Advanced vehicles and fuels, Energy and infrastructure, Goods movement, Innovative mobility, Mobility for special populations, and Transportation and energy systems analysis.
resilient, self-sufficient communities capable of housing critical service providers. While all of these are true and vital reasons they do not actually explain how Lilypad Homes got its start. The idea for Lilypad germinated in 2000 when Rachel Ginis, the organization’s founder, became a single parent. As a residential designer, she did not earn enough money to remain in her home in Marin County (California). Rachel determined to temporarily repurpose the master bedroom into a lovely little living space. The income from that 230 square foot efficiency apartment allowed her to hold onto her home, keeping her daughter in school just down the road from her father’s house. Because Rachel’s daughter was 4 years old at the time, she did not feel that taking on a roommate was a viable option; she needed to secure their privacy. She also needed to ensure she could meet the monthly mortgage. Privatizing a bedroom was a sensible solution and created a reliable income stream from a little-used room.
“The New Grand Strategy” tells the story of a plan, born within the Pentagon, to recapture America’s greatness at home and abroad by elevating sustainability as our new strategic imperative. It aligns our enduring national interests of prosperity and security with a new framework that addresses pressing economic, social, and environmental issues at home, tapping into a trillion-dollar market demand for walkable communities, regenerative agriculture and resource productivity. It is an inspiring vision of what’s possible when Americans hold a collective view of the future and come together to bring it to reality.
HERO (Home Energy Renovation Opportunity) is a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program that provides financing for energy-efficient and renewable energy products. In the state of California, HERO provides these same financing options for water-saving and drought-resistant products. The program offers more consumers access to energy-efficient options because HERO is financed as an assessment on your property. It incorporates renewable energy products (solar PV, solar thermal, etc.), energy efficiency products (heating systems, cooling systems, lighting, windows, insulation, etc.) and water efficiency products (low-flow toilets, weather based sprinkling systems, etc.). Clients prioritize potential eligible products based on the derived benefits which may include: costs savings, energy savings, greenhouse gas emission reductions, air quality improvements, and water usage reductions.
MCE’s mission is to address climate change by reducing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions through renewable energy supply and energy efficiency at stable and competitive rates for customers while providing local economic and workforce benefits.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s umbrella term for our Silicon Valley commute-focused project to improve options besides driving alone. MaaS dissolves the boundaries between different transport modes, providing a more customer-centered, seamless experience while improving the efficiency of the entire transport system. Bay Area employers provide a range of customized employee programs to facilitate commuting: transit passes, Wi-Fi motor coach service, last mile shuttle buses from transit, payroll subsidies and more.
The Conservation Law Foundation protects New England’s environment for the benefit of all people. They use the law, science and the market to create solutions that preserve natural resources, build healthy communities, and sustain a vibrant economy. Their vision is for a healthy, thriving New England – for generations to come.
The California Endowment’s mission is to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. They focus on fixing broken systems and outdated policies, ensuring the balance of power is with the people. The goal is simple: First, change the way people view health—from the notion that health happens in the doctor’s office to a belief that health happens where you live, work, learn, and play. The California Endowment calls this “narrative change.” Second, integrate smart solutions in communities across the state. The California Endowment does this by working with our partners and grantees to fundamentally change “the rules”—laws, policies, and systems—that impede health in our communities. They are changing the narrative around health to ensure health and justice for all.
The Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability is a not-for-profit based in the agriculturally rich San Joaquin and East Coachella Valleys that works alongside the most impacted communities to advocate for sound policy and eradicate injustice to secure equal access to opportunity regardless of wealth, race, income, and place. Through community organizing, research, legal representation and policy advocacy the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability will impact land use and transportation planning, shift public investment priorities, guide environmental policy, and promote the provision of basic infrastructure and services. In collaboration with local and statewide advocates, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability will reverse trends that have reigned throughout our history and confront the inequality and deficiencies that continue to plague this state.
The 
Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, Inc.’s (SERCAP) mission is to improve the quality of life for low-income individuals by promoting affordable water and wastewater facilities, community development, environmental health, and economic self-sufficiency. As a member of the National Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), SERCAP serves all of the rural citizens of seven southeastern states: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. To date, SERCAP has brought clean water and wastewater facilities to more than 450,000 residents in our seven state network
LA-Más is a non-profit that performs design-based experiments with the city (Los Angeles) as their lab. The mission of LA-Más is to look critically at systemic problems in the LA Area and provide solutions based on research and community engagement. By using alternative models of social inclusion and collaboration, LA-Más hopes to shape the future of equitable city growth. Más is an organization committed to offering architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design services to support and strengthen communities. Addressing the health and wellbeing of a community is often a dynamic exercise requiring the coordination of a diverse range of expertise under one umbrella. The organization believes that this interplay of planning, research, and design is itself a community endeavor. To that end, they foster social connections among diverse stakeholders to aid in sustainable place making and to provide multiple paths to community growth. They offer a bottom up approach to challenge and re-define the traditional expectations of civic engagement in the built environment. They uncover new questions that lead to innovative solutions and designs in the areas of public health and community space.
The mission of Blue Zones is to help people live longer, better lives. Blue Zones works with industry leaders to bring the Blue Zones mission to life. The Blue Zones Project is a systems approach in which citizens, schools, employers, restaurants, grocery stores and community leaders collaborate on policies and programs that move the community towards better health and well-being. It implements long-term, evidence-backed policies and interventions that optimize environments within communities, nudging people towards healthier choices throughout their day. The program is based on the assumption that we spend 90% of our lives in a 20-mile “Life Radius”. Rather than relying on individual behavior change, the program focuses on making the healthy choice the easy choice. Instead of nagging people to exercise, we make walking easier and more desirable than driving. By making wholesome foods more accessible and less expensive than junk foods, people begin to eat healthier naturally. The approach is based on the cornerstone of sustainability. Unlike other health or wellness initiatives Blue Zones Projects address the environment not just the individual, resulting in long-term impact that stands the test of time.
The National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations (NACEDA) is a national alliance of community development associations. Its member organizations are champions, stewards, and thought leaders for community development at the state and local level. With 43 association members in 28 states, more than 3,500 community-based organizations are represented by their members.
The Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC) is dedicated to advocacy, policy development and technical assistance for community development corporations and other organizations in their efforts to rebuild communities and revitalize neighborhoods. Through their policy and advocacy work, they strive to create a more supportive environment for community development activities and to enable members to more effectively meet the needs of lower income residents and advance neighborhood revitalization. In addition, they aim to build the capacity of CDCs through resource and information delivery, a sharing of ideas and practices among CDCs, technical assistance, and promotion of the community development industry. The PACDC’s vision is to see vibrant and diverse neighborhoods across Philadelphia that equitably meet the needs of all community members, preserve and enhance community assets, and foster a stronger city and region.
Today, Philadelphia has approximately 32,000 properties that are vacant and tax delinquent, 8,000 of which are publicly owned and the remainder are in private hands. Most of these – about 24,000 – are vacant lots. The structures are in various stages of disrepair; some can be stabilized and occupied, and others must be demolished. The Philadelphia Land Bank is a powerful tool to return vacant and tax-delinquent properties to productive use. It will simplify the process of transferring properties from public agencies to private owners. It can also acquire privately owned vacant parcels that are roadblocks to revitalization by foreclosing on them. And the Land Bank’s ability to clear liens from titles will make properties more attractive to potential new owners.
Laura Goddeeris, AICP, is a Specialist at CRFS and coordinates outreach engaging national organizations in improving food systems and community environments, linking ground-level efforts and national stakeholders to inform policy and systems change. She is particularly focused on exploring opportunities for local governments to support regional food systems. As a part of this work, she has partnered with the Local Government Commission to develop a series of pre-conference workshops on healthy, equitable food systems in conjunction with the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference. Laura’s background includes more than a decade of experience in research, outreach, and program administration around issues of economic development, community and social equity, and transportation planning, much of it within the context of food systems. She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and is a graduate of the Great Lakes Leadership Academy Emerging Leaders Program.
The Side Yard is an urban farm, supper club and catering company located in the NE Cully Neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Since 2009 they have provided local restaurants with creative organic produce and the community with food, education and opportunity. The farm is largely operated by volunteers and interns who gain hands on experience with the urban seed to plate movement. The Side Yard offers urban farm suppers & brunches, private catering, nomadic pop-ups, educational DIY workshops, farm tours and grief groups. Their focus is to provide local food for the local community, from the seeds they sow, animals they raise, and to the craftsmanship they embrace.
Raley’s Supermarkets (also known as Raley’s Family of Fine Stores) is a privately held, family-owned, regional grocery chain that operates stores under the Raley’s, Bel Air Markets, Nob Hill Foods, and Food Source names in northern California and Nevada. Raley’s operates 128 stores, 40 of them in the Greater Sacramento area and employs around 13,400 workers today. Headquartered in West Sacramento, California, Raley’s is the dominant supermarket operator in the Sacramento metropolitan area.
