Summer 2022

As a Senior Program Manager at the Urban Libraries Council, I led the Economic Opportunity Action Team, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, to support libraries in identifying and testing solutions to meet their community’s economic needs. In collaboration with staff from this of libraries, and inspired by St. Louis County Library’s Small Business Value Calculator, we built a new interactive tool to help libraries concretely estimate the value they provide to their local business community. A user guide, a methodology guide, and a communications guide supplemented the data tool. 

Shortly after the tool was launched, 30 libraries used it to collectively calculate over $200 million in annual value for their economy through services provided to local businesses. The resulting report, Business Value Calculator: Early Insights and Results, was shared nationally. Several of the libraries that calculated their value share their impact, including Seattle Public Library (Washington), Vaughan Public Libraries (Ontario), Allen County Public Library (Indiana), and Schaumburg Township District Library (Illinois).

The Urban Libraries Council is dedicated to strengthening and advancing the essential role of public libraries as a dynamic place for innovation, equity, and opportunity. We connect public library leaders and drive transformative change to enrich the lives of individuals and urban communities across North America.

Spring 2019

This study, completed as a group graduate capstone project, assessed the feasibility and implications for Delaware Nature Society to expand its programming to include nature-based preschool offerings. The scope of the project included a complete market analysis and business plan. The market analysis included a survey, interview research with nature-based preschool practitioners, a geographic analysis of competition, and demographic trends surrounding each site. The business plan included a review of state and local childcare codes, staffing requirements, and three years of projected revenues and expenses. Other contributors included Christine Hoh, Cori Villeco, Tierra Fair, and Marissa Missan.

Winter 2024

As an Inclusive Economic Development Advisor at New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN), alongside my colleague Dr. Mari Kate Mycek, we sought to deepen our knowledge and understanding of Inclusive Economic Development by launching and facilitating an organization-wide book club. Every quarter, we host discussions to dive into various books, podcasts, articles, films, and other content related to inclusive economic development and understand them in the context of our work. To share these discussions and insights with our broader network, we author a blog post of the team’s thoughts and develop an NGIN discussion guide that any community can use to start these conversations in their community. Download our first discussion guide, read the accompanying blog post, or view the NGIN blog for more installments. 

New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN) is a national nonprofit focused on advancing inclusive economic development to ensure that economically disenfranchised individuals and communities can lead, shape, and benefit from regional economic growth and prosperity.

2023-2024

As an Inclusive Economic Development Advisor at New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN), I led all technical assistance and capacity building for NGIN’s Small and Midsized City Hub. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this Hub offers specialized services such as peer exchange, technical assistance, events, capital, and a digital platform for community and economic leaders. It supports these leaders in driving inclusive economies, advancing racial equity, and reducing health inequities in cities with populations ranging from 30,000 to 500,000.

To provide local technical assistance to four small and midsized cities, I led the development and implementation of the Economic Inclusion Incubator. Over the course of 12 months, sites identified a key project, and to implement it, they received a range of supports, including $30,000 in support funding, Ongoing one-on-one check-ins, Cohort convenings, and site visits. Read more about these four cities on the NGIN Blog: Dayton, OH; Savannah, GA; Tacoma, WA; and Utica, NY. 

New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN) is a national nonprofit focused on advancing inclusive economic development to ensure that economically disenfranchised individuals and communities can lead, shape, and benefit from regional economic growth and prosperity.

Spring 2015

As an undergraduate senior thesis, this research study identified and ranked the community colleges in the United States to determine institutions with the greatest potential to partner with Wilmington University, a private non-profit university in Delaware. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), these institutions were ranked based on a weighted average of the institution’s enrollment potential, program disciplinary alignment, size of online student population, and geographic region. I further conducted an in-depth examination of the ten highest-ranking institutions.

I presented this project at the Mary Baldwin University 2015 Capstone Festival.

Spring 2024

As an inclusive economic development advisor at New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN), I led the content development for NGIN’s inaugural Cityscapes Summit. This national convening, hosted in Durham, North Carolina, in May 2024, brought together more than 400 economic and community leaders from small and midsized cities across the United States. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and part of NGIN’s Small and Midsized City Hub, this biennial event offered a unique blend of inclusive economic development insights and strategies and dynamic networking opportunities. 

In leading the content development, I engaged existing members and stakeholders in the Small and Midsized City Hub and NGIN staff to define three conference tracks: Community Wealth Building, Reimagining Systems, and Inclusive Capital. Collaborating with other team members and organizational partners, we identified session topics and activities, resulting in 29 main-stage and break-out sessions with more than 100 expert speakers. These sessions included local tours, interactive workshops, partner panels, and keynote speakers. More information is available on the Cityscapes website. 

New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN) is a national nonprofit focused on advancing inclusive economic development to ensure that economically disenfranchised individuals and communities can lead, shape, and benefit from regional economic growth and prosperity.

Summer 2020

As a Program Manager at the Urban Libraries Council, I led the content development and design of the Community Data Toolkit for the Library Edge program. This toolkit provides questions and resources to public library staff who are using key demographic and community data to understand their community needs. It covers national data sources, community indicators, state/province data sources, local data sources, library data sources, and resources to analyze and visualize data.

The Urban Libraries Council is dedicated to strengthening and advancing the essential role of public libraries as a dynamic place for innovation, equity, and opportunity. We connect public library leaders and drive transformative change to enrich the lives of individuals and urban communities across North America.

Spring 2023

As an Inclusive Economic Development Advisor at New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN), I supported the wrap-up of the national Inclusive Recovery Initiative over six months. This federally funded program supported Economic Development Organizations (EDOs) and Districts (EDDs) in embedding inclusive and equitable growth strategies into their COVID-19 recovery strategies and in the development of regional Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS). 

My contributions included authoring the final toolkit and the design of the online Inclusive Recovery Toolkit. This toolkit supports regional economic development leaders in elevating equity within their organization, planning, CEDS development, and strategy and implementation as they approach recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. This toolkit showcased insights from the Inclusive Recovery Initiative’s community of practice and technical assistance sites. 

New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN) is a national nonprofit focused on advancing inclusive economic development to ensure that economically disenfranchised individuals and communities can lead, shape, and benefit from regional economic growth and prosperity.

Summer 2021

As a Program Manager at the Urban Libraries Council, I supported the content development and design of the Closing the Entrepreneurship Gap Toolkit. This toolkit offers strategies and resources, including COVID-19 responses and library case studies, to help libraries level up as entrepreneurial hubs.

The Urban Libraries Council is dedicated to strengthening and advancing the essential role of public libraries as a dynamic place for innovation, equity, and opportunity. We connect public library leaders and drive transformative change to enrich the lives of individuals and urban communities across North America.

2017-2018

As a Public Administration Fellow at the Institute for Public Administration (IPA) at the University of Delaware, I contributed to a Mobility Management project for the Delaware Transit Corporation. My contributions included designing an outreach strategy for four transportation-disadvantaged populations, identifying opportunities for promotion and community partners, and designing external engagement tools and materials.

The Outreach Strategy was published in “Public Outreach and Engagement Plan To Develop a Coordinated Public Transit—Human-Services Transportation Plan for Delaware” Report (January 2017).

Learn more about Mobility in Motion here.

Summer 2020

As a Program Manager at the Urban Libraries Council, I led the content development and design of the COVID-19 Recovery Toolkit for the Library Edge program. This toolkit explores new and transformed challenges and roles for libraries in the pandemic, taking a close look at the critical importance of library leadership for digital equity, access, and skill-building. Resources included in the toolkit are methods to apply an equity lens to COVID-19 recovery, digital access strategies, and topical case studies for public libraries across geographies and sizes.

The Urban Libraries Council is dedicated to strengthening and advancing the essential role of public libraries as a dynamic place for innovation, equity, and opportunity. We connect public library leaders and drive transformative change to enrich the lives of individuals and urban communities across North America.

Summer 2021

As a program manager at the Urban Libraries Council, I led the curriculum development and design of a new Data Fluency Cohort program for the Library Edge program. This peer-learning framework includes curated resources, discussions, and activities for libraries to explore external and internal data sources within their libraries to align with strategic planning and outcomes. Topics covered include developing community demographic profiles, identifying data silos within the library, and developing program logic models.

The Urban Libraries Council is dedicated to strengthening and advancing the essential role of public libraries as a dynamic place for innovation, equity, and opportunity. We connect public library leaders and drive transformative change to enrich the lives of individuals and urban communities across North America.

2014-2015

Recruited and organized a team of eleven interns that provided 700+ hours in the planning and implementing of a conference surrounding topics related to social innovation with local communities in partnership with the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund (then the Staunton Creative Community Fund) and the City of Staunton. As the Intern Coordinator, I organized a series of community conversations, including the “Bach n’ Roll Roundtable” around local music and a Maker Camp that incorporated STEM and entrepreneurship education for middle school students.

The model was presented at:

“Nurturing the Entrepreneurial Spirit through Creative Culture”, Virginia Economic Developers Association (September 2015).

“Innovate LIVE!: A City-University Partnership” McDonough Leadership Conference at Marietta College (April 2016).

Related coverage:

The News Leader, Innovate LIVE Back for a Second Year

The News Leader, Innovate LIVE Wraps Up, But Passion Lingers

Learn more about Innovate LIVE at innovatelive.org.

2016-2017

As the Director of Capital at the Staunton Creative Community Fund (now the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund), I coordinated the local investing network, Invest Local. I supported the program by planning quarterly meet-and-greets for local investors and entrepreneurs, leading self-directed Individualized Retirement Account (IRA) training, and researching local crowdfunding and investing models.

As the Summer 2018 Philadelphia Program Intern for the Knight Foundation, I supported the Reimagining the Civic Commons learning network by creating storytelling materials for grantees. These resources included a presentation, one-pagers, and exceptional storytelling examples to illustrate the impact of these civic investments. To further support the work of Reimagining the Civic Commons, I designed a study-tour guidebook to allow for targeted note-taking for those visiting Philadelphia’s civic assets and for when Philadelphia organizers visit other partner cities.

Affiliated with Open Data Delaware and Code for America’s national brigade network, I founded a weekly civic technology group in Newark, DE. Newark Codes is a community gathering for open data advocacy, technical education, and civic projects by harnessing software. Meeting each week at the Newark Free Library and sponsored by the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration, this gathering of volunteer developers conducts projects, welcomes new members to Delaware’s civic technology community, hosts speakers, and holds trainings. 

Learn more from our meet-up page and press in Technical.ly Delaware.

2015-2016

As the Director of Capital at the Staunton Creative Community Fund (now the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund), I designed and updated the 8-week Business Planning curriculum. My responsibilities included developing cash flow and income statement worksheets, target market exercises, and contributing to a sample business plan exemplar. The 8-week course was also designed in a modular format, so instruction type and delivery could vary.

Additional curricula design and teaching:

- Pricing for Art Businesses

- Pricing for Food-Based Businesses

- Starting a Small Business

- Business Plan Basics

- Getting Your Business Funded

- Storytelling Workshop

- Funding Options and the Business Incubator (taught at Blue Ridge Community College)

Spring 2018

As part of the 2018 Open Data Challenge, hosted by Open Data Delaware, a working prototype of MobiliDE was pitched as a user-centered Paratransit Portal to make Delaware more accessible. MobiliDE created an easy-to-use reservation system and used open data to showcase alternative transit and mobility options for those who qualify for paratransit. Individual contributions included the front-end design, specifically the branding and wireframe mock-up. MobiliDE received an Ideation award from the Open Data Challenge.

Read more about the Open Data Challenge in Technically Delaware.

As a Public Administration Fellow for the Institute for Public Administration, I contributed to the Delaware Complete Communities Toolbox. Funded by the Delaware Department of Transportation, these tools serve as urban planning resources for local governments across the state. To supplement the toolbox, both online and in print, I created and designed a line of 75+ urban planning trading cards to display at events. The terms and definitions, also developed as social media posts and presentation deck slides, provide accessible, short definitions to reduce the barrier of complex language and jargon to citizen planners.

The entire glossary is available on the Complete Communities site.

Spring 2018

The Make It Count campaign is the first student-led initiative of the Biden Institute for Domestic Policy at the University of Delaware. It seeks to raise the level of civic engagement among students at the University of Delaware, with a particular focus on voter registration and voter engagement at the state and local levels. A partnership with Democracy Works and their TurboVote service allowed students to register with Turbovote and receive notifications for upcoming elections.

As the Public Relations Committee Leader, I designed all visual collateral. I led a group of five students in launching a communication campaign to introduce Make it Count to the University of Delaware community. Activities included the creation of an overarching brand, social media content and strategy, print material design, and event promotion. Outcomes for the first three months included 1,000+ turbovote registrations.

Learn more on the Biden Institute webpage.

As a participant in the 2018 Seoul Case Study Program with the University of Seoul and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, I had the opportunity to conduct a comparative analysis between two linear urban park projects in Seoul and Washington, DC. In approaching this topic for the Seoul Case Study Program, I conducted a thorough, interdisciplinary literature review and annotated bibliography on issues related to the economic impact of urban parks, including gentrification, the High Line effect, Disneyfication, civic infrastructure, various public space conceptualizations, and research methods for analysis. From this review, I focused on Glasze's conceptualization of public space and identified five varying analysis frameworks. I conducted interviews with place managers at each site and developed an inventory of equitable development strategies and community engagement strategies to compare the two sites. This analysis led to conclusions about different activities and outcomes for similar projects. It resulted in further research on the role of public-private partnerships authority over public space and comparing various analysis frameworks.

Furthermore, the international context of this comparison challenged me further in identifying literature outside of a domestic context. Much domestic urban affairs research on poverty and wealth concentration in American cities differs internationally, with varying historical, economic, and racial equity forces. This paper involved identifying and synthesizing existing literature, identifying appropriate research methods, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions from those findings.

The project and resulting outcomes are evidenced by: Poster Presented based on Analysis Frameworks (Pictured), Picture of Poster Presentation at APPAM (Pictured), Picture of Seoullo 7017 (Daytime and Nighttime) on Site Visit during Seoul Case Study Program (Pictured).

In a peer-reviewed article, two other civic technologists and I analyzed the value of civic hackathons and their potential to serve as deliberative democratic events. This article was published in New Visions for Public Affairs, Volume 11 (Spring 2019).

The “hackathon” is one of the primary events civic technology groups organize. It is designed to improve public service through innovative software programming, data analysis, or graphic and web design.

Hackathons are criticized for lack of productivity and sustainability. Due to such criticism, civic technology organizations have introduced reforms to the format of hackathons - stretching their length, incorporating human-centered design and the influence of client direction. Open Data Delaware’s 2018 Open Data Challenge is an example of a hackathon that has been experimenting with these different reforms. In this paper, the authors share their reflections on participation in the Open Data Challenge. The main question explored by the paper is, what is the value of the civic hackathon, and what research questions should be asked about hackathons?

The paper finds that civic hacking events are valuable because they provide an opportunity to engage citizens in a civic process. From this vantage point, civic hackathons should be studied as deliberative democratic events and evaluated on their design and their ability to increase participants’ civic engagement.

As a Public Administration Fellow at the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration, I contributed content to the Complete Communities of Delaware Toolbox, an urban planning resource for local governments. As part of my work, I completed several pop-up traffic calming case studies across the state. To illustrate these cases and the findings, I developed a Stories of Delaware Complete Communities video series. I created a summary GIS Story Map, infographic series, and poster to illustrate the work further.

This research was presented at the 2018 Delaware APA (American Planning Association) Regional Conference, the 2018 Delaware Institute for Local Government Leaders, and the 2019 Transportation Research Conference.

While in the leadership of the Open Data Delaware, a Code for America brigade, I support and contribute to Delaware's civic technology community. Open Data Delaware advocates for government transparency, supports technical education and contributes to civic technology projects. I support the organization's communication efforts (including its rebranding), facilitate events and partnerships locally and nationally, and contribute to user experience design for various civic technology projects.

Learn more about our Newark Codes meet-up and our Delaware School Choice Sherpa projects.

As an organizer of Open Data Delaware and a facilitator of Newark Codes, I have organized a group of volunteer software developers and in the user experience design of an online school choice search portal. The Delaware School Choice Sherpa aggregates state education open data into school profiles and provides parents with easy-to-understand instructions on the school choice process. I have played a significant role in the ideation and development of user experience design, visual design of all graphics, and project management.

Spring 2018

Created as a theoretical social enterprise model, ReLAUNCH Ventures is a for-profit, employment-focused social enterprise owned by the ReLAUNCH Center. All profits from ReLAUNCH Ventures would be invested in the re-entry mission of the ReLAUNCH Center. ReLAUNCH Ventures consists of three businesses: the Culinary Center, the Agricultural Center, and the Trades and Manufacturing Center. Each of these three businesses would employ ReLAUNCH Center clients and provide entrepreneurship education and business incubation to interested clients. Research business models included food hub models, incubator kitchen models, small-scale urban farming models, and maker space models.

2015-2017

As the Director of Capital at the Staunton Creative Community Fund, I managed the Virginia Individual Development Accounts (VIDA) program. Under the federal Assets for Independence program, this financial stability partnership with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development provides a match-savings program for low-income individuals. This program provided financial literacy training, business development, home ownership, asset-specific training, and matched savings with grant funding at an 8-to-1 rate. In my role, I provided financial literacy training, business development training, community outreach, and designed a home-ownership match-savings employee benefit program.