1. What is your career history?

I started working with the New River Valley Regional Commission as Executive Director in 2009. Prior to this role, I worked for Montgomery County as a long-range planner, and just before that I worked at the Regional Commission as a regional planner. After I finished graduate school I worked in Western North Carolina as a planning director for a small town. I also worked as a consultant in the land development arena in the triangle of North Carolina. Taken together, I have public sector and private sector experience, with experience at the town, county, and regional levels of government.

2. What made you interested in regional planning?

I think it all started when I was a kid growing up in North Carolina in a suburb of Raleigh, in the town of Cary. We had greenway trails in our neighborhood, and I would hop on my bike and explore the neighborhood on the trails. On Saturday mornings I'd take my fishing rod and fish in the neighborhood ponds. It wasn't until I got to college, when I realized those ponds that I was fishing were actually stormwater ponds, and they were all part of a bigger network. At the same time, the greenway trails were connected all over the town. That really spurred my interest in planning.

3. What is your favorite part about your job?

The relationships that we build. So much of what we do at the Regional Commission is based on relationships. We get to work with the same communities day in and day out across the New River Valley. It's extremely rewarding to build those relationships, work on projects together and then see communities thrive. The diversity of work we are involved with is also very rewarding. Our local governments ask us to take on new and different things every year, so that keeps our role relevant and interesting. And then seeing the team here excel and grow with the organization – that’s very meaningful. There are so many rewarding aspects involved with the work that we do.

4. What is the New River Valley Regional Commission doing to advance economic recovery in your area?

Our role with economic recovery initially was based on coordination. We have a coordination role with our local governments and once COVID-19 hit in March, our coordination role really ramped up. Soon after COVID-19 hit, there were lots of state and federal dollars that were becoming available to support economic recovery. We helped the local governments access funds and also helped create some program designs for how to use those funds in impactful ways within their communities. And more recently, we've been asked to help with economic recovery by launching the New River Valley Business Continuity Team.

5. How do you hope the New River Valley Business Continuity Team will help businesses affected by COVID-19?

The New River Business Continuity Team will help make sure employees can go to work on a regular basis and limit the amount of downtime to the greatest extent possible. Early on, when there was concern about a positive COVID-19 case, the advisement might have been to shut down for an extended period of time. Now, as we have learned more, we have realized there are ways to continue with operations safely. Our first goal is to make sure that businesses are operating and employees are able to work in a safe manner. The second piece is building confidence in employers, employees, as well as the general public, because we all have to learn to live and operate in a COVID world. We have to build our collective confidence to continue growing our economy and to keep going back to school and to work.

6. What challenges is your organization currently facing and how do you plan to address those challenges?

I think the challenges in our organization are similar to what other organizations are trying to navigate with COVID. How do you quickly adjust what you're doing in such uncertain times? Thankfully, everybody here in our organization is contributing and helping us figure out the next moves that we need to make. When we all went home and worked remotely in March, we all figured out quickly what platforms we needed to utilize in order to communicate effectively. And then as we were reintroducing employees back to our workspace in July and August, we all talked about the protocols that we wanted to have in place. We also had to do some infrastructure upgrades to our organization, such as installing new phones and buying AV equipment.

7. What advice do you have for entrepreneurs just starting their businesses in the current COVID-19 environment?

I'm seeing numerous businesses start now and that's exciting. The first piece of advice I would offer is to talk to the Small Business Development Center. They know the pitfalls that businesses are going to come across and they also know about all the resources available, from grant funds that may be CARES Act related to loan funds through banks. From there, I would recommend that they have a strong network of people they can talk with about the challenges of their business because everything so unique right now. Connecting with chambers of commerce is a great place to start network building for entrepreneurs.

8. What is a book you have read recently that you would recommend?

I regularly recommend 13 Ways to Kill Your Community by Doug Griffiths, which is really entertaining and informative. The book is a satirical approach to community development and the 13 things that you shouldn't be doing in your communities if you want to find success in revitalizing your community. The author affirms the message about successful community development that we frequently observe at the regional commission. It’s not just a government role; it's not just a private sector role. Everybody in the community has to play a part.

9. What is a recent accomplishment you have made that you are proud of?

On my birthday in June, I set out and ran a marathon on the New River Trail and carried my own water and fuel. It went well. Next, I have the Richmond marathon coming up in November, so I’m hoping to officially check the box with a real race, but that was a lot of fun in June.

10. What is your favorite place to visit?

That's hard because travel is so important to me. I think that you gain a lot of perspective by being in other places and learning from other people. There are a couple of places I’ve visited that really stood out to me and continue to resonate. The Semien Mountains in Ethiopia and Riomaggiore in Italy – a series of five towns on the coast that you can hike between –were absolutely beautiful and full of culture, which is so much fun to take in when traveling.