Selected projects & case studies

Travis County Transportation Blueprint

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Designed and implemented the public engagement plan for Travis County's first long-range transportation plan, combining grassroots outreach with high-tech tools to reach Spanish-speaking, underserved, and disabled populations and all 22 jurisdictions in the County. The strategy used videos, English and Spanish webpages and social media campaigns, public and agency meetings, a live broadcast community discussion, focus groups, presence at local events, grassroots outreach through community service centers (Meals on Wheels, clinics), and onsite outreach where communities gather. More than 1,900 respondents from 87 zip codes, over 13,000 responses to County questions, and 17 community events with more than 600 attendees resulted in a unanimously adopted Transportation Blueprint.

Austin/Travis County Parent Engagement Project

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Co-designed and helped facilitate extensive public engagement that captured parents' opinions and needs across the Austin/Travis County area, informing the 2015–2018 School Readiness Action Plan.

Austin/Travis County Community Health Assessment

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Helped design and facilitate community engagement for the Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHA/CHIP), including survey design and analysis, community meetings, and a multi-agency steering committee planning retreat that produced action items for the final Plan.

Virtual Public Comment — Travis County, TX & Alachua County, FL

Facilitator, Designer, and Executive Producer

Designed and implemented a customized solution that preserved public comment during County Commission meetings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Facilitated more than 100 meetings, built and oversaw the back-end technology, trained facilitators, and devised standard operating procedures.

National Association of Counties

Author and Conference Presenter, Legislative Conference, 2019

Delivered the standing-room-only session “From Chaos to Collaboration: Dealing with Difficult Topics and Stakeholders” in Washington, D.C., covering foundational principles and cutting-edge tools for county public engagement. Also authored “Town Hall Meetings Have Gone Out of Style” for the NACo magazine and website.

Iowa City Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Facilitator / Research Director, 2023–2024

Co-facilitated this citizen-led advisory group tackling systemic racism in Iowa City with a focus on policing and public safety, providing facilitation, research, and strategic guidance on public engagement.

Racial Equity in Policing Commission — Salt Lake City, UT

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Co-facilitated a large, diverse Commission convened after a highly controversial officer-involved fatal shooting of a mentally disabled resident. Designed and facilitated Commission and subcommittee meetings plus listening sessions and other engagement opportunities that let the public influence the Commission's work.

Community Task Force on Policing — City of Elgin, IL

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Co-facilitated this task force convened after a controversial officer-involved shooting, designing and facilitating meetings, subcommittee work, listening sessions, and broader public engagement.

Community Forums on Public Safety and Homelessness — Grand Rapids, MI

Meeting Designer / Facilitator

Co-designed and facilitated forums helping city officials craft policy on public safety and social services challenges tied to unhoused residents' interactions with the public in the central business district. Required significant advance research, careful design of small-group conversations and public forums, and robust reporting.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Strategic Planning Consultant, Facilitator, and Plan Co-Author

Orchestrated the strategic planning process for the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, including situation assessment, meeting design, mediation, facilitation, and conflict and leadership coaching.

U.S. Department of the Interior — BSEE and BOEM

Strategic Planning Consultant and Facilitator

Designed, facilitated, and reported on a two-day leadership summit and a series of virtual workshops on key agency priorities, then facilitated a follow-up workshop to finalize the strategic plan and set an implementation schedule.

City of Austin Animal Services Office

Strategic Planning Facilitator and Consultant

Designed and facilitated a process in which internal and external stakeholders built the office's strategic plan, including an advisory/working group, public engagement surveys and analysis, and internal stakeholder focus groups.

Austin City Council

Budget Prioritization and Strategic Planning Workshop Facilitator

Facilitated two workshops informing Council budget priorities and the strategic plan update, including workshop design, a custom digital prioritization tool, analysis of results, and real-time polling exercises.

Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO)

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Orchestrated the strategic planning process for a 22-member board and staff representing jurisdictions across a seven-county region, including situation assessment, meeting design, mediation, facilitation, coaching, data analysis, and reporting.

Corpus Christi City Council

Facilitator

Designed and co-facilitated a two-day retreat for this South Texas city of more than 350,000 residents. Conducted nearly a dozen pre-retreat interviews and produced a vision of success, statement of purpose, and manageable set of strategic priorities for the Council's 2019–2020 term.

Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau

Strategic Plan Facilitator

Led the CVB's strategic planning at a pivotal moment involving convention center decisions, the city's tourist identity, and board-staff turmoil after a critical audit. Conducted pre-retreat meetings, an anonymous board survey, and coordination with subconsultants, producing a strategic plan for growing tourist and convention traffic that stakeholders embraced.

Umlauf Sculpture Garden

Strategic Plan Facilitator

Worked with the board and staff on strengths, opportunities, challenges, and threats through stakeholder focus groups, board interviews, and a day-long retreat, culminating in a comprehensive strategic plan and recommendations.

Preservation Austin

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Designed and orchestrated the strategic planning process for this major historic preservation organization, including situation assessment, meeting design, training, coaching, facilitation, data analysis, and reporting.

Texas Department of Health and Human Services

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Designed and facilitated a strategic planning and team-building session for the Enhanced Family Centered Safety Decision Making task force, including a pre-retreat questionnaire and a day-long workshop that produced recommendations on team structure, process improvements, and decision-making dynamics.

Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan

Public Engagement Consultant

Co-designed and executed the engagement strategy for this award-winning comprehensive plan: public workshops, pop-up engagement (“Speak Week”) at popular destinations and events, telecast and video content, and management of relationships between City staff and the community task force. The plan passed Council unanimously and won numerous awards for its engagement approach.

Our Vision FTL — City of Fort Lauderdale

Public Engagement Consultant

Designed and oversaw a multi-faceted engagement strategy for the city's visioning process, collecting more than 1,500 unique ideas through a Visioning Committee, open houses, telephone town halls, meetings-in-a-box, the OurVisionFTL.com platform, Big Ideas Fort Lauderdale, and the Neighbor Summit. The result was the unanimously endorsed Fast Forward Fort Lauderdale vision plan.

Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce

Facilitator

Designed and facilitated a series of sessions between two competing business groups that led to a successful merger, a rebrand, and stronger advocacy for Asian American-owned companies in greater Austin.

5-31 Memorial Committee — City of Virginia Beach, VA

Designed, facilitated, and reported on the Committee's in-person and virtual public meetings, and served with his team as liaison to families who lost loved ones in the mass shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. Steered the Committee to consensus recommendations that City Council unanimously supported.

Pulse Memorial Committee — City of Orlando, FL

Oversaw the stakeholder and community engagement process to co-create the design of a memorial to the Pulse nightclub mass shooting, resulting in committee consensus on a design concept expected to be completed by 2027.

Steven Taylor Sanctity of Life Pavilion — City of San Leandro, CA

Designed, facilitated, and reported on public meetings for this memorial honoring a Black man killed by a San Leandro police officer while struggling with mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. Conducted assessment interviews, developed the engagement process, and framed community questions on the pavilion's purpose and design elements.

City of Austin Equity-Based Historic Preservation Plan

Sole Facilitator

Helped select a diverse working group, delivered diversity, equity, and inclusion training, and guided 18 months of discussions through an equity lens, helping the group reach consensus across its many recommendations.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)

Consultant / Co-Facilitator, 2020–2022

Co-facilitated and provided project management and reporting for the process assessing offshore wind capacity proposals to New York State, working with more than two dozen stakeholders from state government and private firms and developing detailed technical evaluation criteria with offshore wind experts.

Austin Climate Protection Program and Generation Plan

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Helped design and facilitate widely attended public workshops and a televised town hall on municipal strategies to manage the effects of climate change, including situation assessment, process design, facilitation, coaching, training, and online engagement.

City of Louisville Plan 2040

Public Engagement Advisor and Trainer

Trained the Louisville Planning Department on public engagement strategy ahead of its comprehensive planning process; the plan was adopted unanimously with input from more than 6,000 members of the public.

Code Next — City of Austin

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Designed and co-facilitated the Community Advisory Group for Austin's land development code rewrite, consulted with project managers on engagement execution, and facilitated public meetings.

Airport Blvd Advocacy Group

Facilitator & Public Engagement Consultant

Facilitated group meetings and designed the engagement strategy for the future of a major East Austin corridor, creating a vision for the rebirth of Airport Boulevard that balanced residents, business owners, urban planners, developers, and other stakeholders.

Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO)

Public Engagement Consultant

Led the team designing engagement for the agency's 2050 Regional Transportation Plan update, including a pop-up exercise where passers-by prioritized transportation modes and infrastructure locations, plus analysis of the results.

Dove Springs and Montopolis City Manager's Walks

Coordinator

Designed and facilitated multi-stop walking tours of two underserved Austin neighborhoods led by the City Manager with more than a dozen City executives and neighborhood stakeholders, and coordinated department responses to issues raised.

Public Engagement Training and Design — PlanRVA, Richmond, VA

Meeting Designer / Facilitator

Helped this regional agency build civic infrastructure to improve engagement across a multi-city, multi-county region through research, interviews, a staff workshop, and development of policies and procedures for future engagement.

Texas Department of Transportation

Course Developer, Instructor, and Consultant

Worked with a University of Texas research team to develop and deliver a two-day advanced public engagement training for TxDOT employees, and provided engagement design and implementation for several state transportation projects, including facilitation of a large project team collaboration summit.

Visitor Impact Task Force — City of Austin

Lead Staff and Facilitator

Led a 20-member group examining the highest and best use of tourism's economic impact, coordinating City departments and external stakeholders and steering the Task Force to unanimously approved consensus recommendations.

Project Connect

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Oversaw public engagement for this multi-year effort addressing Central Texas transit needs, crafting messaging and collateral including an informational video, designing and facilitating public meetings and a televised town hall, and analyzing results.

City of Austin Bond Development

Public Engagement Manager, Consultant, and Facilitator

Developed messaging and collateral ahead of general obligation bond elections spanning public safety, parks, transportation, and housing affordability. Designed and facilitated public and stakeholder meetings, managed logistics and materials, and analyzed feedback; over 3,000 individual comments were submitted before the Bond Election Advisory Task Force recommendations.

Special Events Ordinance Stakeholder Process — City of Austin

Oversaw stakeholder engagement and outreach and staffed a 16-member task force on managing special events and maximizing their economic impact, steering it to consensus recommendations and then working with Economic Development staff and stakeholders to produce an updated Special Events Ordinance.

Rideshare / Transportation Network Companies Stakeholder Group

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Facilitated contentious discussions among Uber, Lyft, taxi drivers, other transportation providers, disability rights advocates, students, insurance representatives, and the City to determine a workable regulatory environment, helping the group identify core interests and shape the ordinance.

Construction Safety Stakeholder Process

Facilitator

At the request of Austin's Public Works department, devised and facilitated a stakeholder process on new construction worker safety rules that produced consensus among contractors, labor unions, and City officials.

Downtown Parking Policy Stakeholder Process

Facilitator / Process Designer

Facilitated dialogue among residents, retailers, downtown employers and employees, tourism officials, and historic preservation advocates on managing on-street parking across the Central Business District, enabling changes that raised revenue without dampening downtown activity.

City of Austin Contract Management

Facilitator

Facilitated a City Council stakeholder working group on the City's process for contracting out waste, recycling, and compost collection services.

Rainey St Stakeholder Group

Facilitator

Facilitated consensus recommendations for managing a rapidly growing corridor near downtown Austin amid conflict between older and newer residences, restaurants and nightclubs, and a cultural center, and designed open house meetings and online discussion forums.

South Congress Stakeholder Group

Facilitator

Facilitated the South Congress Advisory Group — Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Association, South River City Citizens, and the South Congress Merchant's Association — to consensus on managing the mix of residential, retail, dining, commercial, and religious uses, agreeing that no more than 50 percent of public access could be under a residential parking permit at any time.

City of Houston

Trainer

Designed and delivered training to City employees on managing conflict and improving communication and engagement with stakeholders, including situation assessment and conflict and leadership coaching.

Street Smarts Task Force

Facilitator / Mediator

Facilitated a stakeholder group and mediated a dispute over a proposed downtown Austin “bicycle boulevard,” leading to a consensus recommendation for traffic calming on Rio Grande Street with minimal impact on vehicular mobility, capacity, and parking while ensuring safe passage for cyclists and pedestrians.

City of Miami Beach

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Delivered customized public engagement, facilitation, and conflict resolution training to multiple departments and the executive team, leading to a long-term consulting contract that included focus groups, engagement consulting, analysis of internal and external conflicts, assessments, and coaching.

Animal Rescue Task Force

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Designed and facilitated an extensive series of meetings on Austin's pet population, where the group set a “No Kill City” goal with objectives to increase live outcomes and decrease intake at the Town Lake Animal Center. Also facilitated meetings balancing off-leash dog access with protection of nearby waterways.

Public Engagement Audits — Chicago, Washington DC, Scottsdale

Researcher, Facilitator, Trainer, and Consultant

Worked with 100 Resilient Cities (Rockefeller Foundation) to design and deploy an audit of public engagement practices, co-designing and analyzing research instruments, delivering staff training, and facilitating workshops on action items for resiliency strategies.

City of Austin Municipal Mediation

Mediator / Co-Founder

Mediated disputes across City departments involving permitting and related matters — including outdoor music near residential properties, bureaucratic process challenges, and modification of historic structures. Developed protocols for using Austin Dispute Resolution Center mediators, trained DRC mediators, and enlisted them as breakout facilitators.

City of Austin Budget

Public Engagement Consultant / Facilitator

Developed a “Budget in a Box” exercise enabling community organizations to host their own interactive budget-balancing activities, and helped design and facilitate public workshops, an online allocation tool, and stakeholder focus groups.

Municipal Civil Service Commission

Facilitator

After voters approved civil service for many City of Austin employees, facilitated the new Commission's meetings to develop rules and procedures, resolving conflicts among Commissioners and enabling civil service protections for thousands of employees.

Forums and Conversations on Housing Affordability

Consultant / Process Designer / Facilitator

Designed and facilitated dozens of conversations for Austin's Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department, including a policy guiding the location of affordable housing investments, a large workshop where residents of affordable housing switched roles with neighbors opposed to it, and a strategic plan for housing affordability.

U.S. Department of Defense

Ombudsman

Mediated and resolved disputes between National Guard members across all military branches and their civilian employers, typically involving rights and responsibilities under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

Children's Activities Task Force

Chairman

Spearheaded an initiative producing policy guidelines and protocols for City of Austin departments to offer supervised children's activities at public meetings, consulting childcare providers, experts, youth programming staff, and event planners.

City of Austin Facilitation and Public Engagement Training

Designer / Instructor

Designed and delivered training to dozens of City staff; graduates joined a Public Engagement Community of Practice and served as small group facilitators at subsequent public meetings.

Community Engagement Task Force

Consultant, Support Staff

Provided a comprehensive overview of engagement practices, recommendations for improvement, and resources for the Task Force's work, then helped report its recommendations and used them as the foundation for the City of Austin's Community Engagement Manual.

National Civic League

Senior Fellow

One of three inaugural senior fellows and one of five currently, providing thought leadership and direct assistance on League projects: articles for National Civic Review, webinars, guidance on the Civic Index update, national conference presentations, and support to All America City communities.

Community Workshop on Wood Pellet Manufacturing and Environmental Impacts

Facilitator

Assisted the U.S. EPA and federal, state, and local partners in conversations with community and environmental stakeholders on the impact of Drax Manufacturing's wood pellet facility in Gloster, Mississippi, involving significant research, design, conflict resolution, data analysis, and reporting.

Barton Springs Zone Redevelopment Ordinance

Facilitator / Policy Advisor

Worked with environmental advocates, real estate developers, and other stakeholders on a groundbreaking ordinance enabling thoughtful redevelopment in the sensitive Barton Springs Zone while ensuring environmental protection. The complex ordinance passed City Council unanimously.

Reusable/Single-Use Bag Policy and Zero Waste Master Plan

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Oversaw public and stakeholder engagement on Austin's bag policy and worked with Austin Resource Recovery for nearly a decade on the Zero Waste Master Plan and related measures — curbside recycling frequency, curbside compost, textile recycling, and a new ordinance governing sustainability at public events such as the Kite Festival and Austin City Limits.

Aquatic Assessment Public Engagement

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Oversaw a multi-pronged engagement strategy on the future of Austin's swimming facilities through surveys, public input and update meetings, and an Interactive Town Hall Meeting, collecting more than 2,500 questionnaire responses and facilitating nearly a dozen public meetings.

Urban Parks Stakeholder Group

Facilitator

Worked with Austin Parks and Recreation and stakeholders including parks and athletic groups, child and family advocates, real estate, and neighborhoods to design and facilitate a consensus building and public input process aligned with the Council goal of park access within a quarter mile of every Austin home.

Lake Austin Task Force

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Co-facilitated a body making consensus recommendations on watershed development, lake use and management, environmental protection including water quality, shoreline erosion, and invasive species, and coordination among the City of Austin, LCRA, and Texas Parks and Wildlife. Designed the task force process and oversaw a multi-pronged engagement effort including a moderated online discussion and public meetings.

Parkland Events Task Force

Facilitator / Public Engagement Consultant

Facilitated consensus recommendations ensuring Austin parks — particularly Auditorium/Vic Mathias Shores, Zilker Park, and Festival Beach — remain assets for residents and are preserved for future generations, with engagement via text message, SpeakUpAustin.org, and public meetings.

Parks and Recreation Center Advisory Board Summit

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Mediated and facilitated a dispute involving Austin Parks and Recreation and dozens of self-appointed citizen advisory groups, producing through a designed summit and follow-up sessions a new framework for those groups to support City services.

Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life

Senior Fellow

Designed and delivered public engagement training to attendees nationwide, including more than two dozen municipal governments, transportation agencies, school districts, nonprofits, consulting firms, and professional associations. Authored thought pieces in Texas newspapers, presented at Institute conferences, guest lectured, and helped shape Institute strategy.

Southern Methodist University (SMU)

Adjunct Faculty / Course Designer

Designed and delivered a course on public policy dispute resolution for graduate students in conflict resolution, business, and law. The well-reviewed elective ran three consecutive semesters and remains one of the few offered face to face.

Conversation Corps

Creator, Trainer, and Facilitator

Worked with the City of Austin, Austin ISD, Capital Metro, and Leadership Austin to build a facilitator training program that expanded public engagement across greater Austin. Oversaw program and training development, wrote conversation host guides, coached hosts, and hosted conversations — and now delivers the training across the U.S.

Divided Community Project, Ohio State University

Senior Advisor

Provides ongoing guidance to DCP staff helping communities torn apart by strife, often rooted in conflicts between communities and public safety agencies.

AustinCorps and Austin Youth Council

Co-Founder

Helped design and launch a high school program exposing students to city government through experiential learning, workshops, and internships, and connected students to key City issues before they became registered voters.

Small Business Summit — City of Austin

Facilitator and Public Engagement Consultant

Designed and facilitated a heavily attended summit aligning City resources with small business needs, developing the agenda, training table facilitators, managing the event, and analyzing results for the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office.

“A View From You”

Host / Executive Producer / Creator

Developed the “reverse town hall” broadcast concept and has produced and hosted meetings for clients across the United States, including New York City, Jacksonville, and the City and County of Denver. The broadcasts have each drawn thousands of attendees and earned recognition from the National Civic League, several universities, and state and national associations of government/public access television stations.

SpeakUpAustin.org

Co-Designer and Chief Moderator

Helped design and oversee this award-winning engagement platform, now a model for agencies nationwide. Worked with programmers on a custom platform including a social ideation page that produced actionable ideas such as a cell phone parking lot at the Austin airport, a moderated threaded discussion forum, and a specialized questionnaire and survey tool.

Resolutions Podcast

Co-Host / Producer

Founding co-host of the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section podcast, discovering and vetting guests and topics, conducting interviews, helping edit episodes, and promoting the show.

Beyond the Town Hall Podcast

Founding Host / Executive Producer

Founding host and executive producer of this public engagement podcast, vetting interviewees and topics, conducting interviews, editing episodes, and promoting the podcast to a variety of audiences.

Spirit of East Austin

Television Host / Executive Producer

Conceived and hosted live coverage of a widely attended public workshop on economic development and other challenges facing East Austin, interviewing more than a dozen community and municipal leaders on air, writing the broadcast script, and reporting for the City's government access television station.