Meet the Verdooners
Get to know the people behind Verdunity in this ongoing series! You'll get to hear from each of our team members and get a little background on them and what makes them tick.
Episode 8 - Matt Meals
In this episode we are sitting down with Matt Meals, the newest addition to Verdunity’s engineering team. He and Kevin discuss Matt’s journey to Verdunity, and his perspective on how land use fiscal analysis gives cities the education they need to plan for communities to take root, as well as how it empowers citizens to take active roles in shaping the future of their communities. Throughout the interview, Matthew emphasizes the importance of context and community in engineering and design, and shares how his passion for environmentalism and sustainable energy led him to where he is today.
Episode 7 - Maddie Bonney
Time to roll out some new Meet the Verdooners episodes to introduce y'all to the newest members of our team! In this episode, Kevin sits down with Maddie Bonney, our new Planner, and they discuss her personal motivations for pursuing a career in planning, including her desire to improve quality of life and promote self-sustaining economic development. She explains how her values align with Verdunity's focus on fiscal health and local wealth, and they discuss the relationship between the design of our neighborhoods and the mental health of the people living there.
Episode 6 - Kevin Shepherd
Kevin Shepherd, the founder and CEO of Verdunity is here to talk about where the company has been, where it might be going in the future, and what gifts your city-focused friends might enjoy. Spoiler alert: he loves books. Kevin is an engineer, but as is usually pretty obvious, not your typical engineer, and its interesting to hear from him some of the struggles he has faced trying to communicate a message of fiscal responsibility to sometimes very resistant parties.
Episode 5 – AJ Fawver
Episode 5 of “Meet the Verdooners” introduces us to AJ Fawver, who leads Verdunity’s Community Consulting Program. We learn what initially brought AJ into the planning world and why she sees community building as so integral to great outcomes. AJ is a firm believer that we serve communities best when we remember that people are at the center of everything we do, and she greatly admires communities that are willing to have difficult conversations in order to effect positive change in their cities.
After the episode make sure to check out AJ’s book recommendations:
The Local Economy Solution by Michael Shuman
Placemaking with Children and Youth by Victoria Derr, Louise Chawla, and Mara Mintzer
As well as “We Built it That Way”, a podcast she co-hosts with Jordan Clark.
Episode 4 – Tim Wright
Tim Wright's work spans the gamut from missing middle housing to incremental development and infrastructure right-sizing. He has been an engineer on the kinds of projects that can transform a place into a more sustainable, connected community. Hailing from the great state of Louisiana (Shreveport to be exact) and proudly lacking on sleep (as he's a brand new dad), Tim is an integral part of the team here at Verdunity. Tim is also the founder of Re:Form Shreveport, an organization that is working to improve the city of Shreveport by fostering deep community connections and volunteerism, locally.
Episode 3 – Mari Austin
Mari Austin is Verdunity's Process and Communications Coordinator. Her work is too varied to adequately explain in a podcast blurb – but it ranges from process improvement to multimedia production (including this very podcast), to fostering a positive and forward-looking company culture here in-house. Mari comes from outside the world of municipal planning and engineering, and thus brings a unique perspective to our team. But it's clear in this episode how much Mari brings to the work that we do here; her personal experience living in underserved communities and looking up at the systemic apathy that can often oversee the communities we live in is critical to the conversations we have. Enjoy!
Episode 2 – Karina Castillo
Episode 2 introduces Karina Castillo, a planner here at Verdunity. If you are a young planner, ready to go out and change the world, there is some exciting backstory you might enjoy from Karina. There are some real gems of knowledge here when it comes to trying to get good work done – who really makes the big decisions in your community, and are those the same people who are most qualified to solve the issues in front of them?
Episode 1 – Marshall Hines
Our first episode introduces Marshall Hines, our Creative Director and the person responsible for helping us communicate this message of fiscal responsibility in the most compelling and understandable way possible.
After the episode be sure to check out the books Marshall recommended:
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The Go Cultivate! podcast is a project of Verdunity.
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