Jaimie Hicks Masterson stands in support of local communities inspiring participating students
Jaimie Hicks Masterson
Director, Texas Target Communities
Texas A&M University
jmasterson@arch.tamu.edu
+19794581295
Favorite Place
I love the beautiful Texas countryside
If applicable, briefly describe your first interaction with a school-community project and the impact it had on you.
I was a junior in college (in 2004) and we worked with the City of Key West, Florida to design pop-up facilities and spaces post-disaster to aid with recovery. I was completely consumed by the project and years later went back to school in planning focusing on resiliency and hazard mitigation. This project ultimately led me to my passion, my career, and my current position at Texas A&M.
Briefly, how did you first learn about EPIC-N?
Through a faculty member at Texas A&M, Dr. Shannon Van Zandt, director of the Center for Housing and Urban Development.
What are some of the top priorities you are working on this year?
Training a cadre of faculty in participatory community engagement. Inspiring students as they work on real community projects and shape local decisions. Building our team of passionate leaders!
In what ways are you looking to engage, or work with others, either from within the EPIC-Network or in general?
I’d like to develop training modules and fun resources for faculty and students so we can inspire and increase the workforce that supports small, low-capacity communities.
Why do you think the EPIC-Network is important?
It connects universities, standing in support of local communities.
What is your favorite part of the EPIC-Network?
Learning from university experiences.
What do you want a community, or university, to know about the EPIC-Network?
It is responsive and flexible to meet local needs.
What are you hoping attendees will take with them after attending your presentation?
How universities and communities can work together to achieve big things.
Bio
Jaimie Hicks Masterson, AICP is Director of Texas Target Communities at Texas A&M University, a high-impact service-learning program that works alongside underserved communities to plan for resilience. Based on this work, in 2019, the Liberty County Strategic Plan received the national Silver Planning Achievement Award from the American Planning Association. She is author of “Planning for Community Resilience: A Handbook for Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters,” which focuses on hazard mitigation strategies and tools for government officials, planners, and emergency managers that can be incorporated pre-disaster. She is the engagement coordinator Institute for Sustainable Communities and the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard project funded by the Department of Homeland Security and a part of the Center for Coastal Resilience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
