Program Manager

Jaimie Hicks Masterson stands in support of local communities inspiring participating students

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. […]

Laura Martin builds authentic relationships with community partners and EPIC-Network colleagues

Dr. Laura Martin brings nearly 15 years of experience working on poverty alleviation programs at the grassroots and public policy levels. After college, she facilitated service learning trips and managed a community development project in rural Nicaragua. Most recently, Laura worked as a Policy and Research Coordinator at the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, where she analyzed legislation and regulations impacting health centers, and coordinated trainings for a federal grant to conduct CHIP and Medicaid outreach and enrollment in the Rio Grande Valley. As Legislative Director for Texas State Representative Armando Walle, Dr. Martin developed legislation regarding juvenile justice and stemming the high school dropout rate. […]

Mike Greco connects Minnesota local government agencies with the resources, research, and talent at the University of Minnesota

Mike Greco has more than a decade of experience connecting Minnesota local government agencies with the resources, research, and talent the University of Minnesota has to offer. He has a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from the U of MN’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, with a specialization in environmental planning and sustainability, and a Master of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mike is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, raising chickens, and hiking on the farm he and his wife call home. When he’s not outdoors, you may find him cooking, playing guitar, catching live music, attending local theater, or curling at the Dakota Curling Club in Lakeville. […]

Smiso Bhengu leads an EPIC programme from within a municipality

Smiso Bhengu, is the Climate Protection Scientist at the EThekwini Municipality. He works as the liaison on the city side supporting the EPIC Durban partnership between EThekwini Municipality and the University of KwaZulu Natal. […]

Travis Kraus prioritizes community needs in Iowa while developing resources and teaching courses

Travis Kraus is an Associate Professor in the University of Iowa School of Planning & Public Affairs and is the Director for the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, a community engagement program that helps create more sustainable futures while enhancing teaching and learning at the University of Iowa. Travis views Strategic Doing as a tool to enhance the capacity of rural and urban communities in Iowa to address the environmental, equity, economic, and cultural issues they face today. […]

Connie Frey Spurlock builds stronger communities in Southern Illinois

Dr. Connie Frey Spurlock is a sociologist committed to dismantling hierarchies of oppression and building in their place flourishing relationships. She does this work by centering community-identified goals with meaningful learning experiences for area students. Frey Spurlock is founding director of the SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative, a cross-disciplinary program based on the EPIC-N model, an award-winning university-community partnership program that works to advance the needs of communities while training the next generation workforce and leadership. SSCC develops and supports partnerships between SIUE and local communities to advance resilience and sustainability. She is also a member of the SIUE TRHT Campus Center, which seeks to prepare the next generation of leaders to confront racism and dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value. She has been at SIUE since 2004 and is also an associate professor of sociology. Her research and teaching interests center on sustainability, research methods, and community engagement. […]

Steve Russell seeks to share resources and learn together to improve the world

Steve Russell is the Program Manager of Project Cities, an initiative of the Sustainable Cities Network at Arizona State University. Russell holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Bachelor’s Degrees in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies, also from ASU. His most recent professional roles include directing the local food program at the nation’s largest coalition of local businesses, Local First Arizona, and launching a carbon management and urban forestry pilot program for ASU. […]

Kristofer Patrón-Soberano creates eye-opening experiences for local government leaders and university students

Kristofer Patrón-Soberano is the Programs’ manager for SDSU’s Center for Regional Sustainability and program administrator for the Sage Project. He is an economist from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Mexico, but turned green by completing his master’s degree in environmental management at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (El Colef) in Tijuana. His research focused on the economic valuation of natural resources, binational collaboration and US-Mexico governance. After earning his degree, he continued working at El Colef as coordinator of border projects. […]

Maria Dahmus develops novel ways to engage the public with community-university partnership projects

Maria Dahmus, Ph.D. is the co-founder and director of the Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP) in the Office of Sustainability Initiatives at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Maria develops and implements the strategic vision for SCP, from multi-year partnerships and project development to daily operations. In 2017, Maria created SCP Arts. […]

Jeewasmi Thapa exploring best practices to achieve meaningful impact in communities.

Jeewasmi Thapa Program CoordinatorTexas Target Communities979.458.3121jthapa@arch.tamu.eduLinkedIn Favorite Place Downtown Bryan. It is a Texas Main Street gem and a success story of good planning that revitalized a declining downtown to a bustling and vibrant community hub, and it’s walkable! What was your first interaction with a school-community partnership project? My first high impact service-learning project […]

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