Whether in my place of employment, faith community, or city, I try to build connections with a mix of idealism and pragmatism. While I am a down-to-business type of guy, I believe firmly that we must be ambitious with our vision. Our dreams feed us with glimpses of the possible as we work toward it in the present. I am a firm supporter of empowering locally controlled organizations and of power structures that build their agendas from the bottom up.
As an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, I had the distinct pleasure of being exposed to many facets of community development. I served as part of a research team working with the Sector 4 Community Development Corporation as they explored the possibilities for finally launching the Brooks Landing project, which had been in the works for nearly two decades.
That project led me to apply and be selected as a member of the first Urban Fellowship cohort in Rochester. There I spent significant time with faculty and municipal experts discussing the complexities of urban issues ranging from poverty, to crime, education, and access to grocery stores. As part of that Fellowship I had a placement in St. Joseph's Community Center, where I worked on a transitional housing grant and came to more closely know the community in which I lived. Further pursuing these interests I eventually studied with Leadership Rochester and the Main Street Institute.
These days my interests are in several areas:
I am an active member of the National Storytelling Network and a board member and the treasurer for the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling (LANES). I currently have a particular interest in the use of storytelling in education, but have been a storyteller my whole life, giving my first public performance at age 11. I have studied with Odds Bodkin, Doug Lipman, and Brother Blue, as well as leading workshops about the use of narrative in educational environments. The LANES community is making a concerted effort to increase interest and support among storytellers in the New York area, including a decision to have the 2011 conference in Albany: the first New York hosting in all of our 30 years.