SELECT PROJECT EXAMPLES

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Providing funding pursuit and project development services for a broad range of locality needs. Have secured over $8 million in grants since 2019 for a variety of projects serving as a contractor for the Harvest Foundation. A select list of successful projects includes

• ARC grant for Workforce Foundations: Advancing Early Childhood Education
• Virginia Housing grant for new affordable housing project
• ARC POWER grant to complete Dick & Willie Passage Trail
• EDA Economic Adjustment Assistance grant for sanitary sewer extension along S.R. 58
• Land and Water Conservation Fund for new county park

Provided funding pursuit and community outreach to support organizational development (Affiliate program and Mountains of Music Homecoming, a regional, multi-day festival. launched in 2015. Worked with partners across the 19-county TCR footprint to build public-private partnerships and increase community collaboration for this foundational creative economy project in Southwest Virginia. Secured National Endowment for the Arts funding and assisted with design and roll-out of locality funding support.

Assisted with earliest project design and funding pursuit for outdoor recreation initiative across 19 counties of Southwest Virginia. Secured foundational grant through The Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge (2014), an interagency initiative designed to support bottom-up, regional economic development strategies by providing rural regions with resources to plan and implement coordinated, flexible, regionally-customized activities to support job creation. Helped build partnership among locality and regional planning district stakeholders. Assisted with pursuit of ARC POWER grant to implement ensuing components.  

Provided public relations and funding positioning services for revitalization of early 19th-century mercantile store that serves as the hub for a small Appalachian town. The 8,000-square-foot restored "Merc" fosters additional enterprise development including a bike store, a gift shop, a cafe, and an events center. The facility is located near an important trailhead for the New River Trail State Park, one of Virginia's most visited parks, but the Draper community saw little to no economic benefit prior to this project. Generated feature stories in Virginia Living, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the Roanoke Times. Planned and coordinated various public awareness events including a community conversation for Senator Mark Warner and his team.

Assisting with funding pursuit and partnership development for this six-state, agroforestry initiative coordinated through the Appalachian Beginning Forest Farmer Coalition (ABFFC). Helped identify funding sources for project. Have also coordinated project awareness through federal, state, and regional officials as well as funding agencies. Working with an 11-organization submittal to the Appalachian Regional Commission's ARISE project, seeking funding for a one-year planning project.

Served as marketing and communications consultant for this Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) for three years. Oversaw website redesign, selected and wrote content for quarterly newsletter, provided public relations services securing coverage in numerous periodicals (national, regional, and local), and directed and designed three annual reports.