Public Engagement and Facilitation

Rural and remote futures

As co-facilitator of the Far West Texas Community-Building Summit, I led a group of 50 regional stakeholders through an intensive collaborative process to identify shared challenges and develop cross-community solutions for this unique borderland region.

Our work made the news in two countries!

The summit convened nearly 200 regional leaders and decision-makers from Alpine, Fort Davis, Marfa, Presidio, Marathon, and surrounding communities at The Granada Theatre, anchored around speaker Doug Griffiths presentation 13 Ways to Kill Your Community. This gathering addressed the distinctive needs of our remote desert region, where communities face both geographical isolation and shared economic and social challenges. I contributed:

Facilitation

I designed and led structured ideation sessions that enabled participants to move beyond traditional siloed thinking toward regional collaboration.

Systems Thinking Application

Applied my expertise in complex systems to help participants identify interconnected challenges across communities and visualize cascading impacts of potential solutions.

Consensus Building

Guided diverse stakeholders through potentially contentious political topics to find common ground and shared priorities.

Methodology Design

Created a facilitation framework tailored to our region's unique context, incorporating elements from organizational design, leadership development, and strategic foresight methods.

Impact and Outcomes

The summit generated concrete action plans addressing critical regional needs:

Economic Development: Strategic initiatives to address shared business vacancies and create a cohesive regional economic identity

Cross-Community Collaboration: Framework for a potential regional chamber of commerce to strengthen the collective voice of Far West Texas

Critical Infrastructure Solutions: Targeted approaches to regional transportation challenges and childcare shortages

Educational Integration: Innovative partnerships engaging Sul Ross State University students in community development projects

Regional Context and Significance

The Trans-Pecos region of Texas represents one of America's most unique and challenging environments for community development. With vast distances between population centers, proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, and resource contingencies, our communities must innovate beyond traditional development models.

This summit marked a critical shift from community-specific planning to a truly regional approach, recognizing that our remote communities can achieve greater impact through strategic collaboration than through individual efforts.

Continuity and Follow-Through

Rather than a one-time event, this summit initiated an ongoing regional dialogue. The design the follow-up framework included community video presentations of Doug Griffiths' presentations across multiple locations and structured implementation sessions to maintain momentum.

This project exemplifies what I think is a wise approach to complex regional challenges: bringing together diverse perspectives, facilitating productive dialogue, and creating actionable paths forward that honor local context while embracing innovative solutions.

Facilitators, Steering Committee, Board

This project was a direct result of the work and expertise of facilitators Liz Miller Grindstaff, Danelle Smith, Malinda Veldman; Steering Committee members Chris Cornell, Robert Halpern, Kirsten Moody, Jeanine Southerland; Alpine Community Projects Board members Abbey Branch, Scarlet Clouse, Kirsten Moody, Heather Haynes Smith; and speaker Doug Griffiths from Edmonton, Canada. I played just a small part. Thank you for the opportunity and for your trust.

Project themes: Regional Collaboration Systems Integration, Facilitation Consensus Building, Rural Innovation Resilience.

Links
Alpine Community Projects
Big Bend Sentinel
Doug Griffiths
Acknowledgements and Sponsors

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