I’m a lapsed academic interested in building community capacity and facilitating social change by supporting people, grassroots organizations, entrepreneurs and community-based initiatives. In my role as Extension educator, I work with organizations to build their capacity in order to fulfill their mission, through asset mapping, strategic planning, scenario planning, program design or evaluation. I’m co-developing a peer learning training program for early stage non-profits that will pilot this fall, so contact me if you want to learn more about this program or other Extension services. I also co-host the annual Edible Startup Summit (which will be virtual this year, once a week during Nov., 2021) for food business startups. My other passions include gardening, bread baking, running, biking, skiing, and applied improv. Together with Jessica and Michelle (my co-presenters), I’m exploring how laughing, co-creating, and innovating through improv can help build communication, leadership, and civic engagement skills for community building.