Valerie provides support for our office’s growing climate and resilience portfolio. She has prior experience as a public lands professional and is skilled in partnership building, nonprofit management, communications, planning, and project management. Before joining our office, she served as the Executive Director of the Partnership of the National Trails System. Prior to that, she worked with the Parks & People Foundation in Baltimore for eight years, led the fundraising and external relations as Development Director for the Women’s Law Center of Maryland, and worked in various positions with the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
Valerie holds Bachelor’s degrees in history and communications from Shippensburg University and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Baltimore. She hails from Scranton, PA, and currently lives in Ednor Gardens where she feeds the feral cats on the block and makes sure all the street trees are properly mulched.
SESSIONS
Community-anchored Planning & Resiliency Hubs in Baltimore
Developing equitable, implementable resiliency-focused resources requires us to balance effective scientific and policy strategies and community knowledge. This session will review practical techniques used to engage communities in the development of Baltimore's latest climate and disaster preparedness plan development and highlight its innovative community resiliency hub program.Participants will learn techniques used to equitably engage frontline communities and resources that can help them start community resiliency hubs.
Learning Objectives
- Understand a community resiliency hub program model.
- Learn different approaches to engaging technical experts and community members in resiliency plan and program development.
- Interact with community self-assessment tools used to better prepare community resiliency hubs to prepare local areas to respond to disasters.
Participant Outcomes
- Describe a community resiliency hub
- Identify what types of community groups may make a good community resiliency hub
- Determine potential partners and resources that may be provided to create community resiliency hubs in their jurisdictions