The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) is a regional planning agency providing technical assistance to over 100 communities in the Greater Boston, Massachusetts Region

John joined MAPC in 2021 as a Senior Housing and Land Use Planner at MAPC with prior experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He works with communities across Greater Boston to address regional and local barriers to housing opportunity, inclusivity, equity, and affordability. He provides project management and technical assistance to implement the goals in MAPC’s regional plan, MetroCommon, including work on housing production plans, zoning, and local policy and programming.

John’s areas of expertise include master planning, affordable housing development, community engagement, neighborhood change, local governance and programming, data practice, and GIS mapping

Other duties in this position include:

• Manages projects related to housing goals throughout Greater Boston.
• Implementation of the MetroCommon 2050 Regional land use and policy plan.
• Technical assistance to local municipalities and others as needed.
• Housing Production Plans
• Neighborhood and municipal comprehensive planning
• Community Engagement for the public and small groups
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→ View website, mapc.org

The Brown School of Social Work is one of America’s top-ranked schools of social work and is a globally recognized leader in the training of social science researchers.

• • Instruction of computer software ArcGIS desktop.
  • Engaged in all aspects of adjunct instruction including, but not limited to: lesson planning and curriculum development; in-class and online teaching; and individual student assistance.

the city of Crestwood is an independent and incorporated municipality in st. Louis County, Missouri.

John joined The City of Crestwood in 2021. As the City Planner, he is responsible for all planning, zoning, and economic development in the city.  As an intermediary between the municipal development cope and the public, John provides technical assistance and guidance to property owners, developers, architects, and businesses on how to achieve their development goals in Crestwood.

Internally, John works in the city administration department of city government, helping to guide decisions made by the city administration, department of public works, and the city clerk. He also works closely with the City's Planning, Zoning and Architectural Review Committee, acting as the staff person responsible for setting their agenda, providing supplemental material for meetings, and getting concerns with site plans rectified prior to being brought to a public meeting.

His duties in this position include:

• Overseeing conformance of developments to the municipal code, comprehensive plan, and applicable overlay districts.
• Conducting official city review, including zoning review for commercial properties and development review of site plans.
• Implementing the City's comprehensive plan.
• Provides reports and recommendations to the Planning, Zoning, and Architectural Review Commission as well as the Board of Aldermen.
• Responsible for setting the agenda for, and managing as staff the Planning, Zoning, and Architectural Review Commission.
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• Customer service functions of city government, including the validating of commercial occupancy permits and interfacing with the public.
• Technical assistance for developers, engineering companies, sign companies, and businesses.
• GIS, map-making, and geospatial analysis.
• Public speaking and testimony during public hearings.
• All other duties related to municipal planning, zoning, and economic development.

→ View website, cityofcrestwood.org

Rise provides capacity-building technical assistance and training to community development organizations, government agencies and institutions in the St. Louis region.

John joined Rise in 2015. As the Data Management Coordinator, a position that is part urban planner, part data scientist, he uses geospatial and census data to tell a visual story of what is happening with land use in the St. Louis region while also tracking neighborhood change indicators. As an intermediary between data sources and human consumption, John aides the public in data literacy initiatives and assists community partner organizations to interpret and properly utilize data as a way that can positively impact their service areas.

Internally, John works with both the Rise technical assistance team and real estate team. He provides technical assistance and consulting services to Rise partners, non-profits, and local government. Utilizes geographic information systems data and technology, he works to support all Rise real-estate developments.

John is also heavily involved in community planning efforts in areas related to community engagement, policy research, process planning, and plan production.

Other duties in this position include:

• Geographic Information Systems for geospatial analysis and cartography.
• Data analysis via spreadsheets and database systems - with a focus on neighborhood indicators.
• Work both individually and as part of a team on multiple projects at once with multiple deadlines, including affordable housing development.
• Community Planning and community development, including community master planning and comprehensive planning for the City of St. Louis and St. Clair County.
• Experience with HUD systems and comprehensive planning elements including the CAPER, Annual Action Plan, and analyses to the impediments of fair housing.
• Technical assistance and consulting to community organizations, non-profits, government entities, and others.
• Community Engagement via public meetings, charrettes, trainings as a data intermediary, various speaker engagements / workshops, and others.

→ View website, risestl.org

Old North St. Louis Restoration Group is a community based non-profit aiding the Old North neighborhood of St. Louis.

John lends his time as a part-time intern aiding the office in whatever duties are necessary. These include:

• Community development research and recommendations
• Grant writing and related research
• IT and web based needs.
• As needed organizational based work.
• John continues to volunteer with and aide the organization on an as-needed basis

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Face3 Media is a full service web design and development firm, which services a wide variety of clients.

Projects include small business websites, custom web applications, and custom Wordpress development. John joined the development team at Face3 in 2014 after relocating to Montréal. John's duties as a developer at Face3 include:

• Software development on the Wordpress platform, including custom plug-in development and front-end development.
• Large and small scale projects including e-commerce and large music festivals.
• Backend web programming using PHP, MySQL databases.

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Global Detroit, a part of the New Solutions group is a small non-profit organization, which aims to strengthen Southeast Michigan and make Detroit a global city by pursuing initiatives that will make the region more attractive to immigration and foreign investment.

Completed an extensive mapping project and social / economic statistics report on the foreign-born populations of the Metro Detroit area. Worked directly with Global Detroit staff as well as Kurt Metzger of Data Driven Detroit on this project. You can download the full report along with the companion maps at the Global Detroit website here.

The final report received news coverage from various media outlets, including:

• The Detroit Free Press “Biggest metro Detroit immigrant group is from India, report shows”. View Article PDF | View Article Online
• Michigan Radio “Report: Metro Detroit immigrants don't follow typical patterns”. View Article PDF | View Article Online
• D Business, Detroit’s Premier Business Journal “New Report Details Metro Detroit’s Hidden Immigrant Communities”. View Article PDF | View Article Online

John was asked, along with Kurt Metzger of Data Driven Detroit, to do an interview on WDET’s The Craig Fahle Show for a segment titled “Detroit: America’s Melting Pot”.  Click here to download a PDF of the WDET segment notes and click here to download an MP3 of the interview.

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The Detroit Revitalization Fellows Program is a fellowship program housed at Wayne State University that recruits professionals and helps to place them with potential organizations to help aide in the economic recovery of Detroit.

John developed social media strategies with DRFP staff as well as other Wayne State partner organizations to reach a broader audience and spread program awareness through social media. This included social media updates from partner organizations and employers of fellows. He also worked to produce demographic reports, presentations and statistics on the potential fellows as well as social media benchmarks.

Other duties included on-site photography and photo editing for various program events with fellows and potential fellows.

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The Red Theory Online Services is a small business that provides custom web solutions, web design and programming for individuals, non-profits, and businesses. John was The Red Theory’s first employee.

Worked in custom development on numerous consumer platforms including: blogging platforms, content management systems, e-Commerce, and web programs run on custom frameworks primarily using PHP.

• Custom web design utilizing Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, CSS, and template schemes that work on various online platforms.
• Worked directly with clients and partner agencies to collaborate on projects.
• Oversaw work of other designers, developers and interns.

→ View website

CBS Detroit features the stories of people and places from Southeast Michigan

Produced the first “Defend Your Ride” segments for CBS Local Detroit, interviewing people about their cars and their driving activities.

Conducted on-location interviews and photographed people with their rides.

→ View example interview

Signs365.com is a “Business to Business” producer of custom signage. John designed and built the online system to purchase signs from scratch.

Working with ownership and staff, John was able to access the business needs and designed an online ordering system that would allow the business to stop local “business to customer” sales and focus entirely on online sales. Once the site was active, he worked to fix software bugs, add site improvements, design changes, handled customer support, and eventually coordinated all the day's shipments via DHL and UPS.

When John started, the company had no presence on the web. When he left, online sales were up to around $20k per month and in-store sales were almost completely phased out. Since then, the company has continued to build and expand upon the technology. They are now located in Macomb TWP Michigan with a large printing warehouse to handle all the worldwide orders.

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The Regional Data Alliance is an initiative in St. Louis that works to address the region's data challenges alongside a growing number of partner governments, universities, funders, nonprofits, healthcare providers, private businesses, and strategic initiatives.

The American Planning Association is the largest professional organization of community planners in the United States. The St. Louis Metro Section covers the 11-county St. Louis Metropolitan Area in both Missouri and Illinois. John was on the planning committee for the 2017 Missouri State Planning Conference in St. Louis.

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Coordinated by the Urban Institute, NNIP consists of organizations in 32 cities that share a mission to help community stakeholders use neighborhood data for better decision-making, with a focus on working with low-income communities. The Executive Committee is a partially elected body which oversees the direction of NNIP.

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CivTech STL is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the goal of empowering citizens with tools and data that lead to more effective government, a more engaged community, and a more equitable society. John helped oversee efforts to turn CivTech into a nonprofit from an initiative, serving a year on the board as Vice President and Treasurer.