Speakers
National Expert: Rebecca Sanborn Stone
Rebecca Sanborn Stone embodies the DIY spirit, and there's almost nothing that she's not game to learn or try herself. She has canned pickles and planned carnivals. She has taught rock climbing and rocked song rhyming. She has worked as a writer, professor, website builder, grant maker, planner, ecologist, facilitator, artist, data analyst, designer, gardener, builder, and more -- occasionally all in the same day.
As co-owner of the Vermont-based design and engagement shop Community Workshop, she works with people and communities across North America. She is the author of the DIY Community Cookbook, and loves helping people imagine better futures for their places and get to work creating them -- using whatever resources they have on hand.
When she's not spray painting sidewalks, you might have seen her writing or speaking across the globe. She's been featured in TED Books, at AARP's National Livability Conference, California League of Cities, Creative Communities Exchange, and at the European Union's Schoolnet. She's excited to join us today and tell us how the simplest actions can spark the biggest change.
National Expert: Jeff Siegler
Jeff Siegler is an author, speaker, elected official, and consultant concerned with the powerful role “place” plays in our lives. He is the founder of the civic pride consulting firm, Revitalize, or Die, and co-founder of the organization Proud Places.
After obtaining his master’s in urban planning from Virginia Commonwealth University, Jeff went to work on Main Street—first as a downtown manager, and later as the Ohio Main Street State Coordinator.
His first book, Your City Is Sick, was published in September of 2023.
Leah Kemp
Leah Kemp serves as the Director of the Fred Carl Jr. Carl Small Town Center at Mississippi State University, a community design center that advocates for meaningful design for small towns. She is a registered architect who collaborates with MSU School of Architecture faculty, staff and students to help small towns in many different capacities. Leah will lead the very popular session, Placemaking on a Budget, where attendees can learn tools and tactics for implementing placemaking in their communities without breaking the bank, such as temporary installations, tactical urbanism, asphalt art, parklets and other cost-effective methods to achieve impactful placemaking projects. You'll also have a chance to learn the Power of the Pop-Up, sponsored by the Community Foundation for Mississippi and the Small Town Center, where attendees have a chance to get hands-on with creating their own activated public space. Kemp earned a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design from Virginia Tech and a Master of Architecture from Tulane University. Leah has practiced in Washington, DC, Nashville, TN, New Orleans, LA, and across the state of Mississippi.
More speaker information coming soon!