The North Richmond Collaborative Shoreline Adaptation Project (NRCSAP) is a community-driven effort to strengthen shoreline resilience to sea-level rise and flooding. Through nature-based design, including a “living levee,” the project aims to protect neighborhoods, critical infrastructure, and marsh habitat while improving public access to the shoreline. I was responsible for managing and coordinating the project, as well as designing the curriculum and participatory activities, and creating project goals.

​

Drawing on cross-cultural communication and active listening, I ensured residents felt confident speaking in traditionally technocratic spaces through a curriculum that redistributed power. I advocated for their priorities, mediated between government officials, residents, and consultants, and slowly built trust. Residents expressed gratitude for the agency this work gave them “in a world that feels increasingly beyond our control”.