I led communications and engagement work for Dallas Zoning Reform — turning planning conversations that usually live in PDFs and council chambers into something residents could follow on their own time and have a real say in.
That meant messaging frameworks, event strategy, creative direction, stakeholder comms, and public education built around one idea: zoning shapes daily life, and people deserve a way in.
The challenge
Zoning is dense and easy to tune out. It's also one of the most consequential things a city decides — housing, walkability, commerce, who gets to stay where. The challenge was making it both understandable and worth showing up for.
"Translation between institutions and communities is the work."
The approach
Messaging that traded planner-speak for plain language. Community-conversation formats that invited residents in instead of talking at them. Event design that treated listening as the main job, not a courtesy.
Outcome
A clearer public voice for the Zoning Reform process, and a set of formats designed so residents could feel like participants in the decision — not an audience for it.