Our Verdunity crew is excited to announce the hiring of AJ Fawver, AICP, CNU-A as our Community Consulting Program Leader beginning May 8th. In this role, she will guide content development for our soon-to-be-released online network and training programs, facilitate workshops, and assist with client development. She’ll also be an integral member of our team that partners with communities on comprehensive and area plans, ordinances and implementation projects. She will be based in Lubbock, Texas.

Want to learn a bit more about AJ? Listen to our two-part interview with her for our Go Cultivate! podcast.

AJ is going to allow us to share our ideas and lessons learned with a broader audience. Since launching our Go Cultivate! workshops and podcast, we've heard from leaders of many rural communities that they face the same infrastructure and development challenges as larger cities, but in a different context, and that access to innovative programs can be difficult for them. AJ has experienced this firsthand in her various positions in west Texas.

We've been looking for the right person to enhance our training programs and consulting services both technically and geographically to help serve this need. AJ is a respected and influential leader in the planning community, shares our passion for fiscal resilience and resource-based planning and design, and has experience working inside rural communities of various sizes, so she’s a great fit.

"I became a municipal planning director to help communities articulate their visions and execute the steps necessary to realize them,” AJ said. “Joining Verdunity allows me to feed my passion for building relationships and planning for neighborhoods and communities in a way that doesn't force a choice between fiscal resilience and quality of life. I am excited to help expand Verdunity's reach, bringing their unique resource-conscious planning strategies to West Texas & the Panhandle."

AJ Fawver, our newest Verdooner

Experience with rural communities and knowledge of west Texas

AJ brings more than 15 years of experience working for local governments, including serving as the Planning Director for the Cities of Lubbock and Amarillo, and as the Development Services Director, Planning & Development Administrator, & Planning Manager for the City of San Angelo. She holds certifications obtained through the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), the Congress of New Urbanism (CNU-A), and is a Certified Public Manager (CPM) through Texas Tech University. A native of the Texas panhandle, she earned her bachelor’s degree in government from Angelo State University and completed graduate coursework in public administration at the University of Texas at Arlington.  

Passion for education and leadership

AJ is about to begin her second term as the Director of the Northwest Texas Section of the American Planning Association (APA). In her first term, she revitalized the Section with webinars, social media, live training events, recruiting initiatives, and 4-6 unique events a year for its members. AJ is the chair of the APATX Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and has served in a number of positions at the regional, state, and national levels of the APA, including Director of Membership for the Women and Planning Division.  AJ was named in 2016, 2017, & 2018 to the Traeger List, a ranking of the top 100 local government influencers, and was the recipient of the APA Texas President’s Award in 2017. She has appeared on several podcasts, spoken at conferences, mentored new professionals, and written about the planning field, including her monthly blog “Planning & Shaping Cities.” 

We’ll be looking to leverage AJ’s experience, talents and relationships to advance our mission of cultivating healthy, equitable and resilient communities for future generations. AJ’s new email is aj@verdunity.com. Drop her a note and help us welcome her to the Verdunity Community!