Around the Table with Shelley Scalzo Brown

Welcome to Around the Table, a regular series where we talk to fascinating people in our network and share the incredible work they are doing in their community. Pull up a chair and join us for conversation and connection.

Name: Shelley Scalzo Brown, Operations and Risk Management Leader,
specializing in Corporate Safety, Environmental Management, Business Analysis, Governance, and Sustainability

Where to find you: LinkedIn


What drew you to working in the safety field? 

I was drawn to the safety field by my parents. My father ran operations for a maritime shipping company, primarily tugs and barges, where safety was a social and business imperative. My parents kept sailing, fishing, and enjoying the natural beauty of the Pacific Ocean. As a child, I observed the maritime industry’s response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince Williams Sound. I went on to pursue Environmental Studies and Political Science in college, then started my career working for an Oil Spill Response Organization (OSRO). I was exposed to OSHA’s Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard and regulations enforced by the U.S. EPA and the Department of Transportation. Over the years, helping businesses navigate complex regulatory frameworks for worker safety and environmental protection has been central to my work in safety. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge regarding worker safety today?

The biggest challenge today in workplace safety is the rate at which workers die at work. The rate at which workers die at work has remained largely unchanged for at least the past 10 years. The causes of these deaths are known as OSHA’s “Fatal Four” (falls, electrocution, struck by and caught between) have remained largely unchanged in that time period too. There is clearly a disconnect between what we want to achieve in reducing workplace fatalities and what we currently do, which doesn’t take nearly enough advantage of safety gains in the development and design phase. Getting better at connecting upstream planning to in-field execution of work will be essential to our success in making progress on reducing workplace fatalities. 

What were some of the projects you worked on when you were on the board at the National Safety Council?

Working with the National Safety Council has been one of the highlights of my career. When I served as a Board member, the NSC was developing strategic initiatives that would carry them forward into the future. This included discussions about integrating technology into the organization’s work and how technology would affect major societal safety issues such as roadway safety. I was very impressed by NSC’s leadership’s instinct to embrace the challenges of the future, remain data-driven in selecting initiatives, and know where their impact would best deliver value.

You’ve also been heavily involved with the National Safety Council’s Women in Safety Division. What was some of your most important work in that role?

Very early on, probably before 2010, NSC recognized they needed to engage a broader audience, particularly on the workplace safety side. NSC brought together a group of women leaders within their membership to form a Women’s Division. Some of the early activities included forming the Marion Martin Award, which would recognize the career of an accomplished woman in safety. We gave visibility to all our nominees as more role models were needed to inspire other women. Another aspect of the Division’s work I learned a lot from was a deep dive one of NSC’s historians did on the legacy of Women in Safety. In addition to Marian Martin, I learned of the work of Francis Perkins, Elizabeth Dole, and other women leaders in government and private industry that completely shaped the protections many of us have at work today.  The Women’s Division continues to work with NSC to ensure that women and others are included as speakers, moderators, authors, project leaders, and nominees and can participate fully in NSC’s important work. My proudest day was handing the Division Chair role over to an incredibly talented woman I never would have met had it not been for NSC’s Women’s Division. 

National Safety Day, observed annually on March 4, is a significant occasion to promote safety measures and raise awareness about workplace safety. What would you be if you had one tip to share with workplaces? How about with workers directly?

Stay connected to your purpose. When you are connected to your purpose for working, you stay engaged with your personal well-being because you have a sense of the future you want to create through your work. 

Of all the roles you’ve fulfilled, from operations to risk manager, auditing to process improvement, which resonates with you most and why?

They all have some resonance for me. Early in my career, I would check- out our HAZMAT Response Teams to ensure their supplied air equipment, gas detection instruments, and communication systems were in place and working before sending them into what we call a “hot zone.” I still wonder whether we’ve considered all the possible outcomes and are prepared to respond.

How often do you apply lessons learned from past projects to your current work? Can you share an example?

I am frequently applying lessons learned. They are central to making improvements in safety last for the long term. Lessons learned can be challenging to arrive at because we tend to believe the ‘lesson learned’ from an injury or incident isn’t always the case. We tend to insert our own bias and judgement. To ensure that lessons learned are accurate and add value, I lean on some kind of team-led cause mapping or root cause analysis process to evaluate all failure points in a chain of events. It takes an objective team of people, and a tool to evaluate to arrive at a good lesson learned. So, my lessons learned: have a strong process for developing them and never go it alone. 

What’s some of the best advice you’ve received in your career so far? What advice would you give to someone starting out in the safety field?

I have had the privilege of working alongside some immensely talented safety leaders in my career. With that in mind, my advice to someone starting out is to stay curious, work on developing a growth mindset, and learn how to motivate others. There is a lot of technical safety information that you will learn with time if you take on new challenges. The human side of safety management is a separate and equally important endeavor that needs development. The changemakers are great at both. 

You’ve been guiding some of Avid Core’s work with OSHA as a subject matter expert. Is there anything that’s come out of the project that’s surprised you? If not, tell us about something that didn’t surprise you at all.

I don’t think this is a surprise to me, but what is exceptional about the work with Avid Core is the ability of the team to bring together and coordinate a large group of people with varied perspectives, talents, and motivations and shape all those messy things into something meaningful and informative for the future. 

When you’re not working, what do you like to do?

I’d be on a boat somewhere. 

If we were literally “around the table” right now, what food would you have brought with you to share? 

I love a good charcuterie board.

Brilliance, Achievements, and Partnerships in Year Four

By Virginia Arroyo & Amanda Roberts

As Avid Core marks the completion of our fourth year in business, we can safely say we’ve laid the foundation for a solid business and have experienced tremendous growth over the last year. In 2023, our team doubled, welcoming experts in project management, environmental planning, and systems integration. We’ve also furthered our team’s communications, engagement and outreach expertise capabilities and expanded our geographic footprint, bringing on new staff in Illinois.

Our team proudly earned accolades, including the prestigious Hermes Creative 2023 Gold Award for design and the esteemed title of Best Government Contractor in Prince William County—for the third year in a row!

Avid Core’s journey of success continued with key partnerships, starting with our first 8(a) contract with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Our focus on outreach and communications involved crafting meetings and outreach strategies for OSHA’s Solutions Share initiative, which fosters collaboration with OSHA and among essential industry stakeholders to better prepare for future emergencies similar to COVID-19.

We also brought in projects with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), steering stakeholder engagement services for the agency’s Infrastructure Portfolio. Our expanded role includes environmental planning outreach, ongoing dialogues with federal, state, and local agencies, and coordination with Tribal governments and local communities. We’ve teamed up with Northwind for GIS support and our partner, Dawson, provides archaeological and environmental expertise for seamless interagency coordination.

Avid Core, in partnership with Infinity Conference Group, is currently researching, planning and executing logistics for the Food and Drug Administration’s 2024 Compounding Quality Center of Excellence Annual Conference. This important event provides an opportunity for drug outsourcing facilities and associated stakeholders to learn and engage on emerging trends and drug compounding best practices.

In collaboration with Cogstone Resource Management and Kearns & West, we supported Los Angeles County in crafting a groundbreaking land acknowledgment and policy. Working closely with a Tribal advisory group, we cultivated strong relationships and facilitated effective coordination between county departments and local Tribes. The team’s dedication resulted in adopting the first formal County-wide Land Acknowledgment. The acknowledgment and the accompanying partner toolkit, now in production, will help the County appropriately honor and pay respect to Native Tribes.

We’ve grown our local community engagement work this year. In a successful collaboration with ONE EIGHTY and ATCS, we helped PlanRVA address disaster recovery for the local business community.

Working with the City of Fairfax, we helped with the development of a Title VI plan, ensuring that their transportation work does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, or national origin.

Avid Core staffed local pop-up events, facilitated open houses, and designed easy-to-understand and culturally responsive materials for the Alexandria West community, supporting the development of a planning process that will help guide the community’s long-term priorities and goals for decades to come.

We also provided multi-lingual outreach to support the creation of a new Eastern Silver Spring Communities master plan for Montgomery County. Our efforts focused on increasing participation and feedback for the plan in underserved and historically marginalized communities.

We are incredibly proud of our team’s achievements, our clients, and partners over the last four years, and we’re looking forward to the exciting journey ahead!

Embracing the Unknown

When I came to Avid Core, not only was I starting a new chapter in my life, but I was also at a crossroads. I had just started my first semester of graduate school at American University working towards a masters in a completely different field than either of my undergraduate degrees. I started living in D.C. by myself with my dog Ozzy. And I started at Avid Core, another foray into the unknown.

At Avid Core, I hit the ground running. On the first day, myself and the other intern that started that day were given an overview of all the projects Avid Core was working on, the style guide for the company, as well as best practices. We met the team over a virtual lunch and then were given our first tasks. At Avid Core, I learned about environmental planning, community planning, community engagement, Title VI, event planning, making slide decks, story boarding, and so much more. All of these experiences I have never had before, and I tried to take each new task in stride.

On the academic side, I was adjusting to graduate school and the workload that comes with that. My life became a balancing act between school and internship and personal life. Eventually, I fell back into the normal school pattern of studying, reading, and writing. My personal life fell into place soon after with friends I had made at school and finding a new favorite walking trail with my dog. My internship, however, never quite fell into a pattern.

Two people holding microphones sing karaoke in front of a TV screen.
Elizabeth (left) and Melissa Gomez, at an Avid Core karaoke event. Both joined the team as 2023 winter communications interns.

Since Avid Core offered an abundance of new tasks, a lot of my time was throwing things at a wall and seeing what stuck. As a recovering perfectionist, this came with a lot of anxiety. But Avid Core was a safe place to do this. When I was tasked with designing a flyer for a project, I put together a few different variations for my team members to review. I received constructive feedback and tailored the flyer to their specifications. Then rinse and repeat until we were all happy with the final deliverable.

When I was asked to put together a slide deck about a topic I knew very little about, I followed the same steps. When I proposed procedures for database management, we followed the same process. Even when I was tasked with making an animated video, something I have never done, I dove in headfirst, throwing out ideas, making a schedule, and asking for feedback. I relied on the skills I had developed before coming to Avid Core and the ones I learned during my internship. I started to embrace the unknown and enjoy the ever-changing nature of the tasks assigned to me.

As I progressed into my academic semester and was exposed to more opportunities in the field, I realized my five-year plan may not be what I want anymore, and I was met with a crossroads. When I first started at Avid Core, I thought I would get my master’s and then move on to get a Ph.D., but as I learned more about the homeland security field, I realized I did not want to go into the world of academia nor did I absolutely need a Ph.D. to do the jobs I am interested in. This left me unsure of what the future held.

It wasn’t until an in-class activity that I felt more comfortable with the unknown. In my Causes of Terrorism and Political Violence class, we were tasked to develop a strategy to handle misinformation in Ethiopia in an hour and a half. During this time, we had to develop a pitch to present to a guest from the Department of Homeland Security. Obviously, this is quite a lofty task for anyone, let alone a group of students. So, we started throwing out ideas to see what stuck. I had the idea to put together a toolkit for community leaders to use. I cannot take credit for this idea by any means—this is something I learned about from Avid Core.

A core value in Avid Core is to meet people where they are so they often create toolkits as a way for leaders to personalize messages to their community. Given the task at hand, this seemed like an effective solution, and our guest from the Department of Homeland Security agreed. He was impressed by this suggestion and our pitch ended up being selected over the other group.

As inconsequential as this in-class activity was, it gave me a lot of hope for the future. Though I may not know what the future holds, I have gained experiences and skills from working at Avid Core that I can use in creative ways in any future position. I also, and more importantly, learned to embrace the unknown and to continue to throw things at the wall and see what sticks.

Around the Table with Victor Gonzalez

Welcome to Around the Table, a regular series where we talk to fascinating people in our network and share the incredible work they are doing in their community. Pull up a chair and join us for conversation and connection.

Name: Victor Gonzalez, Director of the Mica Sonrisas Foundation

Company: Mica Sonrisas Foundation

Where to Find You: @mytorvg and @mica.sonrisas on Instagram

How was the Mica Foundation born and what motivated you to create an organization to help disadvantaged populations in Colombia?

Mica [Me.ka] is short for “Mi Cámara” (My Camera). Mica began in a photography studio in the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia. As a group of photographers, we wanted to capture the candid smiles of children with our cameras, but more so, we endeavored to show the interesting realities of our country seen through a lens.

During our photographic explorations in coastal towns, we focused on the curious fact that despite not having much, children were constantly smiling. Even though they lived in very vulnerable and poor conditions, these kids remained hopeful. We wanted to preserve and strengthen this hope represented in their warm smiles.

As a photographer, I realized that my camera could be utilized in a different way and so could my hands. I learned that my heart could beat strongly toward people I didn’t even know and that through my actions, I was able to instill optimism in someone in need.

I went from just being a photographer to becoming a philanthropist with the purpose of demonstrating to the world that everything is an equilibrium or a balance and that we need to redistribute. Just as life had given me the opportunity to have it all, I could also give back to someone who truly needed it.

Victor has been visiting Wayuu children and families in La Guajira since 2013.

In what ways has the Mica Foundation benefited people in need and what causes and groups do you focus on?

Mica’s slogan is “Living, feeling, and sowing a passion to help.” We seek to show the world that helping others is one of the best ways to transform society for the better and that lending a hand is how we evolve as human beings.

Among the groups we have helped are different indigenous tribes in La Guajira and the outskirts of the Sierra Nevada in the North of Colombia. We have also helped natives who arrive in our city of Bucaramanga. These populations particularly struggle with malnutrition and dehydration issues and lack infrastructure and government support.

Some of these tribes are located in arid regions where national and international big-scale coal and mineral extraction takes place. Despite the significant royalties these operations yield, they don’t receive adequate care and protection against the environmental consequences of open-cast mining and overall poverty in the area.

We strive to provide them with food, water, and other necessities. Moreover, our core project is donating mobility for education, which means facilitating bikes for children to go to school. During our visits to indigenous and other low-income areas, we discovered that kids had to walk 10 kilometers or more to reach the nearest school. This long trek under the scorching sun made their access to education quite difficult. We set out to mitigate this problem and reduce transportation times by bringing them hundreds of bicycles, which also served as a means of green transportation for Wayuu families in the Guajira peninsula.

“A blue bike can change the world” – Mica has organized 17 expeditions to remote desert areas in La Guajira bringing aid to disadvantaged families for the last seven years.

In terms of communication, marketing, and public relations, what have been the most successful strategies to engage with the public, promote your cause, and raise funds?

Social media is our main channel of communication. Particularly, we have focused on strategizing via Instagram which is our most powerful social media network. We use influencer marketing and seek collaborations with celebrities and local brands, as well as partnerships with national companies. We directly appeal to them publicly and also send requests privately to invite them to join our cause. By establishing connections and having honest conversations about our passion for helping others, we have had a great response from actors, singers, community organizers, small businesses, and brands.

We are proud to say that all our campaigns have achieved positive results. Despite not having any type of government or religious affiliation, we continue to reach new goals as a small nonprofit through organic engagement. We get people to fall in love with our project not just because of the energetic and passionate attitude with which we approach every activity, but also because we have reached a high level of transparency and credibility that allows people to trust in our mission.

A Latino man wearing a megaphone and a bike helmet smiling next to a homeless young boy after sharing a meal with him on a street in Bucaramanga.
The Mica Foundation helps unhoused individuals in Bucaramanga, beautifies low-income streets, and fundraises to benefit other local non-profits.
A man wearing a motorcycle helmet stands atop an all terrain vehicle holding a megaphone, with his back to the camera.
Victor actively documents Mica’s activities on Instagram and uses a megaphone during his outreach events to engage with people in the streets.

What lessons learned and advice can you share with other nonprofits from developing countries that seek positive changes in their communities?

My advice to anyone who wants to engage in philanthropic activities is to correctly administrate the resources they gather. For any social entrepreneurial endeavor, one needs to turn the projects into self-sustaining initiatives. We don’t seek personal profits, but also don’t want to generate losses because we need to continue helping people. Therefore, being frugal with resources, seeking volunteers and support, and believing in the impressive power of the work we do are lessons we have been learning along the way.

Additionally, to all the people who want to help their community, I tell them that they are never alone. There will always be hands to help and doors to open. Sometimes we may feel discouraged because social work is hard, but I guarantee you that there is always someone willing to help.

I feel like humanity is designed to help, but we need to foster and stimulate that altruism in others for it to be manifested in actions. I encourage everyone to never falter, to bring that message of selflessness everywhere they go, and to practice empathy and tolerance. This is the best way to transform society and evolve as conscious human beings. If you hear me or read this blog, please continue helping others in any way you can. The world needs people like you and me, willing to make a difference and spark positive change.

Indigenous Wayuu boys and girls from the North of Colombia riding bikes.
The Mica foundation has gathered support from individuals, local celebrities, and companies in Colombia to bring nutrition and green mobility to disadvantaged indigenous children, low-income nurses, and other populations in need.

What impact do you expect to have through your work and how do you see Mica in the future?

From the people I help every day, I expect nothing in return. However, there is an undeniable satisfaction in being able to contribute and I would like to be recognized as a “social rock star.” I am working to help the biggest amount of people possible and would like to position Mica as a reference for individuals and organizations pursuing philanthropic initiatives. I want people to think of Mica when they think of supporting others. My biggest aspiration, however, is to instill this message of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others into as many individuals as possible.

In cities like Bucaramanga, it is quite challenging to see results with social projects that don’t have governmental or religious support. Nevertheless, I have transformed the way to gather aid and I have been rocking this way of helping for years, taking our non-profit to the next level. I look forward to sharing this ecstatic vibe with the world and seeing more people fall in love with our projects.

A big group of children and adult volunteers smiling for a picture in a low-income area of Bucaramanga, Colombia.
Mica fundraises to combat children malnutrition in impoverished areas of Bucaramanga.

If we were literally “around the table” right now, what food would you have brought to share?

I love fast food! Especially burgers and pizza. However, my absolute favorite food is the one I share with my friends who do not have a home. Preparing warm meals and bringing them to those in the streets who long for love and hope is my favorite way to enjoy food.

A group of unhoused individuals share a meal sitting on the grass.
A group of unhoused individuals share a meal sitting on the grass.
Given the significant homelessness in Bucaramanga, Victor organizes picnics and other activities to bring food to unhoused individuals.

Reflecting on Avid Core’s 4-Day Workweek

Virginia Quiambao Arroyo and Amanda Roberts are co-founders of Avid Core, Inc, a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Small, Woman, and Minority-owned (SWaM)-certified communications firm based out of Woodbridge, Virginia.

As a “people first” company, Avid Core consistently tries to explore ways through which to improve transparency in the things we do—both in terms of our clients and our team.

Our approach to hiring, for example, reflects the understanding that job searching can be both stressful and time-consuming. Consequently, Avid Core’s growth is bolstered by our respect for a candidate’s time, energy, and the effort that goes into applying for a job.

Accordingly, we continue to evaluate flexible and non-traditional work arrangements, emphasizing results-based work—which is why we launched the option for a 32-hour workweek late last year.

If a team member is providing their project deliverables on time, consistently meeting or exceeding expectations, we feel that there should be no need to work an arbitrary amount of time (like 40 hours a week). While there are always improvements to be made in terms of the work/life balance across all staff levels, the results-based approach encourages an increased and consistent balance, a more comfortable repartee, and reflects our commitment to our employees as people first.

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Through recurring anonymous surveys—which we use to gather feedback from staff and get an idea of their routines, progress, and challenges—we have observed a consistently high satisfaction rate with the four-day workweek.

Staff has repeatedly pointed out that the flexibility offered by this option helps people focus on their mental health, with one team member reflecting, “I’m so grateful we’re allowing people to prioritize their needs and find a work/life balance…the people I tell are amazed that our company would even give us [this option].”

Another team member shared that the four-day workweek “helped…tremendously in the last couple of weeks with personal family matters and appointments.”

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Since Avid Core’s inception three years ago, we have strived to create a company that we would want to work for. And a solid work/like balance is a major part of that. With the option to work a four-day week, there’s an opportunity for staff to personalize their schedules. An extra day off can provide more time to pursue a hobby, run errands, or catch up on a favorite show.

Staff members aren’t expected to be on call on their day off, although they may be pinged if there is an urgent matter or request from a client (for example, staff have been willing to pop in on calls during their days off to fulfill a last-minute need or request).

Additionally, people have been good about making the process work on the whole, without increasing the burden on us by requesting fill-in support.

As with any initiative, some expectations were set early on; it was made clear that the four-day workweek was contingent on an individual’s ability to consistently meet important deadlines and provide high quality deliverables.

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We never want our internal initiatives to impact Avid Core’s responsiveness and service. To that end, days off on the four-day workweek option are tiered off, so that we can still provide our services five days a week (this simply means that some staff members are off on Mondays, while others are off on Fridays).

In the end, this fits into our core belief about responding to our team as individuals and acknowledging their different needs. Asynchronous work allows members of the Avid Core team to make adjustments as they see fit, successfully operating on their own unique schedules.

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These factors make up the basis of our decision to offer a four-day workweek—it’s another way to help our employees prioritize their well-being, mental health, and support their work/life balance.

This option is a continuous experiment—as we assess the financial impacts of this approach, and as we take on new clients and projects, it might become too difficult a practice to maintain, especially with contracts that necessitate full-time employees. In the meantime, however, the four-day workweek has proven to be a good fit for several of our team members.

As our staff continues to grow—we recently added three new colleagues to our team—things may change. In the long term, though, initiatives like this represent crucial steps toward greater employee satisfaction and, simultaneously, stronger results and deliverables for our clients.

Avid Fans Of: Thanksgiving Dishes & Memories

Avid (adjective) – having or showing a keen interest in or enthusiasm for something. It’s more than just our company’s namesake. Passion for our work and for the things we love is part of our core values. In this recurring series, we’ll share some of the things we’re Avid Fans of with you.

“To understand the radiance and wealth of a festive meal we must be alive to the interplay of things and humans, of ends and means […] In a festive meal, however, the food is served, one of the most generous gestures human beings are capable of.”  — Albert Borgmann, “Focal Things and Practices” in Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life.

“Turkey Day” is coming and we wanted to relive cherished moments around one of America’s most beloved meals. In this edition of Avid Fans Of, members of the Avid Core team share their favorite Thanksgiving dishes, recipes, and memories with you.

Melissa Gomez – Pecan Pie

I had never celebrated Thanksgiving before, but soon after my arrival to the U.S. as an international student, my host family invited me to join a wonderful gathering of 25+ people around the nicest feast I had ever seen in a private home. Sitting by a big bonfire enjoying the view of the sunset on the Wye River and seeing about 12 of the extended family’s dogs playing around the lawn was the cherry on top!

Ever since that first Thanksgiving when I gave myself a bellyache because I tried every single dish and dessert on the table, I look at this emblematic holiday with a lot of gratitude. It is a reminder of the abundance, people, and blessings we are fortunate to enjoy, and it holds a warm resemblance to the way I celebrate Christmas back home: with a big family reunion, a delicious dinner, and lots of laughter and treats.

Choosing a favorite dish when you have good contenders like stuffing, sweet potato gratin, and casseroles galore is no easy task. However, my sweet tooth had to pick Pecan Pie because pecans were also new to me, and I’ve liked them ever since (on a cake or on some trout). For this yummy Bourbon Pecan Pie use only ½ cup of light brown sugar, top it with a bit of vanilla ice cream, and you’ll have an iconic, craggily delicious Thanksgiving delight.

Sunset over a river with a small boat sitting on a dock lift seen from a lawn framed by trees.
Sunset on the Wye River.
Pecan pie. Image source: The Banana Diaries.

Stephanie Mace – Fried Oreos

My Turkey Day mix usually starts blasting in my air pods around 5 am on Thanksgiving morning. I treat Thanksgiving like a marathon because it’s a full day of prepping, parade-watching, planning with Post-Its and entertaining. That’s part of the joy of hosting some of my favorite people for my favorite holiday in our home.

I love it because we can come from different backgrounds to share a really indulgent meal together that lasts for hours. We take it seriously with two types of turkeys (fried/traditional oven roasted), two types of stuffing, every kind of pie and a variety of sides. But more recently, we have become known for experimenting with our deep fryer.

Usually after a friendly game of flag football and a full safety briefing, my husband fires up the fryer and he starts with fried Old Bay pickles, sweet potato fries, French fries and fried Oreos. We usually fry an entire package of Oreos using Bisquick mix and add a touch of vanilla extract. It’s the perfect appetizer and post-feast night cap.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, my kids love walking around the neighborhood delivering grease-splattered bags of fried Oreos to our neighbors. If you see the plume of smoke coming from our backyard, stop on by for your oil-drenched goody bag.

A variety of Thanksgiving pies, fried Oreos, and ice cream served on a dessert table.
Steph’s Thanksgiving dessert spread: fried Oreos with ice cream, ice cream turkey cake, three types of pies, and she still wonders how her mom’s cherry Claufouti and Moroccan cookies (Montecaos) snuck in.

Ashley Dobson – Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Growing up, Thanksgiving celebrations were more about gathering with family than the food itself. I usually spent the day running around with my cousins or working with my mom and sister to map out our Black Friday shopping action plan.

But Thanksgiving is my husband’s favorite holiday so now we take our menu planning pretty seriously. We switch out a couple of items each year to try some new options or to replace ones that were simply “okay” instead of “FANTASTIC!” but the one recipe that has been consistent is the mashed potatoes. You can’t go wrong with Thanksgiving recipes from The Pioneer Woman because her recipes are all drowning in butter. These mashed potatoes are no exception (plus, they include cream cheese!), and they are absolutely the creamiest mashed potatoes you have ever tasted.

I always make this the day before and refrigerate and then throw a few extra pats of butter on the top before heating it up in the oven while the turkey rests. Don’t skimp on the Lawry’s seasoned salt either!

A Thanksgiving dinner for two with turkey, pies, creamy mashed potatoes, and dressings on a decorated table seen from above.
Ashley’s 2022 Thanksgiving spread featuring the creamy mashed potatoes in the upper left corner.

Sarah Cox – All the Seafood

I have no issues with what I consider a traditional Thanksgiving feast menu. Sampling nap-inducing foods and washing them down with wine is one of my favorite ways to spend the day. However, if we’re talking about memorable food events, the Friday after Thanksgiving is the day to look forward to.

While most Americans refer to it as Black Friday, my family calls it “Fish Friday” because it’s not just a day, but THE DAY to indulge in the bounty of the ocean. All the credit goes to my uncle, who catches fresh fish, brings it from the Carolina Coast to Northern Virginia, and turns some of it into ceviche and much of it into seasoned, grilled fillets.

My parents also sponsor a few pounds of fresh shrimp, which my uncle steams to perfection. To offset all these healthy choices, my aunt bakes a homemade cake or two. There are always leftovers on Saturday, but not on Sunday!

An image of a serious cat holding utensils and standing by a pile of steamed shrimp.
This is what it would look like if I were a cat. Image source: iStock.

Rashaun Bennett – Candied Yams and Baked Ham

When I was growing up, one of the rites of passage as we grew older was mastering a family recipe. Everyone had their specialty, some took ownership of a dish sooner than others, but everyone at some point would be responsible for a dish that they could cook blindfolded.

Around my early teenage years my grandmother taught me her recipe for her famous candied yams and baked ham that was so tender that it would fall off the bone. The measurements, timing, ingredients all had to be precise because as I quickly learned (dare I say it, the hard way), a little nutmeg goes a very long way.

Ever since taking ownership of those dishes, I cook them every Thanksgiving, remembering my grandmother’s guidance and hoping to pass it on to the next generation of Bennetts.

A bowl of diced candied yams similar in appearance to glazed sweet potatoes.
Candied yams. Image source: Healthier Steps.
A big baked ham sliced at the front sitting on a decorated tray surrounded by bowls of cranberry sauce and green beans.
Slices of baked ham. Image source: Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Rossana Gonzalez – Cuban Tamales

My family and I immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba, and we never quite got the Thanksgiving dinner norms. I didn’t know we ate unconventional Thanksgiving foods until I saw what my friends were having on Thanksgiving.

A traditional spread usually looks like a turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese. My family tries to have an “all-American” vibe on Thanksgiving but has no idea what the tradition is. Because it was the norm in my family, I never questioned it. Our spread consists of a turkey, a lechon/pernil (roast pork), Cuban croquettes (I’m convinced they’re the best in the world of croquettes), tamales, fried plantains, rice and beans, and when we’re feeling “daring”, we add a lasagna, mashed potatoes, or macaroni and cheese – one year, we even had mozzarella sticks.

I literally can’t have a Thanksgiving without Cuban tamales now. Sometimes we buy it cooked, other times, I make it FROM SCRATCH with my grandma. I’m at a point in life where it doesn’t feel right if this isn’t the spread. This year, we’ll be hosting my family at my new place and yup, this will be the spread again. I wait all year for those tamales!

Though it is unconventional, we do take the holiday very seriously. We all come together, sometimes even my extended family throughout the state comes over. We go around saying what we’re thankful for and make sure everyone gets plenty of TLC. Lots of photos are taken and you can eat the leftovers for the rest of the week. I’ve had some relatives pass away in recent years and I’ve grown to cherish Thanksgiving so much.

A plate serving Cuban tamales wrapped in corn husks.
Cuban tamales wrapped in corn husks.
A traditional Cuban dish consisting of rice and beans, fried tostones or plantains, and ropa vieja or pulled beef.
Rice and beans, fried tostones (or plantains), and ropa vieja (or pulled beef).

Alex Russell – Green Bean Casserole

Thanksgiving is my dad’s favorite holiday – his brothers and sisters prioritize this holiday as a time to get together, share great food, and catch up on each other’s lives, and this is something that he emphasizes with us, too.

My parents combine their forces and typically prepare a ton of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and roast pumpkin topped with cinnamon. And while all of this is great (except maybe the cranberry sauce, which I still can’t get used to), my all-time favorite Thanksgiving dish is the green bean casserole both my parents make (they take turns, and sometimes we get two on the same day). With crispy French-fried onions on top, the casserole comes with ham, cream of mushroom soup, onions, and, of course, the green beans. It’s a great, filling dish – and makes for amazing leftovers. It can be made without the ham, and still tastes great (I’m just a big fan of ham, so I prefer it with ham).

Thanksgiving is an iconic American holiday, but the more I think about the variety of food my family (and extended family) eats on this day, and the variety of food my friends eat, I realize that different people’s perspectives on Thanksgiving have helped recontextualize it as something more – a pure, humanist practice that succeeds without its “American” labels.

Thanksgiving combines food, company, and a time to reflect on the things that make one’s life worthwhile – providing friends and family with a warm, safe space to share together.

Green bean casserole topped with French-fried onion. Image source: Cook With Campbells.

Susan Hernandez – Mac and Cheese

For Thanksgiving, it’s only my immediate family. Our extended family live in Puerto Rico, Honduras and New York, so we can’t see them during the holidays. However, that doesn’t stop us from enjoying our time together.

My mom, sister and I love to cook for Thanksgiving. My mom doesn’t cook turkey, she cooks pernil. Pernil is a Puerto Rican rendition of roast pork. Our food spread consists of pernil, ham, rice and beans (arroz con gandules), pasteles (a tamale that’s made with plantain and yuca), mac and cheese, and a few other options.

I usually make mac and cheese because I love it. I first started using this recipe from Sweet Tea and Thyme but now I’ve made my own rendition of it. I love Thanksgiving because my family and I eat great food and we spend time together. Even though we live together already, it’s nice to just relax and enjoy the day.

A baking dish of creamy mac and cheese topped with crispy buttery breadcrumbs.
Mac and cheese. Image source: With Two Spoons.

Elizabeth Gay – Day-After-Thanksgiving-Waffles

My mom’s side of the family has a tradition where we all go to my grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner and the day following Thanksgiving, we have leftovers with waffles and maple syrup. I know this sounds like a strange food combination, however, do not judge it before you try it! Each cousin has their own food combinations, but my go-to combo is waffles, turkey, stuffing, with gravy and maple syrup, and corn and mashed potatoes on the side. My dad used to be very skeptical of this tradition. He thought it was strange and not really his cup of tea. That was until three years ago. For many, Thanksgiving 2020 looked very different than previous years. This was true for my family.

In 2020, we made our own Thanksgiving dinner for the first time ever. However, that did not keep us away from day-after-Thanksgiving-waffles. Even though we were incredibly worried about COVID-19 and my grandparents’ health, we still found a way to have socially distanced waffles. That was the year my dad was all in on the day-after-Thanksgiving-waffles, much to the surprise and joy of my grandparents and my family.

This year, we are visiting my dad’s father, so we will not see my grandparents on Thanksgiving. However, the day-after-Thanksgiving-waffles tradition lives on. We will be flying back right after the holiday to join the rest of my mom’s extended family for day-after-Thanksgiving-waffles. My dad even told my grandma to make extra turkey and stuffing so we can have plenty for waffles, much to my grandma’s delight.

Crispy waffles with sliced turkey and gravy on top.
Waffles topped with gravy and turkey slices. Image source: Spending Time In My Kitchen.

Amanda – Creamed Corn

Forget the canned stuff! My homemade creamed corn is the request of the whole family every year. It’s the only time I make it, so this is what stands out for me.

A bowl of creamed corn, with a spoon dipping into the bowl.
A bowl of creamed corn. Image source: The Blond Cooke.

Around the Table with Max Pastore

Welcome to Around the Table, a regular series where we talk to people in our network and share the incredible work they are doing in their industry. Pull up a chair and join us for conversation and connection.

A headshot of a man wearing glasses, superimposed over an opaque purple square with a background image of two people talking at a table.

Name: Max Pastore

Company: Code Studio

Where to Find You: LinkedIn

What drew you to the world of community planning?

A bit of a cliché, but my love for cities. Like lots of planners, I entered the profession through architecture and noticed that I was drawn to the context around a site more than any building that I was supposed to be designing.

I’m also a spatial thinker. It’s typically been easier for me to wrap my head around things when they’re mapped out. Who knows, maybe I just spent too much time on Google Maps growing up!

Can you tell us about a favorite project you’ve worked on? What impact do you hope your work had?

Don’t make me pick just one! Right now, I’d have to say that my favorite project is a zoning code rewrite for the City of Pomona, California. We’re replacing their code from the 1940s with something that might be the most innovative in the U.S. to date.

Collaborating with visionary City staff and citizenry led us to incorporate many creative zoning ideas. Most interestingly, we’re introducing rules that would let a homeowner convert their garage into a small shopfront to start or expand a small business. This was inspired by a tradition familiar to many local Latine residents. I hope the new code helps Pomona achieve a more equitable and livable built environment where residents’ daily needs can be met within the city and without needing a car.

What do you think is the biggest challenge the community planning field is facing today?

I might be biased here, but I’d have to say zoning. Much of the zoning across the country incentivizes—or downright forces—new development to be car-centric, segregated, and sprawling. Beyond increasing housing and living costs, this old-fashioned type of zoning is detrimental to the environment. Luckily, I work with lots of talented folks who are updating zoning codes across the country to help our cities become more affordable, equitable, and sustainable—but it’s a big country!

What’s the best advice you’ve received in your career?

Expressing passion is not being “too much.” Stay curious and be vulnerable.

When you aren’t working, what do you like to do?

Exploring my city (DC) by bike and motorcycle.

If we were literally “around the table” right now, what food would you have brought to share?

I’ve got a sweet tooth but lack the baking skills… Luckily, my husband’s a superstar in the kitchen, so I’d have to share his famous cherry chews! Always a crowd-pleaser.

Sticky Headers: ADA & User Experience

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, “sticky headers (or persistent headers) are a common pattern for keeping the header of a website or app in the same place on the screen while the user scrolls down the page…when done appropriately, sticky headers allow users to quickly access the navigation, search, and utility-navigation elements without scrolling up to the top of the page.”

For a long time, sticky headers were seen as a basic tenet of successful user experience (UX), doing away with having to scroll back up to the top of the page to access a website’s menu—providing an overall faster experience.

However, it turns out that this approach does not translate well into the realm of digital accessibility.

Adam Silver, an expert in UX and coding, writes that sticky headers comprise a “fancy pattern that hurts UX far more than it improves it.” Sticky headers “constantly take up space and obscure content” and are especially problematic “on small screens where space is…limited.” For users zooming in on a page, sticky headers can increase in size “to a point where there’s little space for the content.”

Additionally, if a sticky header is “taller than the content and viewport, users will be unable to access the bottom of the menu.”

Sticky headers are “visually accessible” but present a problem for keyboard users who navigate websites using the tab key—the point of focus can eventually disappear behind the sticky header.

So should sticky headers be avoided?

Are there any effective, and accessible, workarounds?

Vitaly Friedman of Smashing Magazine writes that sticky headers can still have their place. They can “aid understanding” by increasing or improving “the discoverability of content,” increasing the speed of interaction. However, it’s important not to include more than “five items in the sticky bar navigation.”

“The choice of the items displayed in the sticky menu should be informed by the most important tasks that users need to perform on the website.” Keeping the sticky header menu sparse helps prevent some of the issues listed above; it also helps keep your website’s organization streamlined and more accessible.

In talking about alternatives to sticky headers, Friedman explains that repeating “relevant calls-to-action or navigation” on a page can help provide a similar level of discoverability. Additionally, a table of contents can be included at the top of a page with a back-to-top link at the bottom or near the bottom of the page.

An example of a back to top button at the bottom of a common webpage.
An example of a back-to-top button on a common webpage. Image source: Components UI.

What about the content that has to be incorporated and organized?

Is there a way of knowing how much is too little or too much?

Paul Andrew of Speckyboy notes that when there’s not a lot of content, “it becomes harder to engage a user.” But, on the other hand, “too much [content] can overwhelm a user, cause a cluttered effect, and be detrimental to the user’s experience.”

One way of getting around this issue is long scrolling. With long scrolling, “content can be spread out, thereby allowing a user to assimilate it at their own pace…without disruptive page-navigation interruptions.”

Long scrolling, used on websites like Tumblr, “is ideal for storytelling, and also for disseminating information that cannot be neatly confined to a conventional web page.”

Vertical and sliding menus

An article published by Pumpkin cites vertical menus as “one of the most effective alternatives” to sticky headers. Using a vertical menu on the left side of the page “leaves 80% of the screen free for content…ensuring that the navigation bar can be accessed from anywhere. A slide out menu can also be a very effective alternative.”

An example of a sliding menu, extending from the left side of a typical webpage on a mobile phone.
A typical sliding menu, depicted on a mobile device. Image source: WPBeginner.

A navigation article on UX Planet explains that sliding menus work especially well with “responsive web design,” like with the Gmail inbox on Android or the “YouTube and Facebook UIs (User Interfaces).”

For creators looking to slim down their website’s presentation, sliding menus can help “de-clutter a mobile screen that has lots of navigation links.” However, there is a caveat.

Penn State’s Accessibility website explains that “users with mobility impairment may find it difficult to move the mouse and click on the correct option” in a sliding menu. “The more options in the menu, the more significant the problem.” Additionally, “if only part of the hierarchy is visible at any one time…users with memory or cognitive disabilities may have difficulty locating a given menu.”

If you don’t do your own coding or know anything about it, don’t worry—depending on your website’s situation, you can talk to your webmaster about establishing an accessible menu. You can also do a quick online search and apply several accessibility techniques at the same time.

Let’s look at some other menu options

“A text-based menu should…be included” on your website and it should be accessible “via a visible link.”

Keep this in mind: Guideline 2.4.5 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) states that there has to be “more than one way…to locate a Web page within a set of Web pages.”

The Nielsen Norman Group has a helpful article that highlights ‘mega menus’—expandable menus that showcase several choices using “a two-dimensional dropdown layout.”

Mega menus are “an excellent design choice for accommodating a large number of options or for revealing lower-level…pages at a glance.”

An example of a typical mega menu found on a common webpage.
An example of a ‘mega menu’ and how it would appear on a typical webpage. Image source: HighThemes.

Whatever menu style you end up using, remember to balance user experience with basic digital accessibility, ensuring that as many users as possible are able to interact with your content.

Around the Table with Jordan Grobe

Welcome to Around the Table, a regular series where we talk to people in our network and share the incredible work they are doing in their industry. In this edition, our summer intern, Ruby Werckman, interviews one of their Communications professors. Pull up a chair and join us for conversation and connection.

Scott Talan's headshot, superimposed over a designed background featuring two people sitting at a table.

Name: Jordan Grobe

Company: I.M.P

Where to Find You: Instagram, Linktree, Website

What inspired you to work within the music industry?

I always dreamt of working in or around music as a kid, but figured out pretty early that I wasn’t going to be the one on stage. I just remember watching Paul McCartney headlining Glastonbury when I was 7 or 8 on the old TV channel Palladia, which I think is now MTV Live. Paul was performing “Hey Jude” to 500,000 people and conducting the entire audience like an orchestra, and something clicked that desperately made want to be a part of that.

What was your career journey to becoming the Communications Coordinator at I.M.P.?

I was first formally introduced to I.M.P. (as more than just a fan and attendee) through college radio at George Washington University in DC. I’d interviewed a band, Caveman, at Rock & Roll Hotel for WRGW and at the end of the night the only folks left in the room were myself, Caveman, their local opener, and a friend of the local opener. Well, that other friend happened to be the Marketing Director for I.M.P. at the time, and after chatting for a while she insisted I apply for the Marketing Internship. They’d actually already filled up their roster for the semester, but they still needed a hand with tabling on-site at shows so that was my first foray into our venues before completing the internship proper the following semester. That was about ten years and five or six different roles ago now, and I’ve never left!

Are there any upcoming projects or events that you have been working on that you can tell us about?

Well the biggest one was the launch of The Atlantis – our newest and smallest venue designed as an homage to the original 9:30 Club. In my career and in my position specifically, we tend to work toward and build up to large scale projects and unveilings and announcements.

What does an average workday look like for you, though I assume there is no such thing?

The word “average” there is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The regular responsibilities that’re continual each day are assigning/managing our team of house photographers, connecting with local media outlets regarding preview coverage for our upcoming events, and coordinating with publicists in advance of each show to finalize their on-site policies and attending press lists. Every single show is different, with unique policies and requirements, different audiences, different reporters and photographers – sometimes there’s a video component, sometimes it’s just photo. On top of all that, there are other projects that pop up on a regular basis but are always different, whether that be writing new press releases for show announcements or special events or writing plaques for the new statues that we have at Merriweather Post Pavilion.

How do you juggle being in charge of communications for multiple venues and being in charge of so many different photographers at once?

With the help of my interns! (Note: Avid Core’s summer intern, Ruby Werckman, is also an intern with I.M.P.) There are a lot of moving parts to this job, especially during the summer when we have Merriweather Post Pavilion open. Our team has to manage media at every show at Merriweather and The Anthem, and I’ve had to be at most of these inaugural 44 shows at The Atlantis as well. Since I physically can’t be in more than one place at once, despite my attempts at cloning, I rely on the help of my team.

On top of your role as Communications Coordinator, you are also a stellar photographer. What can you tell us about your experience with photography?

I started in this position long before I picked up a camera of my own. I was in charge of our team of house photographers from the get-go, which meant that I was around all these creatives constantly. It also meant when they were submitting their work, I was the one reviewing it, trying to figure out which shots would be best to use for our promotional purposes. I spent a lot of time looking at concert imagery over the years, so I think I developed my own stylistic preferences from there – things I liked and didn’t like, what I thought could be improved. But all of that is just looking at someone else’s image as a critic, which is exceptionally different than figuring out how to actually operate a camera and capture your own. Fast-forward to The Anthem’s grand opening in October 2017, and we had a house photographer who was essentially The Anthem’s documentarian, a guy named John Shore. He’s truly one of the best photographers I’ve met, and he essentially shot every show from the day The Anthem opened until COVID closed us down (temporarily, for roughly 18 months).

After working with him for two years and him seeing what he called “the eye” in me, he literally gave me the second body to his camera during a show and told me, “You just need to do this,” so I did. And I loved it. Spent the next week doing as much research into photography and cameras as I could, pulled the trigger on a Fujifilm X-T3, and the rest, as they say, is history. Photography is this amazing and weird blend of both engineering and art, and there’s always more to learn, always more to capture.

What is the best advice you’ve received in your career?

My first gig in music stemmed from someone telling me “I don’t answer my phone a lot – keep calling until I do.” The notion of not bothering people, I think, is a really strong one. I think we have this innate fear of being burdensome – that that recognition of how busy everyone is these days prevents us from wanting to ask the questions we deserve to be able to ask. But there’s a polite difference between bothering and reminding, and often if you don’t circle back, don’t nudge, that note that means the world to you, that you’re eagerly awaiting a reply for, has unfortunately, unintentionally, fallen to the bottom of the recipient’s inbox. It can be a fine line to navigate, but it’s always worth reaching out a second time (and sometimes even a third). If they never replied in the first place, giving them a gentle reminder can only, at worst, leave you with the same result as you currently have – no reply. But having the willingness to just keep trying and just do something, rather than waiting for any of it to sort of happen to you, is important. 

What advice would you give someone just starting their career in this industry?

Take pride in what you are working on even if it’s not your dream, even if it’s not your end goal. Everything that you do is a stepping stone to the next thing. If you did something poorly before because you didn’t care about that thing, that’s not helping you reach the thing that you do care about – and it can actually hold you back. Showing people that you are there, that you care, and that you’re willing to help in any way really does go a long way. I think the best thing you can do in life, and especially in a professional work environment, is try to make someone else’s day easier. 

What song/album/artist do you have on repeat recently?

I’ve been bouncing through a bunch but I guess the new Grian Chatten, the lead singer from Fountaines D.C., album. The new Geese album is also great, as is the new Do Nothing album. This morning I was just listening to the new covers compilation from Nick Drake, and that’s been awesome.

When you aren’t working, what do you like to do?

When am I not working (laughs)? I like to watch movies, TV shows, comedy specials, work on photography that is not concert related, and spend time with friends.

If we were literally around the table right now, what food would you be eating?

It’s a stereotypical answer, but I’m a New Yorker, so I’m going to go with New York pizza.