Meet JMT: Insights from Within featuring Leigh Anne Friesen
Discover more about our industry professionals with our podcast series, Meet JMT: Insights from Within, where we share employee tales, experiences, and inspirations within our organization.
In this episode of the Meet JMT podcast, we're excited to highlight Leigh Anne Friesen, a Planner from our New Bern, NC region, in honor of National Mentoring Month.
To hear her audio session, click here!
In addition to your work as a planner, you’re actively engaged in mentoring and career development initiatives. Could you share more about your involvement in these areas?
Throughout my planning career, I’ve had the pleasure of participating in a variety of forms of mentorship and career development, from the graduate level on down to elementary school:
In 2021, I assisted master’s students from my alma mater, the University of North Carolina (UNC) – Chapel Hill’s Department of City and Regional Planning and the UNC School of Government, with the 160D compliance campaign for small NC towns. Due to changes in the state legislation, all incorporated towns in North Carolina required updated comprehensive plans to continue to maintain their authority to guide future growth through the practice of zoning. As not all towns had the resources to meet the deadline set by the state, I oversaw master’s students as we assisted two North Carolina towns (of a total of 10 in the program) in Duplin County, Greenevers and Faison, to achieve success in the approval of updated Comprehensive Plans.
While I was a planner with the City of New Bern, I coordinated the planning staff and visual aids for the World Planning Day outreach booth at a local middle school where we talk to passers-by about what the planning practice entails and how it intersects their daily lives and career interests.
Last, but certainly not least, I have led educational activities for elementary and high school students in the New Bern community to learn about the profession of planning. As a mother of two children, over the years in their various schools, I have participated in a guest lecture and field trip to City Hall to discuss city planning and led an urban redesign field exercise for an Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography course. Guiding my own children—and their peers—to look at their world through a planning lens, so they understand how their built environment is organized, how they travel, where they shop, how they protect and appreciate historic places, and how they connect with people is my greatest legacy of all.
What inspired you to choose your professional career?
I first learned about the practice of planning from a college friend who later earned a Master’s of Regional Planning, specializing in Transportation. I visited my friend on campus during his program, and at a social gathering I began discussing current events with some master's students whose focus was economic development. The epiphany that followed was that International Development could be the key to pursuing my desire to improve economic opportunities in Latin America. Working at the time as a bilingual human resources specialist in Agriculture, I knew that many of the employees with whom I had been working had left parents, husbands, wives and children in Mexico and Central America to come make a better life in the United States. Given the same economic opportunities in their home countries, they most certainly would have preferred to make their lives there, alongside their loved ones.
Can you tell us about a significant project you’ve handled and how it has impacted you, our company, or the architecture, engineering, construction, and/or technology industries?
I have been most recently involved in work for the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT)'s resurfacing, excess land, and curb ramp construction processes. Our team writes documents that evaluate the potential environmental impacts of these projects on their surrounding communities. Particularly, this work involves analyzing census data for key thresholds that may indicate the presence of a minority and/or low-income Environmental Justice (EJ) community that is receiving disproportionate burdens of the project in question as compared to their majority and/or higher-income counterparts.
This work has impacted the way that I think about potential transportation projects, even those as straightforward as resurfacing a road, reselling a state-owned parcel of land, or adding curb ramps to an existing sidewalk. Any of these projects carry benefits to the community. However, if the balance between the benefits received tips unfairly towards some members of that community versus others, then the imbalance needs to be remedied in order to ensure that ALL members of the community are treated equitably.
Are there any hobbies or interests outside of work that you feel have influenced your professional journey?
Speaking Spanish has greatly influenced my professional journey. I spent one of my college summers in Petah Tikvah, Israel, working at a youth camp. Not speaking much Arabic or Hebrew, I struggled to connect with many of my campers without the help of an interpreter. Frustrated at my inability to communicate in another language, I returned to college determined to become fluent in another language. Being in the Western Hemisphere with a lot of other Spanish speakers, I chose Spanish. After several years of classroom learning and an academic year of study abroad in Uruguay, South America, I was offered a job as a bilingual human resources specialist at an agribusiness in eastern North Carolina. I knew that many of the employees with whom I had been working had left parents, husbands, wives, and children in Mexico and Central America to come make a better life in the United States. Given the same economic opportunities in their home countries, they most certainly would have preferred to make their lives there, alongside their loved ones.
During that time, while visiting a college friend who later earned a Master’s of Regional Planning, specializing in Transportation, I connected with some master's students whose focus was economic development. The epiphany that followed was that pursuing a degree in International Economic Development could be a step towards improving the economic situation of my co-workers from Latin America, thus allowing them to earn a living wage in their homelands with family. Improving their quality of life—and the quality of life of all community members in which development is taking place—is a driving force behind my passion for planning in communities both in the US and abroad.
Meet JMT: Insights from Within is more than just a podcast; it's a celebration of the diverse perspectives that make our industry thrive.
Stay tuned for a captivating exploration of the multifaceted world of architecture, engineering, construction, and technology as told by the voices that shape it.