Selected Presentations
Wealth Creation
Learning Communities
Participatory Research
Measurement
Green Community Technologies®
Forest Economy
General
Agriculture
Food Hub Wealth Creation Webinar. 2011. Shanna Ratner presented on Wealth Creation in Rural Communities.
10th Annual Policy Meeting of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition. 2010. Shanna Ratner presented on “Local Wealth Creation, Diversification, and Retention.”
Rural LISCs Seminar XIX, Rural Works! Building Sustainable Communities. 2010. Shanna Ratner presented as part of a panel on “Asset Building and Economic Development Strategies.”
USDA Rural Development Regions Connecting for Rural Innovation. 2010. Shanna Ratner co-presented Wealth Creation in Rural Communities as part of the economic development thread.
Ford Foundation Triple Bottom Line Working Group Meeting. Chapel Hill, NC., June 2009. Melissa Levy presented to the Working Group on “Sample Indicators of Community Wealth.”
Council on Foundations Philanthropy in Rural America Conference. 2009. Shanna Ratner co-led a workshop on Ford’s wealth creation approach to rural development.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Exploring Innovation: A Conference on Community Development. 2009 Shanna Ratner co-presented Wealth Creation in Rural Communities and wealth creation approaches.
Keynote Speaker: New Mexico Rural Economic Development Forum. October 1997. Shanna Ratner spoke on the topic of "Creating Learning Communities" to an audience of economic development practitioners and elected officials. The focus of the forum was "Build Community Capacity: Tools for Vitalizing Our Rural Economies." The forum is an accredited program of the American Economic Development Council.
"Outstanding speaker and subject is critical - (I'd) love to have this
intelligent, talented woman work with our town."
-Member of the audience in Clovis, New Mexico
Keynote Speaker: Northeast Sustainable Communities Project Annual Retreat. November 1997. Shanna Ratner spoke on the topic of "Creating Learning Communities" to community development practitioners in six communities who have been working for four years to promote community sustainability.
Heartland Center for Leadership Development. June 1996. Presented workshops on “Making Indicators (That) Matter: Using Citizen Learning Teams to Keep Community Development Ongoing and On Track” and
“Creating and Sustaining a Learning Community of Rural Development Practitioners” at the Cultivating Community Success: Strategic Lessons from Community Assessment conference of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Adirondack Research Consortium Annual Conference. Tupper Lake, NY. 2007. Presented a Participatory Research workshop.
Adirondack Research Consortium Annual Conference. Saranac Lake, NY. 2004. Presented a Participatory Research workshop.
Adirondack Research Consortium Annual Conference. Saranac Lake, NY, 2003. Presented a Participatory Research workshop.
Participatory Research Workshop. November 2003. Yellow Wood, as the National Community Forestry Center, Northern Forest Region, presented a workshop at Middlebury College to faculty, students, staff and community members. This highly interactive four-hour workshop explored the value of a participatory research approach to community problem solving.
New Hampshire Rural Development Council Annual Meeting. 2001. Shanna Ratner presented the keynote on participatory research.
Participatory Evaluation of the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities. January 1996. Presented results of the training in participatory evaluation developed in conjunction with the Community Partnership Center of the University of Tennessee and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development as well as information on indicators of sustainable communities to Washington staff from USDA, NCAT and HUD.
"Thanks again for the excellent work both yesterday and the preparation for yesterday. I think we have made a real breakthrough in terms of potential impact and
learning at USDA."
-John Gaventa, Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology, University of Tennessee
Alliance for Nonprofit Management Conference 2010. Melissa Levy presented “You Get What You Measure: An Alternative Strategic Planning and Evaluation Tool.”
Community Matters ’10 Conference. 2010. Shanna Ratner presented as part of a panel on “Measuring Success: Indicators in Evolving Communities.”
Boston Facilitator’s Roundtable. 2010. Shanna Ratner presented You Get What You Measure®, Yellow Wood’s unique process for deriving goals, indicators, measures and aligning resources for results.
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies Annual Conference. 2010 Shanna Ratner presented You Get What You Measure®.
National Scenic Byways Annual Conference. 2007. Shanna Ratner presented on You Get What You Measure®.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Community Involvement Conference. Milwaukee, WI. 2006. Presented a You Get What You Measure® workshop.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Community Involvement Conference. Buffalo, NY. 2005. Shanna Ratner presented on You Get What You Measure®.
2005 National Conference on Community Economic Development and the Social Economy. May 7, 2005. Gave a presentation on You Get What You Measure for the Canadian Community Economic Development Network.
Workshop participants evaluated the usefulness of the workshop in their work by giving a score of 4.33 out of 5 (5 = excellent).
Sustainable Communities Conference. Burlington, VT. 2004 Presented a You Get What You Measure® workshop.
Community Indicators Conference. Burlington, VT. 2003. Presented a You Get What You Measure® workshop.
Canadian Community Economic Development Network.
Maine Rural Development Council Forum on Community Capacity Building. September 1995. Presented a report on the concept of capacity building and the measurement tool for community capacity building developed by the Aspen Institute Rural Community Capacity Building Learning Cluster to a cross-section of practitioners and community members.
National Society for Professional Engineers Webinar. 2010. Melissa Levy co-presented with Dan Folsom on "Providing Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions to Small Communities." The presentation focused on Green Community Technologies®
Vermont Community Development Association, Spring Meeting. April 2010. Shanna Ratner presented Green Community Technologies and facilitated exercises in skilled listening, skilled inquiry and skilled advocacy with Vermont planners and U.S.D.A. Rural Development staff.
Adirondack Research Consortium Annual Meeting. 2007. Shanna Ratner presented on Green Community Technologies®.
Massachusetts Municipal Association Annual Conference. Boston, MA. 2005. Presented on Green Community Technologies®.
Vermont Planners Association Annual Conference. 2005. Presented on Green Community Technologies®.
What Works! The Future of Rural Entrepreneurship and Community Development in the Northeast. Burlington, VT. 2005. Presented on Green Community Technologies®.
Vermont Municipal Officers Trainings. 2004. Presented on Green Community Technologies®.
Woody Biomass Energy Research Symposium for the Northern Forest. April 2011. Samantha Dunn spoke as part of a panel on the Community Roadmap to Renewable Woody Biomass.
Adirondack North Country Association Board Meeting. Spring 2010. Samantha Dunn presented on "Woody Biomass in the ANCA Region."
Northern Forest Alliance Annual Meeting. November 2003. Shanna Ratner spoke as a panelist on the subject of economic forces shaping the Northern Forest Region and the region’s place in an increasingly global economy.
" Thanks for being a part of the day one doings. People very much
appreciated your perspective/comments. "
-George Gay, Executive Director, Northern Forest Alliance
Farm Credit Training Course In The Wood Products Industry. October 1992. Speech given
at the Northern New York Training Seminar.
Wood Products Strategy Presentations. 1991-1993.Presented the Wood Products Development Strategy for Northern New York to Utilization and Marketing Foresters from across the United States at the Vermont Wood Energy and Recycling Conference, Farm Credit Bankers from across the Northeast, the Adirondack Park Agency, the Adirondack North Country Association's Annual Membership Meeting, and the North Country Professional Development Series.
"I was impressed with your presentation at Ray Brook last week, and would like to congratulate you on the fine, detailed job you have done on the wood products study."
-James R. Kanik, Executive Director, Development Authority of the North Country
Wood Products Industry Conference. September 1998. Gave a presentation titled, “Adding Value From Stump To Mill and Beyond.
National Network of Forest Practitioners, 8th Annual Meeting. 1998. Shanna Ratner presented “Measuring Progress Toward Community Goals, A Training in Community Based Measurement.”
Vermont Forest Resources Advisory Council. June 1996. Presented “Forest Products Markets and Marketing” to the Rural Economic Development Work Group of the Vermont Forest Resources Advisory Council.
Forest Trust. January 1994. “Regional Economic Development based on the Wood Products Industry” was presented to a conference of The Forest Trust in Washington, DC.
New England Society of American Foresters. March 1994. Presented “The Canadian Connection in the Northeast Wood Products Industry” to the New England Society of American Foresters. The talk
incorporated recent research into global economic trends affecting the forest industry, log exporting, and the US-Canada softwood lumber trade dispute.
Vermont Environmental Consortium Annual Conference. 2010. Melissa Levy presented “Vermont’s Environmental Sector: Identifying Green Workforce Training Needs and Opportunities.”
Annual Public Meeting on the Future of LNG in the Bay, Save Passamaquoddy Bay / Canada. 2010. Shanna Ratner presented on “Separating Economic Fact from Fiction.”
Catskills Local Government Day, Highmount, NY. October 2009. Samantha Dunn presented "Community Infrastructure: Is your town ready for change?"
Connecticut Joint River Commission. 2008. Shanna Ratner presented progress on a tool to measure the economic impact of America’s Byways.
FairPlay (citizens group). Town of Harpswell, Maine. February 2004. Shanna Ratner presented the findings of Yellow Wood’s study of the potential economic and fiscal impacts of a proposed liquid natural
gas import terminal on the Town of Harpswell, Maine to an audience of over 150 people in a public meeting. Ms. Ratner also participated in a question and answer call-in show at the Harpswell public access television station.
New York State Association of Towns Annual Training. February 2004. Shanna Ratner and Ann Ruzow Holland co-presented a session on Green Technology and Infrastructure for Towns. What is in it for My Community?
"You were so professional and well-prepared. This was the best workshop
I went to at the entire conference. "
-Workshop participant.
Northeast Recreation Research Symposium. Bolton Landing, NY. 2003. Melissa Levy presented “Local and Nonlocal Recreationists and Water-Based Recreation in Northwestern Vermont.”
Vermont Community Development Association Fall Conference. October 2003. Shanna Ratner spoke as a panelist responding to a series of presentations on changes in demographics, transportation, settlement patterns, and employment. Her assignment was to address the question, “So what?”
Looking Forward 30 Years – Adirondack Park Conference presented by the Government Law Center of Albany Law School and the New York State Bar Association Environmental and Municipal Law Sections. October 2003. Shanna Ratner participated in a panel discussion on directing development to “acceptable areas.”
Center for Rural Pennsylvania’s Rural Summit in the City. 2001. Shanna Ratner presented as part of a panel on developing local leaders.
Missouri Association of Community Task Forces. 2000. Shanna Ratner presented as keynote speaker and trainer at the annual conference for community change agents.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Statewide Conference. 1998. Shanna Ratner presented “Why Capacity Matters and What You Can Do About It.”
Addison County Vermont Regional Planning Commission. March 1997. “What Towns Can Do to Support Local Economic Development” presented to the Addison County Regional Planning Commission Board meeting.
Linking Biological Diversity and Sustainable Economic Development in the Adirondacks. May 1992. Presented “Perspectives On Sustaining Economic Development In The Park In Balance With Nature - What’s Needed Here” at the Adirondack Park Centennial Forum.
The 3rd Rural Issues: Community Leadership Conference. April 2011. Shanna Ratner presented the keynote, "Why Does Agriculture Matter and What Can Municipal and Public Officials Do to Grow the Agricultural Economy?" at the Central New York Agricultural Council's third annual conference in Cooperstown, New York.
Agricultural Opportunities Seminar and Trade Show. March 1993. Presented “Is There a Market for My Product?” at this day-long seminar for farmers and agricultural developers in Washington County, New York.