📌 Lesson From the Field

I’ll never forget my first community meeting in rural Louisiana. I walked in with a thick binder of talking points, ready to “inform” people about FEMA’s recovery programs. I didn’t get more than five minutes in before a resident raised their hand and asked: “Why aren’t you asking us what we need?”

That moment stopped me in my tracks. It was the beginning of a shift—from telling to asking, from knowing to listening. I carry this lesson into every project today: true recovery begins when the people most affected are heard first.