June 20, 2025
ReImagine Appalachia launched the inaugural cohort of the ReImagine Your Community (RYC) Visioning Session Project in the fall of 2023. The cohort is made up of eight incredible community leaders from seven different communities spanning across the Ohio River Valley. Our cohort has met monthly throughout this initiative for collaborative sessions focused on co-creating a bottom-up visioning process for a sustainable, equitable economy tailored to each leader’s community, from neighborhoods to regions.
In the summer of 2024 we held a virtual showcase for our RYC cohort participants to share about the remarkable projects they’ve been leading in their communities. You can read more about the Showcase here.
Thanks to our collaboration with Stanford Law School, we’ve compiled Final Reports that highlight everything our amazing cohort has accomplished during this initiative. Check out their inspiring work!
Here’s what they reported
Annie Warmke (Marietta, OH)
When Annie Warmke moved from her rural Ohio farm to the town of Marietta, she sparked a renaissance of neighborhood connection, resilience, and vision—one tea party and “Art in the Alley” event at a time.
Photo courtesy of Sionainn Rudek at Blue Rock Station
Learn about the project…
Annie is a self-proclaimed “longtime country gal,” award-winning activist and social entrepreneur, co-founder of Blue Rock Station, and founder of Warmke Farm LLC, Women’s Peacepower, Buffalo Gals Voices and more. When Annie started taking four-day getaways from her rural Ohio farm to visit her friend Roger in Marietta, she was surprised to learn that many of his neighbors—despite living on the same street for over a decade—barely knew each other. A few months later, after Annie and her husband purchased a two-story Victorian home across the alley from Roger’s house, she felt a calling: to bring her new neighbors together to network and take charge of what they wanted their neighborhood to become.
Annie began hosting tea parties and potluck dinners to bring neighbors together. After six potlucks, at least one person from every sub-neighborhood had attended, and were making a plan to connect with their own neighbors. There was also an envisioning session organized to discuss how to create emergency services and how to plan neighborhood development that met the needs of the residents, like new tree plantings and ways to utilize Oak Grove Cemetery as a tourist area for food forest gardening, hiking trails and historic tours.
Photo courtesy of Annie Warmke
All the while Annie and Roger were working diligently, recruiting volunteers and distributing art kits, to host their inaugural May Art in the Alley event.
Read the final report to find out more about Annie’s work!
Rev. Caitlin Ware & Rev. Brad Davis (McDowell County, WV)
Rooted in coal country and dedicated to faith and justice, two pastors are supporting communal flourishing by building community-owned systems for food, water, and economic sovereignty.
Photo courtesy of Rev. Caitlin Ware and Rev. Brad Davis
Learn about the project…
Rev. Caitlin Ware, a United Methodist pastor, and Rev. Brad Davis, a United Methodist Elder and a co-chair of the West Virginia Faith Collective, both serve churches in West Virginia– Tucker County, WV, and McDowell County, WV respectively. Rev. Ware and Rev. Davis share a deep commitment to reclaiming the land, people, and story of West Virginia’s coalfields—guided by a theology rooted in God’s movement from below in the southern coalfields of West Virginia, and focused on justice, community renewal, and the church’s role in co-laboring toward a more just and vibrant future.
During a community conversation in 2023, the consensus vision for communal flourishing in McDowell County became clear: to be a thriving, supportive community where everyone’s needs are met, hope is restored, and the people are healed. Through the RYC initiative, Rev. Ware and Rev. Davis built projects through community input to secure funding for water infrastructure, secure land for the creation of a sustainable food system, and support the creation of a community cooperative for sustainable timbering.
Photo courtesy of Rev. Caitlin Ware and Rev. Brad Davis
All three projects center around the necessity of a thriving community to have access to healthy food and clean water, the infrastructure to support them, and access to land for economic development by local people for local people. This allows for communities to prosper, and works to support what Central Appalachian people have lacked for well over a century – economic self-determination and sovereignty.
Read the final report to find out more about Rev. Ware and Rev. Davis’ work!
Dr. Octavia Cordon (Charleston, WV)
By launching community cafés as engines of connection that support social and economic change for at-risk youth and their communities, Dr. Octavia Cordon is transforming how Charleston gathers, grows, and thrives together.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Octavia Cordon
Learn about the project…
Dr. Octavia Cordon is the Director of Aspire, a nonprofit organization focused on implementing preventive initiatives that support social and economic change for at-risk youth and their communities. Dr. Cordon recognized the need to bring the community together—not just to learn, but to collaborate in solving shared challenges. She identified community cafés as the ideal platform to foster this engagement.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Octavia Cordon
The community cafe model offers a multi-beneficial solution by creating spaces designed to be more than just places to grab a cup of coffee; but serve as social hubs that foster community engagement, support local businesses, and provide opportunities for social and economic development. Community cafes are social enterprises that provide more than just food and beverages– they serve as gathering places that foster community spirit, support local economies, and promote social inclusion.
Read the final report to find out more about Dr. Cordon’s work!
Weston Lombard (Dover Township, OH)
try, agroecology, and sustainable living, and a vision for sustainable stewardship, Weston Lombard and the Rising Appalachia team are cultivating a regenerative economy in Appalachia that nourishes both people and the planet.
Photo courtesy of Rising Appalachia
Learn about the project
Weston Lombard is a co-founder and Executive Director of Rising Appalachia, a sustainable economic and social ecosystem including a farm, forest, and wildlife preservation. For the past 18 years he has experimented with agroforestry, agroecology, and sustainable living, sharing these passions with youth and the community through classes, summer camps, and workshops. Through education, demonstration, and community exchange rooted in sustainable stewardship, Weston’s work through Rising Appalachia aims to support regional culture while providing for economic activity, our collective needs, and individual health and enjoyment.
Photo courtesy of Rising Appalachia.
Looking ahead, Weston hopes to grow and create new community spaces to contribute to and benefit from a sustainable, regenerative economy. To help make this a reality, Rising Appalachia hopes to reclaim now-unused mining land and transform it into an integrated community site to enhance community engagement and foster place-based economic development. The aim of this project is to create new business opportunities, increase local employment, and provide a model for sustainable forest-based economic development in Appalachia. Ultimately, the hope is to lead to increased tourism, better access to nutritious food for residents, and a strengthened local economy.
Read the final report to find out more about Weston’s work!
Wendy Tuck (Parkersburg, WV)
Wendy Tuck is redefining local governance through hands-on collaboration to create walkability and bikability in Parkersburg, affordable housing, and inclusive community spaces for all.
Learn about the project…
Wendy Tuck is a life-long learner with a Master of Arts in Special Education, and many years in education, social services, and non-profit management. She was elected into public office for the first time in 2020– she hit the streets running and has not stopped since. She has developed a strong and effective type of “informal governance”, informing and engaging constituents in collective action to meet real human needs, and to have good times together as well.
Photo courtesy of Wendy Tuck
Through Wendy’s work through the RYC initiative, she is working to address walkability and bikability in Parkersburg, affordable housing, and community spaces. She hopes that Parkersburg, and towns like Parkersburg, can fill the gap in cities and towns to provide safe, enjoyable alternative transportation options, both for practical use and for recreation. Besides improved transportation options, she believes that safe and affordable housing is the bedrock of any community’s growth and prosperity, and is working to help Wood County strategically plan beyond only traditional development opportunities. She also hopes to improve current facilities, such as expanding YMCA pools and improving athletic fields.
Read the final report to find out more about Wendy’s work!
Sarah Lowry (Mahoning Valley, OH)
Sarah Lown and the ReImagine Mahoning Valley team are stitching together bold ideas into a regional blueprint for healthy homes, inclusive development, and lasting change.
Photo courtesy of The Community Foundation of Mahoning Val
Learn about the project…
ahoning Valley, Sarah works to support the Community Foundation’s strategic community leadership initiatives by making connections between people and resources needed to make lasting, positive change. She shares her time overseeing the Partnership, a cross-sector collaborative working to create a healthier Mahoning Valley by addressing the region’s poor health outcomes.
Photo courtesy of the Reimagining the Mahoning Valley: A Collaborative Vision for Housing, Health, and Healing Report
In spring of 2024, community stakeholders came together to answer the question: who or what is the Mahoning Valley and who or what do we want to be (or become)? The Reimagine the Mahoning Valley group decided to look at plans and visions that currently exist and put pieces together to complete at least that quadrant of the puzzle. Through the RYC initiative, Sarah and the ReImagine the Mahoning Valley group has honed in on Energy Efficient & Healthy Homes in the Mahoning Valley through affordable housing construction, workforce and training, and an inclusive government framework.
Read the final report to find out more about Sarah’s work!
Kara Scott (Carbon County, PA)
Fueled by deep community ties, Kara Scott is leading Carbon County toward a more livable, sustainable future through smart infrastructure, housing, and food justice.
Photo courtesy of Kara Scott
Learn about the project…
Kara Scott has been volunteering in nonprofit organizations most of her life, and community is her passion. Currently, she is serving her 4th term as a member of her borough council, is the chair and charter member of the Carbon County Council of Governments, a member of Save Carbon County, and the founder and President of Bowmanstown Area Residents Connected (BARC).
Photo courtesy of Kara Scott
Through ReImagine Carbon County, Kara is addressing three key areas: infrastructure, community, and food sovereignty. She is developing multi-level parking structures to reduce tourist congestion and improve transit for older residents, while also tackling the county-wide lack of affordable senior housing and community spaces through new 55+ communities and an intergenerational community center. Despite abundant farmland, Carbon County remains a food desert, so the initiative is partnering with local stakeholders—including schools—to establish community farms that promote sustainable, healthy food access.
Read the final report to find out more about Kara’s work!
Mary Sanders (Thomas, WV and Oakland, MD)
On the borders of Maryland and West Virginia, Deacon Mary Sanders is nurturing new economic life through community imagination and renewal.
Learn about the project…
Deacon Mary Sanders is an ordained minister of word and service in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. After a geology degree and 16 years with WVDEP, she went to seminary for a theology degree and found herself as a director of a non-profit. Deacon Sanders lives on her father’s farm at the western border of Maryland, and works in both Thomas, WV, and Oakland, MD.
While speaking with community members, Deacon Sanders found asking people what their communities needed invariably resulted in the answer of “jobs” but few could say what kind of jobs they should be. Nostalgia would then be unfurled, and Deacon Sanders found that the groups who seemed able to mourn were able to come up with an idea, or at least seem excited about an idea. Through Deacon Sander’s three RYC projects– skills trading between younger and older folks, a native plant nursery and landscaping, and an incubation kitchen– she has focused on new life in a way that might not be recognized, new life that may upset and even reject the status quo. New life built in hope.
Deacon Sanders does not have a final report at this time, but reach out to her/keep an eye on our website for updates on her work!