Megan Grubb (’20) is working as a Community Developer with Atlas Community Studios, an organization based in Des Moines, Iowa, that assists rural communities to plan for growth through collaborative strategic planning and simple, realistic plans.
Grubb, a native of Indianola and graduate of the University of Iowa, said she enjoys the collaboration her new position allows her to have with unique rural communities across the country and appreciates the beauty and value those communities present.
“I get to help them create quality amenities that improve quality of life for locals, while hoping to attract visitors and future residents,” Grubb said. “I love visiting new places and have lived in a lot of larger cities, but I feel that I’ve learned the most about a new place when driving through the countryside and visiting small towns.”
Atlas’ services are catered to meet a community’s needs and resources, regardless of the community’s size. Its services range from creating concepts to fulfill the potential of underused downtown facilities and analyzing a community’s competitive advantage for economic development, to developing a public art plan with locations and installations and bringing broadband internet services to homes and businesses. For each of its projects, Atlas includes funding models from an array of sources: state, regional, county, and city dollars, private sources, and fundraising efforts.
As an example of the type of work she is completing, Grubb is currently finishing a placemaking project in Linton, N.D.
“We created an opportunity zone prospectus for a multi-use building in their downtown, a housing analysis and recommendations to increase their stock of new builds while also rehabilitating current homes, and a marketing plan for how to promote the OZ prospectus to potential investors as well as tools to promote themselves as a community.”
Grubb’s relationship with Atlas Community Studios began during her time as a Clinton School student when she accepted a fellowship with the organization, then known as McClure Placemaking. She helped to develop a placemaking roadmap for the City of Cabot, Arkansas. Her work served as an action plan to gather ideas from the people of Cabot on the future of their community, and compile strategies to execute those ideas.
She was introduced to McClure Placemaking through a Clinton School Speaker Series event in October 2018. Alex Holland, who was then a Lead Community Placemaker with McClure Placemaking and is now Vice President for Atlas Community Studios, spoke on her work with McClure and previous efforts with the Delta Creative Placemaking Initiative.
She went on to complete her Capstone project with the organization, conducting research to determine best practices for placemaking projects and provided recommendations on how to expand their placemaking services to international communities.
Grubb’s tenure at the Clinton School also included field service projects with Our House Shelter, Cidades Sem Fome in São Paulo, Brazil. She was awarded a Boren Fellowship to study Portuguese at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais in São Paulo.
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