Karla Theilen

Karla Theilen is the Neighborhood Storyteller at Strong Towns. Karla is a writer, storyteller, and Registered Nurse based out of Missoula, Montana. Her penchant to explore wild places informed early career choices as a trail builder in the Grand Canyon, and a forest fire lookout in Idaho. Her current writing inspiration comes from a different kind of wilderness, navigating healing journeys with her patients in far-flung places where she works as a travel nurse. Her writing has been featured on NPR, and select stories and essays have been anthologized. She has been Facebook-free since 1972.

TheilenStrong TownsNovember 30, 2021Staff

Jay Stange

Jay Stange is an experienced community development consultant, journalist, grassroots organizer, musician, teacher, and off-grid project manager. Raised in Alaska, his passions include transforming transportation systems and making it easier to live closer to where we work, play, and do our daily rounds. Find him shopping for groceries on his cargo bike, gardening, and coaching soccer in West Hartford, Connecticut, where he lives with his family. You can connect with him on Twitter at @corvidity.

StangeStrong TownsNovember 29, 2021Staff

Charles Marohn

Charles Marohn (known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) is the founder and president of Strong Towns and the bestselling author of “Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis.” With decades of experience as a land use planner and civil engineer, Marohn is on a mission to help cities and towns become stronger and more prosperous. He spreads the Strong Towns message through in-person presentations, the Strong Towns Podcast, and his books and articles. In recognition of his efforts and impact, Planetizen named him one of the 15 Most Influential Urbanists of all time in 2017 and 2023.

MarohnStrong TownsSeptember 1, 2015Staff, Contributor, North Texas Presenter, SoCal Presenter

Michelle Erfurt

Michelle Erfurt serves as Strong Towns' Events Pathfinder. Guided by a passion for helping people, her first career was in music therapy. She spent her clinical years working to decrease pain, improve coping, and enhance interpersonal relationships of hospice and hospitalized patients.

Those therapeutic skills have served her well. In her work at Strong Towns, Michelle navigates people through the process of bringing a Strong Towns event to their area in a way that helps them achieve their goals to help build a stronger place.

Would you like to bring Strong Towns staff to your town for a speaking engagement? Please email Michelle.

ErfurtStrong TownsAugust 5, 2015Staff

Lauren Ronnander

Lauren Ronnander, the Director of Communications for Strong Towns, is an actual idealist who loves making things and double-spacing the end of sentences. Before joining the Strong Towns team in 2020, she worked as a journalist and an editor. She lives with her husband and an almost uncountable number of animals (including cats, dogs, sheep, chickens, and rabbits) in a super-awesome neighborhood in the American Midwest. Her experience in the Alaska Bush, downtown living in an up-and-coming Midwestern city, and now residing in a rural Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin, community has provided her with precious insight into the many ways our places can grow stronger.

Are you a member of the media and want to talk about Strong Towns? Email Lauren at press@strongtowns.org.

FisherStrong TownsJuly 22, 2015Staff, Contributor

Daniel Herriges

Daniel Herriges has been a regular contributor to Strong Towns since 2015 and is a founding member of the Strong Towns movement. He is the co-author of Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis, with Charles Marohn. Daniel now works as the Policy Director at the Parking Reform Network, an organization which seeks to accelerate the reform of harmful parking policies by educating the public about these policies and serving as a connecting hub for advocates and policy makers. Daniel’s work reflects a lifelong fascination with cities and how they work. When he’s not perusing maps (for work or pleasure), he can be found exploring out-of-the-way neighborhoods on foot or bicycle. Daniel has lived in Northern California and Southwest Florida, and he now resides back in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, along with his wife and two children. Daniel has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota.

HerrigesStrong TownsJune 8, 2015Contributor, Staff, SoCal Presenter

Abby Newsham

Abby Newsham is the cohost of the Upzoned podcast. Abby is an urban design and planning consultant at Multistudio in Kansas City, Missouri. In her own community, she works to advance bottom-up strategies that enhance both private development and the public realm, and facilitates the ad-hoc Kansas City chapter of the Incremental Development Alliance. When she’s not geeking out over cities, Abby is an avid urban mountain biker (because: potholes), audiobook and podcast junkie, amateur rock climber, and guitarist. You can connect with Abby on Twitter at @abbykatkc.

KinneyStrong TownsJune 5, 2015Staff

Alexa Mendieta

Alexa Mendieta serves as a Development Associate for Strong Towns. After graduating from the University of Richmond, she worked at Historic St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Now she is excited to be sharing the Strong Towns movement and working to make towns more for the people. Outside of work, she enjoys going on walks, houseplants and gardening, and dreaming of the day when she’ll own a dog.

Are you interested in strategically supporting the Strong Towns mission? Get in touch with Alexa.

MendietaStrong TownsJune 3, 2015Staff, Contributor

John Pattison

John Pattison is the Community Builder for Strong Towns. In this role, he works with advocates in hundreds of communities as they start and lead local Strong Towns groups called Local Conversations. John is the author of two books, most recently Slow Church (IVP), which takes inspiration from Slow Food and the other Slow movements to help faith communities reimagine how they live life together in the neighborhood. He also co-hosts The Membership, a podcast inspired by the life and work of Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer, writer, and activist. John and his family live in Silverton, Oregon. You can connect with him on Twitter at @johnepattison.

Want to start a Local Conversation, or implement the Strong Towns approach in your community? Email John.

PattisonStrong TownsJune 2, 2015Staff, Contributor

Rachel Quednau

Rachel Quednau serves as Director of Movement Building at Strong Towns. Trained in dialogue facilitation and mediation, she is devoted to building understanding across lines of difference. Rachel has served in several different positions with Strong Towns over the years, as well as worked for local and federal housing organizations. A native Minnesotan and honorary Wisconsinite, Rachel attend Whitman College for her undergraduate and received a Masters in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Harvard Divinity School. She currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her husband and two young children. One of her favorite ways to get to know a new city is by going for a walk in it.

QuednauStrong TownsMarch 29, 2015Contributor, Staff

Christa Theilen

Christa Theilen is the Office Assistant for Strong Towns. She’s a former teacher who recently moved back to her hometown after almost 20 years. She’s very happy to be a member of the Strong Towns team, where supporting her teammates and crossing things off her to-do list give her great satisfaction.

Christa TheilenStrong TownsSeptember 1, 2013Staff

Linda Twillman

Linda serves as Strong Towns’ Controller. After a long career in corporate accounting and finance, she is happy to apply her skills and experience in the nonprofit sector. Originally from Maryland, she moved to Charleston, South Carolina, over 20 years ago, and is now grateful to live just a block away from the beach on Edisto Island. She enjoys good books, good food, and the company of good friends. She also loves to travel, and is looking forward to new adventures in the near future.

Got a question about billing or payments? Email Linda.

TwillmanStrong TownsAugust 1, 2013Staff

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