Spotlight Series

First of all, can you just tell me about yourself, your background, and how you ended up with Chickenango?

Siobhan: So, I graduated from Texas A&M in 2020. I majored in Economics and minored in Environmental Geoscience, and I began an internship at TTI which is the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. So, I kind of found myself involved in transportation but had no idea what I was getting into. I worked in the Multimodal Environmental Division there and I was lucky enough to have a great mentor who I got to do research under and work on a multitude of different types of research papers stemming from supply chain needs, legislative requests, working with B Technology, working on on studies that stemmed out the BTMP which concludes oversized/overweight needs assessment, as well as truck parking pilot studies. And through that, I was also able to work with a lot of different federal agencies as well as USDOT to understand best practices, which I was able to take back to Texas to make our transportation system as good as it can be. So, I started working in a lot of different state of practices for the multimodal division for TXDOT as well as the Carbon Reduction Strategy and with that, I would interview different stakeholders to identify peer states to understand who the subject matter experts were. So, a lot of that work was understanding what questions to ask, reaching out to stakeholders and experts, and bringing that back to Texas. And that also included owner-operators, economic development corporations, and the Corps of Engineers. After that I really gravitated towards that public component and being able to have those conversations with people. I happened to learn about Chickenango and what they stand for and what they do in the transportation world, and it meshed really well with my goals and who I stand for as a person. I have really enjoyed working with their team and speaking with them and that was when I moved into the public involvement component of the transportation projects instead of the feasibility side which is much different working with the public on that aspect. It means a lot to work with people that care about what they do so it goes a long way.

So, this year, I'm sure you've heard at some of our meetings, a big focus of the marketing committee has been focused on the past, present and future of the Greater Dallas region. So, in your time with Chickenango what projects have you worked on that that have made an impact on the North Texas community?

Siobhan: So, I came on at Chickenango a little over a year ago, and despite being relatively new in Texas we still have done a lot for such little time, and we've made some significant contributions to the community through our work in the AEC industry. Because we're a firm that's so focused on fostering local engagement with residents in the community on issues that are important to them and that are affecting people in the region, understanding how people are impacted and proactively trying to mitigate those impacts has been our focus. We've worked on DART Silver Line, which is a large and impactful project in the region and has been a little bit controversial. It spans 26 miles from DFW Airport to Plano and we have been working with the City of Dallas documenting the public input and developing progress reports for the city to ensure that the rail line is not only successful but also is a reflection of the community and makes it a true asset for residents. So, we have the responsibility of being transparent to build the trust with the community, and I think that goes a long way with anything that happens in the region in making sure that there is that connectiveness in everything that goes on throughout the region.

Jennifer: So, we started Chickenango in 2018. We're headquartered in the Denver Metro area in Colorado, which is where I am currently. And so, I have 26 years of experience working for engineers in engineering companies in marketing and providing some public involvement on projects. After 26 years, I left and decided to start my own PI company so that we could just really focus on that niche component because a lot of the time engineering companies will have some of that in their scope and sometimes, they try to do it themselves and sometimes they'll outsource it if it's a larger project. But I just really wanted to be able to focus specifically on public involvement in transportation infrastructure projects. So, after starting Chickenango here in Colorado, we've done 85 CDOT projects in the last six years along with local municipality projects, local agency projects, and some private work with engineering companies specifically more on the branding and the website design, things like that. About two years ago, when I started Chickenango, I always had the vision to expand down into Texas. I used to work for an engineering company where I helped to create an office in Texas. They were in Oklahoma and Colorado, and they wanted to go into the Texas market. So, when I did that, I realized the amount of amazing and cool projects that Texas has because there are a ton of them. And I always knew I wanted to eventually go down into Texas to bring Chickenango because we are a niche company, and it seems like our work would translate well into the Texas market. Although there are a couple of other companies doing similar work, I will say that half of our staff comes from inside of the engineering industry. A lot of them were on the marketing staff. And so, they were doing a lot of selling of engineers anywhere from environmental through planning, through design, and construction. So being able to take engineer speak and convert it to a message that the public can understand is not always easy. So, it really comes naturally for us. And that's kind of why I, I started it. And yeah, that's kind of how we came into Dallas too in the Dallas area. So that's where we landed first and we're also now over in Austin.

As you know there is a ton of development going on in this North Texas region. What projects are you excited to see in the North Texas and Greater Dallas region? And how do you foresee Chickenango playing a role in that growth?

Siobhan: As everybody else has heard, there's significant growth going on, especially just with the population influx in the coming years which will make this region very dynamic, probably one of the more dynamic regions in the US. And because of that, there's a lot of economic development that goes on with that, like you were saying, and there needs to be a robust transportation system that comes with being able to handle what is going to be happening on the roads. We need a redundant system. So, because that is happening, it kind of shows that we have a critical need for that substantial investment in infrastructure. It means that there's a lot that is going to be going on, but it has to be done well, and there has to be a lot of conversations that happen that revolve around sustainable urban planning. I know that the GDPC is also interested in water resources and housing. And because of that, I think that it will make people come up with innovative projects with innovative solutions. And then other projects that are interesting are going to be things like the high-speed rail line. I know NCTCOG is doing their feasibility study on that and then they're going to be doing that from Dallas to Fort Worth and then hopefully eventually to go down to Houston. But other than that, I think what's exciting for Texas in general is the fact that there is just a lot going on. There are a lot of opportunities to do things the right way now because there's a lot of money coming in and there's a lot of grants coming down. And I would hope that the conversations that happen around how to do it best is not going to be just between policymakers, but also involve professionals in the industry that have an understanding and knowledge of what is best and include the public participation side for the planning processes to ensure that the growth reflects the diverse needs of all the communities involved. I feel like people look at Dallas and show that we're number one in a lot of stuff, and we have a lot of people coming here because it's a great place to live, and you see that, and you want to reflect that as best as we can. And so, we're excited that we get to have a small part in the grand scheme of things by keeping communities updated and making sure they get to participate through comprehensive engagement and outreach throughout whichever project planning phase it is. It is important that residents have an understanding of which important issues there are in our region and how it impacts them. Our aim is to contribute to a future where everybody, no matter their socio-economic status, has access to the appropriate opportunities and resources that are necessary to thrive in the environment that we're creating. And so hopefully it creates a more connected and prosperous environment in this region that benefits all residents. It will also set a benchmark for other regions to look towards that is collaborative and equitable.

Jennifer: I love the Dallas area. I have a place in McKinney because I love it that much. I love to be able to come down there whenever I want, and I think for my big vision I tend to think really, really high up here in the sky and then a lot of people tend to tunnel it in and bring it down to reality a little bit but, Dallas has some pretty cool initiatives and visions for the future. You know, you talk about airspace, around, and above Dallas which opens up space for the future when you talk about drone technology and the possibility of flying cars. I know it seems so farfetched and out there, but they actually have programs where they're starting to look at that kind of technology. And for me, it's always been really cool to see the advancement in technology. I think back to when I was in high school, we didn't even have computers. We had typewriters and computers that had just come out to the general public when I was probably 23 or 24. And you think about that versus now I'm 54, so that's literally 30 years, we had advanced so far in the world of technology that it's not unrealistic to actually start thinking about those things. I think that Dallas really implements a lot of that forward thinking into a lot of the planning that goes on down here, and I think they're probably more advanced than just about any other state in terms of that type of technology and just looking ahead at some of those things. So, I think for me that's why it's very exciting. One of the other reasons I love Dallas, it's just a really fun city to be in and it's got a really good mix of people. I think just being able to be in a city that has a wide variety of people who have different views and different backgrounds, to me, that's just ideal, that's like what the world is about right there.

Siobhan: To add on to Jennifer's point, as she was mentioning drones, when I was at TTI there was a lot of innovation that goes on there. I mean, they had worked on the Amazon drone drop thing, which was very interesting because it was the division that was next to me. And I was always curious what was going on. But we have the inland port as well in Dallas which is always interesting. People always talk about how Dallas and the DFW area is this metroplex that technically shouldn’t be here because it's fairly high up in the middle of nowhere. But it's very interesting because there's a lot of land and there's a lot of stuff to be able to do and they have the Alliance Texas Mobility Innovation Zone because they do a lot of stuff that other states or agencies don't have the funds to do because it's not beneficial immediately. You know, it's down the line what is going to work. And I always thought that was very cool.