Authenticity for the New Year (30DEC2021)

Cook Inlet, Anchorage, Alaska (March 2021)

I strive to be authentic in my interactions with people. Authenticity requires honesty, respect, and a level of trust. Trust is fundamental and it can only be earned through action. When you don’t know somebody (like me), it might be hard to learn to trust them (like me). Past actions can collectively serve as a strong indicators of future actions. I have worked on a wide variety of plans and projects (see “My Work” for examples), but I would respectfully request that you dig deeper than that. There are a lot of people and firms with extensive work experience.

I would ask that you ask me about the times I coached at minority-majority public high schools in Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD. Or the time that I served as a mentor in the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (A.C.E.) Mentor Program in Washington, DC. Please ask me about the service trips I completed to rural Appalachia in high school, where there was no indoor plumbing and leaky roofs. Those were transformational experiences, experiences that mold your heart and soul. When you were through asking me about those experiences, those differentiators, I would hope that you would find indicators of the principles that I live by, the principles that Matt Bowling Planning strives to infuse into each project or plan.

I currently serve in the U.S. Coast Guard (Reserve). I have been in U.S. Coast Guard for over 10-years. I joined the U.S. Coast Guard, because I desired (and still desire) to help our country. To serve this place that has given so many opportunities to me. Last year at this time (December 2020), I was preparing for a short-term active-duty assignment to Anchorage, Alaska. It was transformational experience. Ask me about it, ask me how that specific experience - in the U.S. Coast Guard, in Alaska - could help serve your project or plan. Also, check out my work Vanishing Ice: Strategies for Mitigating Vessel Traffic Risk in the Arctic Region to learn more about how the loss of year-round sea ice will open new vessel routes in this region, increasing the likelihood for irrevocable harm to indigenous populations and adverse environmental impacts to pristine ecosystems.

My motivation comes from a fundamental desire to help people and to help our planet. I don’t operate under the belief that these goals are mutually exclusive or at odds with one another. Projects can both help people (to include being extraordinarily profitable) and be designed in ways that minimize impacts the natural environment and the existing built environment.

Authenticity would go a long way to getting us to these objectives.

Best,

MB