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About Strong Towns

Strong Towns is a
non-profit, non-partisan organization that helps America's towns achieve financial strength and resiliency.

We travel the nation and the digisphere to promote a complete understanding of the costs that are associa­ted with our communities' methods of growth, and we advocate to address those costs via productive changes in our pattern of development.

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Strong Towns Staff

Executive Director: Charles L. Marohn, Jr. PE AICP    

Charles Marohn - known as "Chuck" to friends and colleagues - is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the State of Minnesota and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He has a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

He is the author of Thoughts on Building Strong Towns (Volume 1), the primary author of the Strong Towns Blog and the host of the Strong Towns Podcast and See it Differently TV.

Chuck grew up on a small farm in Central Minnesota. The oldest of three sons of two elementary school teachers, he graduated from Brainerd High School in 1991. Chuck joined the Minnesota National Guard on his 17th birthday during his junior year of high school and served for nine years. Besides being passionate about planning and small towns, he loves playing music, is an obsessive reader and is a season ticket holder of the Minnesota Twins.

Chuck and his wife live with their two daughters and two Samoyeds just north of Baxter, Minnesota.

 

Co-Founder: Jon Commers

Jon Commers brings fifteen years of experience analyzing, developing and implementing policy and public finance strategies to his work at Strong Towns. As a consultant to cities and private parties involved in redevelopment – primarily in core urban areas – Jon’s work has been devoted to understanding what distinguishes successful places. Managing the policy and practice of municipal finance is a critical element of Strong Towns, and Jon’s expertise supports the organization’s work in this area.

In addition to his work with Strong Towns, Jon represents St. Paul as a member of the Metropolitan Council, the Minneapolis St. Paul region’s metropolitan planning organization and operator of its wastewater and transit systems. Jon has served as a member of the Planning Commission for the City of St. Paul, as a Fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute Policy Forum, and as an Adjunct Professor of Economics at the College of Saint Catherine. Jon holds an MBA (University of Saint Thomas, St. Paul, MN) and a BA in History and Political Economy (Carleton College, Northfield, MN ).

 

Photos taken by the highly recommended Molly Brendmoen, who can be contacted by email for your photo project at mbrendmoen@msn.com.