Vision of the future

I am a Logan native, but have lived and worked on the east and west coasts in business. My training includes studies at USU in the arts, business at BYU, public policy at the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in education from USU with emphasis on organizational cognition and social networks. I currently work on a federally-sponsored project at USU.

I have a fire hose of information to lay out here, based on work dating to the 1980s -- from 2000 on specifically with regard to Northern Utah. There is an underlying theme. We need to prepare for the future. We need to do this in a way that will meet the needs of those who will be living in it. We need to do this by leveraging our strengths, the strengths of our youth, and the wonderful environment around us. As my grandfather loved shepherding his flocks in the southern hills of Cache Valley and Hardware Ranch, I love this region -- just as it is. It is not going to stay just as it is in any scenario, however, and we need to take action to encourage changes that will be beneficial to our lifestyles, in harmony with the environment, and in tune with changes in the world around us.

Perhaps Cache Valley, for example, is really Tolkien's Shire, as has been suggested. If so, we little hobbits have a lot of work ahead of us.