Public Servant of the Week: Tara Beard, Community Development Coordinator

Position: Community development coordinator

Duties:

• Shares long-range planning duties with others in the department,
• Works on redevelopment,
• Works with developers on projects,
• Facilitates the Think Hopkins campaign, a marketing initiative sponsored by Hopkins and the Hopkins Business and Civic Association,
• Attends various community events in her role facilitating the Think Hopkins campaign.

Time with Hopkins: Three-and-a-half years

Other experience: Beard began her professional career in architecture. But an internship working on corporate design after college left her unfulfilled. “I felt I wasn’t scratching that public purpose itch.” When she explained to a professor that she was more interested in designing cities than individual buildings, he suggested that Beard consider city planning—a career path she wasn’t familiar with. The profession was a good match. She spent three-and-a-half years with Minneapolis doing city planning and economic development before coming to Hopkins.

Education: Bachelor’s of architecture from the University of Minnesota, master of urban and regional planning from the University of Minnesota

Hometown: Although born in Michigan, Beard has been in the Twin Cities since seventh grade and considers Minneapolis home.

Favorite part of her job: The variety and the freedom. Hopkins has a small Department of Economic Development and Planning. Although Beard’s position has certain fixed requirements, the department’s intimate size requires everyone to be a jack-of-all-trades and allows each of the employees to focus on areas that particularly engage them. Beard is particularly interested in housing and neighborhood revitalization.

Hardest part of her job:  When her personal and professional opinions don’t align with those of elected officials. As a city staffer, she may make policy recommendations but ultimately must follow the decisions of the City Council, which has authority over city policies. Yet Beard also understands that elected officials face their own pressures and must answer to voters in elections. “I don’t have the repercussions that elected officials have.”

Biggest misperception about her job: That the issues are easy to understand with just a bit of common sense. In reality, there has been tons of research into city planning. Planners must have both a solid grasp of planning theories and a pragmatic understanding of how things work on the ground. Beard must also take continuing education courses to maintain her certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Favorite things to do when not working: “I’m a crazy reader.” Beard reads everything from nonfiction to science fiction, although lately she’s been reading childbirth and parenting books.

Family: Husband Jason and a daughter Kivrin who is due May 27. She also has two German shepherds, Sam and Kaiser.