Capstone Conversation by Jared Asch

Host Jared Asch discusses the importance of childcare for working professionals with Stephanie Shieh  of First 5 Contra Costa and Anna Powell of UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. They describe a system in which families face high costs and limited availability, while early educators face low wages, few benefits, burnout, and 20–40% annual turnover, creating structural sc...

In this Capstone Conversation episode, host Jared discusses adult education consortia, accountability, and the role of data with Kim Jones (director, Oakland Adult and Career Education), Shruti Bharat (CEO, Campground), and Paul Rosenbloom (adult education and community college advisor). Kim describes OACE’s long-standing adult education and workforce programs (GED/diploma, ESL, citizenship, and s...

Host Jared Asch interviews Kristen Cooper of Grant Management Associates (GMA) about major shifts in the federal grants landscape affecting cities, nonprofits, special districts, and other agencies. Cooper shares GMA’s background and scale, then explains how funding pauses in 2025 created uncertainty that is easing as awards resume in late 2026, alongside unusually short application deadlines that...

Host Jared Asch interviews Martinez Mayor Brianne Zorn at City Hall about her path from environmental scientist to councilmember and mayor (since 2022). Zorn describes major generational and diversity shifts on the council, improved district representation across the city, and a strategic plan that honors Martinez’s past while embracing innovation. She details waterfront redevelopment progress: a...

In this episode of The Capstone Conversation, host Jared speaks with Gabe Hanzel-Sella, national program director at The Growth Sector, a San Francisco-based nonprofit founded in 2008 that helps community college students access high-wage engineering degrees and careers through a structured, supported pathway. Gabe describes the organization’s engineering degree apprenticeship model, including a p...

In this Capstone Conversation episode, Dena Belzer of Strategic Economics discusses how East Bay cities can drive innovation and economic development while meeting RHNA housing requirements and deciding when to preserve or repurpose industrial and older office properties. She explains that many “warehouse” buildings are flexible assets that can support a range of uses, and advises cities to avoid...

Host Jared Asch interviews Luz Gomez, board chair of EastBay Municipal Utility District (East Bay MUD), about East Bay water and wastewater issues. Gomez explains East Bay MUD’s mission to provide high-quality, affordable water with environmental stewardship, its 100+ yearhistory, and major infrastructure including the 1927 Pardee Dam on the Mokelumne River and three 90-mile aqueducts nearing 100...

Jared Asch and Josh Broward co-host a joint episode discussing how startups sell and scale in government (GovTech). Jared, a consultant helping cities and private companies with economic development, land use, and GovTech sales, and Josh, founder of Wisdom Partners and a leadership coach with a PhD in organizational leadership, emphasize that governments care less about product features and more a...

Host Jared Asch interviews Jonathan Bash, CEO of Locunity, about how local information is changing as Bay Area newspapers lost most of their journalists after private equity consolidation, creating gaps in coverage of councils, boards, and special districts. Bash explains how Locunity uses AI to download and transcribe public meeting videos, ingest agendas, and convert them into structured data th...

Host Jared Asch discusses organ donation—especially kidney transplants—in the Greater Bay Area with advocate Maggie Jacobs and caregiver Bob. Maggie shares how her husband, diagnosed in 2018 with FSGS, needed a kidney quickly due to 5–9 year deceased-donor waits in California; they found a living donor by widely sharing his story on social media (not directly asking for a kidney), and he is now th...

Host Jared Asch discusses gov tech with Civic CEO John Kokot and Legislaide CEO Roger Lin on how AI can improve government efficiency without replacing workers. Kokot, a former Navy pilot and Capitol Hill staffer, explains Civic Revere, an integration-first platform that consolidates inbox, calendars, and other tools to triage constituent communications and service requests, route work, draft tail...

Host Jared Asch discusses California’s summer fire season and how technology is changing wildfire preparedness, response, and recovery with Bowen Kyle (CTO/co-founder, Ladris) and Gadi Benjamini (co-founder, FireDome). Kyle describes Ladris software used by counties and cities for wildfire spread and evacuation simulations, planning documents like LHMPs and community wildfire protection plans, rea...

Host Jared Asch interviews Assemblywoman Ana Maria Avila Farias about her background and priorities representing 13 of 19 Contra Costa County cities from Crockett to Brentwood. A third-generation resident based in Martinez, she describes 30 years in housing and community development across local, state, and federal government, including work under mayors Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom and over $5 b...

Host Jared Asch interviews manufacturing engineer Gregory Theyel about the Bay Area’s biomedical and life science ecosystem and why it matters for long-term regional economic stability. Thao frames manufacturing as a “big M” strategy that bridges ideas and public needs, and defines biomedical as an umbrella spanning biotech, pharmaceuticals, medtech, cell and gene therapies, digital health, and ge...

Host Jared Asch interviews Mark Joffe, president of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association (Coco Tax), about taxes and government efficiency in the East Bay. Joffe describes Coco Tax’s 1937 origins and mission to advocate for “good government at an affordable cost,” noting the group is nonpartisan and focuses on effectiveness rather than government size. He explains their key work is analyzing bal...

Host Jared Asch interviews Jim Wunderman, head of public affairs for California Forever, about plans to develop roughly 70,000 acres of largely undeveloped land in south-central Solano County between Suisun City and Rio Vista into a dense, walkable urban community with an adjacent 2,100-acre advanced manufacturing park and a proposed major shipyard along the Sacramento River. Wunderman argues Sola...

Host Jared Asch interviews Danville Councilman Mark Belotz and Lafayette Councilman John McCormick, second-year elected officials from Central Contra Costa County, about what contributes to their towns’ success, including strong schools, vibrant walkable downtowns, and effective city management. McCormick, a retired tech worker and downtown business owner, describes entering council after Chamber...

Host Jared Asch interviews Brandon Cardwell of the City of Livermore about the city’s economic development and innovation strategy. Cardwell describes Livermore as the easternmost Bay Area city, celebrating its 150th anniversary, with a symbiotic mix of a revitalized historic downtown, wine country, significant industrial/flex space, and two national labs employing about 12,000 people. He highligh...

Guest host Alex Greenwood records Capstone Conversations live at the ICSC Idea Exchange in Monterey, interviewing economic development leaders from five California cities about retail attraction strategies, successes, and lessons. Martinez describes zoning streamlining, concierge support, by-right approvals (including breweries), expedited permitting, a successful Ross store opening, housing upzon...

Host Jared Asch interviews procurement experts Ricardo Martinez, a former California Department of General Services chief procurement officer, and Oscar Garcia of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce about how companies sell to state and local governments in California. They explain that public-sector procurement is a law- and policy-driven process—from need identification through solicita...

Host Jared Asch interviews Marco Li Mandri of New City America about downtown economic development funded through special districts, including business improvement districts (BIDs), property-based BIDs (PBIDs), charter-city community benefit districts, and tourism improvement districts (TBIDs). Mandri explains how California’s Proposition 218/Article 13D governs property assessments, contrasting g...

Host Jared Asch interviews Deborah Levine, executive director of the Lesher Foundation, about changes affecting East Bay nonprofits and philanthropy. Levine explains the foundation’s 30+ year focus on Contra Costa arts and culture, education, and children and families, awarding 172 grants totaling about $6 million in 2025, and distinguishes philanthropy’s resourcing role from service-delivery nonp...

Moraga Mayor Kerry Hillis back to the Capstone Conversation and discusses lessons from Hillis’s first four years in office, including that the role can be “as much or as little as you want it to be,” the need to read community perspectives, and coping with harsh virtual public comments. Hillis explains Moraga’s weak-mayor structure, the division of responsibilities between elected officials and st...

Host Jared Asch interviews longtime California political journalist Dan Walters of CalMatters, who recounts his career from 1960 through decades covering Sacramento and writing columns, and describes CalMatters’ nonprofit model and its Digital Democracy tools. Walters explains how newspapers’ economic model collapsed, how Capitol reporting shifted from in-person logistics to online access, and adv...

In this episode of the Capstone Conversation podcast, host Jared Asch is joined by Dr. Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics to discuss an economic development blueprint for the Greater East Bay. Dr. Thornberg outlines the stagnation in the East Bay, highlighting issues such as population decline, job losses, and inadequate economic growth. He attributes these problems to a lack of focus on economic...