Meet the team.
Emily Carlson is the Principal and Founder of Open Circle Studio. Passionate about design-thinking and empowering communities to realize their vision, she is constantly looking for new interactions of existing connections that yield dynamic solutions to sticky problems. Emily has been a consultant and business owner since 2015, serving as a designer, project manager and facilitator with multiple clients including Dialogue + Design, the Just Transition Fund, Potesta and Associates, West Virginia University, the West Virginia Community Development Hub, Downstream Strategies, and the City of Hinton, WV. Emily received a Masters of Landscape Architecture from Penn State, where she was named an Olmsted Scholar and a Pohland Fellow for her design research in Southern West Virginia, which led to receiving a 2015 EDRA best paper award for “Wayfinding Design as a Tool for Community Empowerment and Storytelling: a Case Study from Central Appalachia.” She earned a BA from Eastern University in Ethnoecology. Emily worked previously as a research assistant for Greening the Lower Susquehanna, and also has professional experience in social research, environmental education, community watershed management, graphic design, stream and wetland design, architectural modeling, permaculture, and community design and planning.
Emily
Tessa Wieneke is the Working Group Coordinator at Open Circle Studio providing capacity and Working Group support for the Central Appalachian Network. She is passionate about capacity building and networks as a source for innovative collaboration. Previously she coordinated the Appalachian Accessible Food Network(AAFN), a partnership between the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet), Community Food initiatives, and Rural Action. The AAFN supports local healthy food access with programs that focus on community food security through education, promotion, and access of local foods in Appalachian Ohio. She developed her interest in the Appalachian region through her studies at Ohio University where she has a degree in Wildlife and Conservation Biology with a certificate in environmental studies. Tessa is also very passionate about sustainability, knitting, and cats.
Tessa
Casey currently serves as the Network Associate for Open Circle Studio. She resides in the small community of Tucker County, WV, where she has spent the past fifteen years in the town of Davis providing various degrees of educational support for local youth. Her previous position was as Executive Director of Mountain Laurel Learning Cooperative a small education-based non-profit. Casey is committed to advancing an equitable, just, and sustainable transition in Central Appalachia. She has a strong commitment to excellence and accountability in her work and collaboration with the Open Circle Team. Casey’s confidence is balanced with humility, flexibility, and a sense of humor with her strengths laying in her calm, professional demeanor during situations that may be challenging or stressful. Casey enjoys more than anything being on or near water, sunshine, and getting plants to grow.
Casey
Kim Ross is the Climate Resilience Working Group Coordinator at Open Circle Studio. This work is an extension of her love of everything Appalachian. In 2013, she received her bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Bluefield State University, an HBCU located in Southern West Virginia. She has dedicated the past two decades of her life to collaborating with other passionate people to improve the quality of life in Appalachia. Most of her work falls in community economic development, with a focus on entrepreneurship and real estate development. She has been her husband’s biggest supporter in his decade-long work of energy-efficiency implementation in Virginia and West Virginia.
Kim
Cara Parrish is the Communications Coordinator for OCS. She enjoys taking an idea and forming it into creative & aesthetic content from social media to website design. She has worn many hats as a previous business owner and finds that her passion lies in helping others to take a vision and make it tangible. Cara earned a B.S. in Exercise Physiology from West Virginia University and a certification through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition for Holistic Health & Wellness Coaching. As she has veered from the “health” side of things, her education has allowed her to gain experience in collaboration and how to help guide people toward their goals. From 2018-2023 she owned an art supply shop in Thomas, WV. Now she is taking her love for art & design and melding it with her previous education to pursue a career assisting networks & organizations with increasing their positive impacts in their communities.
Cara
Dr. Katelyn Campbell is Open Circle Studio’s previous Working Group Coordinator. She has been an integral part of both the OCS team and Central Appalachia Network. She is now doing a postdoc at North Carolina State University. Katelyn earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied the land politics of seventies feminisms. Katelyn has also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA for the Abandoned Property Coalition at the West Virginia Community Development Hub and was the 2016 Harry St. Truman Scholar from West Virginia.
