Page 8 - Demo

%u201c8 CEGE | CSE.UMN.EDU/CEGE The large and complex projects that civil engineers work on have always required collaboration and coordination among engineers. Lately there has been a shift in the civil engineering industry toward more collaboration with the community, that is, the people that are affected by and live with the infrastructure designed by engineers. This shift leads to more listening and more community-engineer collaboration. Talking with Craig Vaughn (BCE 1999), co-founder of Transportation Collaborative & Consultants (TC2), it does not take long to determine that his company is definitely part of this shift. But at TC2, community involvement is not just a trend, it is foundational. They really focus on including community voices. CEGE met up with Craig Vaughn to talk about TC2's unique approach. Vaughn talked animatedly about the values TC2 is built on and how those values impact their day-to-day interactions with clients, partners, communities, and project outcomes.COLLABORATION AND LIVING GREAT LIVESLiving a good life is the crux of what we want to create as an organizational culture. I get goosebumps sometimes thinking of it. This philosophy applies in my own life and how I want to interact with TC2; it applies to how I want my staff to interact with TC2; it applies to how I want all our staff to interact with our agency partners; it applies for sure in how we are going to interact with the community. You can see we put the community first in everything that we do. We lean heavily into that piece.I hired Matt Pacyna (BCE 2005) as an intern at my previous company in the early 2000s. Over time, he and I started kicking around the idea of having our own firm; we talked about it for several years before we co-founded TC2 in 2021. We are grounded in transportation. Matt and I both do transportation engineering and planning, and we%u2019ve always considered what we do as a %u2018collaborative effort%u2019 while ensuring others can see themselves here too %u2013 hence the %u2018& Consultants.%u2019 So, TC2 %u2013 Transportation Collaborative & Consultants. Thinking about our company name, Matt and I didn%u2019t want to use our names because we thought it isn%u2019t just about us. It sounds a little clich%u00e9, but that is truly how we think about things. At TC2 we approach things from a community-first view. I go in, ask a lot of questions, listen a bunch, and based on the feedback, design elements that will improve people%u2019s lives.Listening is important. People need to see that their ideas are utilized. You can%u2019t use their ideas all the time, but if people can see themselves sometimes, that will encourage more people to share their thoughts and their voices for positive outcomes. I have always been a collaborator, and I have matured into it, too. When I was in college, I wasn%u2019t thinking about collaboration per se, but as students we did a lot of collaborative group work. TC2 leans hard into community involvement. Company founder Craig Vaughn (BCE 1999) often says%u2014and lives out%u2014%u201cthis is not all about me!%u201d Community Voices Really Speak to Craig VaughnALUMNIPROFILE