FOOTPATH DEVELOPMENT GROUP - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Founder
• Member of the Founding Team
• Partner
• Director of Community Services and Interim President of Eastern Maine Development Corporation
• MPA Founder & Partner

Christopher M. Shrum, Ph.D., MPA is professor and coordinator of Pratt Institute's graduate program in Creative Enterprise Leadership for Arts and Cultural Management, as well as a consultant working in community economic development, workforce development, the arts, tourism, and organization change. For more than 20 years, Dr. Shrum has assisted over 200 nonprofit organizations, Tribal governments, community groups, municipalities, and private businesses to realize a secure economic, social and cultural future by fostering civic engagement, leading program development, and advancing community-based initiatives. During that time, he has leveraged more than $250 million in philanthropic investment and public grants to transform the community. As a community economic development professional trained in creative enterprise leadership, Dr. Shrum has dedicated much of his career to cultivating vibrant economies by bridging culture, community, and commerce. His expertise in organization development, philanthropy, board development, program evaluation, and financial management allows for a comprehensive systems approach to capacity building. Dr. Shrum has worked to build organizational and community capacity through direct technical assistance, education, and training, workforce development; fund development; civic engagement, and strategic planning. As director of community services and interim president of Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Dr. Shrum provided strategic oversight of a six-county regional community economic development organization. During that time, he was intimately engaged with a wide range of private foundations and government funding programs to support housing, public facilities, healthcare, arts and culture, economic development, youth development, and a host of other community-based initiatives. Subsequently, as a consultant to tribal governments and tribal enterprises, he has established expertise in program development and evaluation to advance long-term goals and strengthen sovereignty. Dr. Shrum has established expertise in niche manufacturing focused on artisan products. He served as the visionary for the development of The Maine Highlands Guild, a support organization for creative entrepreneurs, and led the development of a business incubator in precision manufacturing. Dr. Shrum has assisted a wide range of manufacturers, including Passamaquoddy Maple, a Tribal specialty foods producer, Swans Island Company, an artisan textile manufacturer, Beth Bowley Design, and Nuthatch Apparel, a women's wear line; and Avena Botanicals, an herbal apothecary. He is currently assisting Made in NYC, a consortium of 1,300 manufacturers in New York City, by providing strategic planning and organization development technical assistance to its members. Dr. Shrum led government affairs and planning for PenBay Health, an extensive health system in Maine; served as director of marketing and development for the Farnsworth Museum of Art and Wyeth Center in Rockland, Maine; Southern Methodist University's Meadows School for the Arts in Dallas; and the. He has had the pleasure of consulting with such organizations as the Ford Foundation, Wallace Funds, National Endowment for the Arts, and United South and Eastern Tribes. Dr. Shrum has led a series of large-scale community visioning processes associated with creative placemaking, downtown revitalization, and adaptive reuse related to the development of cultural facilities. He was awarded the Governor's Award for Excellence in Tourism for his role in establishing the American Folk Festival for Bangor, Maine. He has been recognized nationally for his work in cultural, economic development, and creative industries, primarily related to artisan guilds and niche manufacturing. Currently, Dr. Shrum assists Tribal communities across the United States to establish vibrant economies through investment in culture. His work in Indian Country is dedicated to advancing Tribal sovereignty through a wide range of capacity building initiatives, community planning, cultural development, and asset-based development strategies. He assists Tribes in community economic development, cultural revitalization, organization development, and philanthropy. Dr. Shrum holds a Ph.D. in human and organizational development from Fielding Graduate University. His research focused on civic entrepreneurship, leveraging cultural capital, and engaging the experience economy for community transformation. He also earned a master's degree in public administration from New York University, graduate certificates in Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement, and Evaluation and Organization Development from Fielding Graduate University; and a bachelor's degree in arts administration from Northern Arizona University. Organizational funding programs and private funders Dr. Shrum has served as a consultant for and for whom he's successfully secured funding on their behalf include:

Job Titles:

• Founder
• Member of the Founding Team
• Partner

Randall M. Hinton is an enrolled member of the federally recognized Passamaquoddy Tribe from the Pleasant Point Reservation, located in Perry, Maine. He graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego in 1977 with a B.A. degree. As an undergraduate student at SUNY Oswego, Randall was active in the Native American Brotherhood Program. He served as a student advisor to the Oswego State President's Academic Advisory Committee for incoming Native American student recruitment and undergraduate mentoring programs. Randall continued his affiliation with SUNY Oswego after graduation. He served as a long-term academic advisor for the Native American Education Studies program and in that role, provided oversight regarding Native American education efforts and curriculum throughout the State University system's campuses. Mr. Hinton attended Syracuse University in the early 1980s, working toward a graduate degree before starting on his career path with New York State government in 1982. During his 36 year career in the NYS government, Randall served in various executive level, administrative, and management positions. He was recognized for significant achievements within the agencies and was assigned as a statewide program Division Director in the Investigations, Inspector General, Internal Controls and Internal Audit fields. He worked directly with the New York State's Executive Office under the leadership of Governor Mario M. Cuomo to conduct outreach and Native American liaison activities for the Governor's Office. This effort resulted in the establishment of the nation's first of its kind "Native American Outreach Program."