About

Contributors Past and Present

Scott Graves

Scott M. Graves

Scott Michael Graves is founder of M the Media Project. He is founder of SMGraves Associates, an independent consultancy for real estate and business accelerator development that is focused on community-focused building.  The firm is currently managing ~$157M in construction budgets in multiple states.

Team members hail from executive leadership development, engineering, design and environmentally sustainable place-making.

As contributing writer Scott offers a progressively-minded perspective from several series. Essays from an Artist and Democratic Capitalism.  He is host of the Are We Here Yet? podcast and co-host of The Housers Podcast and Innova802.

His early career as a performing artist and music educator shaped many of his ideas on politics, economic development and urban planning, having spent years traveling the United States, meeting its diverse people and experiencing the after-effects of de-industrialization throughout the country.

Scott Graves

Ryan Munn

Ryan is co-host of the Innova802 Podcast and founder of Interchain Live.  

Raised in Vermont, Ryan was an early entrepreneur in telecom and finance while coaching snowboarding and serving as a crisis responder to adolescents with trauma.

Over the past decade he has leveraged diverse experience as an advisor and strategist with a deep-rooted commitment to fostering innovation and economic development. His expertise spans IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, SaaS, blockchain, and impact-driven business models, supporting founders in avoiding blind spots and identifying key opportunities.

Ryan actively bridges the gap between investment, revenue, technology, and policy, ensuring Vermont remains at the forefront of digital transformation and economic empowerment.

Scott Graves

Will Jeffries

Will Jeffries is co-host of the Innova802 podcast and founder of his own consulting firm, Blumenthal Enterprises.  

Raised in Vermont, Jeffries’ experience began in farming, manufacturing, and engineering before transitioning into venture strategy and startup acceleration.

With a focus on technology commercialization and entrepreneurial programming, Will has worked extensively with accelerators, research institutions, and economic development programs to support founders from early ideation to scalable business ventures.

His professional experience spans multiple industries, including manufacturing, renewable energy, SaaS, sustainable construction practices, and medtech, providing entrepreneurs with the tools, mentorship, and resources to successfully launch and grow their ventures.

Scott Graves

Stephen Box

Stephen Box is a Houser.  He is also co-host of The Housers Podcast.  

He’s a General Contractor, a Citizen Developer, a Renovator, an Investor, a Rental Property Owner, a Landlord, and an advocate for the Citizen Developers that provide 80% of the affordable housing in Vermont. Stephen believes that the fastest route to reaching the State of Vermont’s housing goals is to support the Citizen Developers that are best positioned to get the work done. Stephen writes the Accidental Activist column for the Mountain Times.

Scott Graves

Mike Waugh

Mike Waugh is co-host of The Housers Podcast.

He is the CEO and Founder of Verent Solutions, a public benefit technology company. Verent develops products and services designed to connect and support renters, property owners, service providers, community supporters, and government agencies. Mike’s career has been defined by building – from his early years as a carpenter constructing houses to his later work developing digital platforms for humanitarian legal aid and housing programs. Under Mike’s leadership, Verent launched its platform, Pacto, in Poland as part of the response to the housing challenges faced by Ukranians fleeing conflict. A strategic, innovative thinker, Mike is passionate about finding scalable solutions to the challenges faced by renters and property owners. Now based in Vermont, Mike is leveraging his experience in innovation, technology and product design to develop new services with the aim of unlocking the underutilized housing stock in Rutland, transforming it into safe, healthy, and supported homes.

Victoria-Pardo

Victoria Pardo

My most vivid childhood memories center around the kitchen: smells of tender pork shoulder simmering for hours in a savory tomato sauce, and most notably, shoving out my tiny fingers to retrieve a piece of Wonder Bread my mother had dipped into it. My mother made meals from a wide array of cultures. She centers her life around food, and as a result, so do I. She not only instilled in me a passion for food and family, but also a tireless work ethic. My mother managed a branch of a major fast-food chain for most of my childhood. I went to work with her on days off from school, chatting with customers at the register beside her, and “helped” to make sandwiches on the assembly line. I intimately experienced the quintessence of modern, U.S. corporate fast-food culture before I was ten years old. As I grew older and started learning about the clash of fast-food corporations and traditional food supply methods, I questioned this dilemma more often. I had even seen my mother suffer first hand under their employ. These experiences led me to value and learn more about cultures that prioritize sustainable, locally, grown produce.

My parents value education through travel and culture. We have taken countless car trips—both locally in the northeast as well as throughout Europe. Both of my parent’s fathers were nomadic military leaders, so their comfort resides in travel. We often toured living history and farm museums, such as Billings Farm in Vermont. I would participate in activities such as gathering vegetables from the farm’s historic heirloom garden, and using that produce to make a meal over a cast iron stove in the 1890’s farmhouse on site. These trips gave me a passion for food and culture, architecture, economics, and planning. They shaped my view of the world and enabled me to see things as an entire system working together.

I have long had a dual interest in gastronomy and architectural preservation. My fascination with historic architecture grew out of the summers I spent with my grandparents in the 17th-century fishing village of Siasconset, Massachusetts, on Nantucket Island. My academic career has focused on architectural preservation. I have also worked for many preservation firms to date, enhancing my understanding of planning and sustainable development. My passion for gastronomy stems from working in the wine and restaurant industries from the age of sixteen, as well as my insatiable appetite for home-cooking and food literature. It was not until I was immersed in graduate school that I began to understand how meaningful the integration of food, culture, and our physical environment is, and how critical food production and consumption are in the understanding of past and future stories of a structure or site.

Joshua Stewart

Joshua Michael Stewart

Joshua Michael Stewart is a poet and musician who has had poems published in the Massachusetts Review, Salamander, Plainsongs, Brilliant Corners, and many others. His books are, Break Every String, (Hedgerow Books, 2016) and, The Bastard Children of Dharma Bums, (Human Error Publishing, 2020). His albums, Three Meditations, and Ghost in the Room, can be found on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and many other platforms. Visit his web site at www.joshuamichaelstewart.com, or better yet, interact with him at www.facebook.com/joshua.m.stewart.526/. 

For this column Joshua will explore poetry, music, and Buddhism, and how they all intersect with each other. He is delving into assorted poetic forms while specifically highlighting contemporary poets from the New England area, and the poets associated with classical Japanese and Chinese poetry. 

Joshua Stewart

Mick Carlon

Mick Carlon writes on public education for M the Media Project. He is an internationally recognized author of novels for young adults.

Mick Carlon’s Jazz novels—RIDING ON DUKE’S TRAIN; TRAVELS WITH LOUIS and GIRL SINGER (Leapfrog Press)—are in the curriculum of 100+ schools in the United States. According to the late Nat Hentoff: “Nothing like Carlon’s books has yet been attempted in the history of Jazz. They are introducing a new generation to the glories and stories of our music.” A six-time speaker at the Satchmo Summerfest in New Orleans, Carlon has spoken to audiences about Jazz in New York City,Boston, Dallas, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and all over New England. After enjoying a 38 year career as a public school teacher, Carlon lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts with his wife, Lisa. The couple are very proud of their daughters Hannah and Sarah.