Harriet Tregoning Case Study

On September 25, Penn IUR, The Fels Policy Research Initiative, and PennPraxis hosted a lunchtime conversation with Harriet Tregoning, the immediate past Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Community Planning and Development at the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development. Moderated by Penn Fels Policy Research Initiative Managing Director Diana Lind, the discussion cogitated around experiences learned through Tregoning’s comprehensive career working at local, state and federal government.

With an overarching interest in changing human settlement patterns, Tregoning spoke of the transformative role transportation and technology have on influencing towns and cities. She co-founded the Governors’ Institute of Community Design with Maryland Governor Glendening because of her desire to work in multifaceted areas in order to better understand and address the city’s roadblocks. As a result of this successful partnership, Tregoning empowered the State’s regulatory practices in order to facilitate and guide growth and
Specifically, how labor should respond for a new job growth and what advice could be given to the 49 cities who would not receive the new headquarters. The understanding of change management and how to best get a message across a diverse group of people originated from the ability of a community to listen and work internally in order to build the trust and alliances needed for such a relationship to prosper. The conversation concluded with a short discussion around the current state of the administration. Tregoning consoled that when Federal funding sources become scarcer, the State and Localities should be repositioned in order to address the issues themselves. They could do this by leveraging existing assets and finding creative