Project Coordinator


Before her involvement with Flagstaff 2020, Kathy Turner (then Kathy Dunn Turner) worked for Flagstaff Unified School District and then with Northern Arizona University. While at NAU, she coordinated programs with many service organizations, including Youth in Action and AmeriCorps. In the clip below, she describes the origins of the Flagstaff 2020 community visioning project, and her early knowledge of the concepts. Watch Turner’s entire oral history interview via Digital Collections.

Above: Kathy Turner describes the origins of the Flagstaff 2020 project in the mid-1990s.

Turner learned about the position of Flagstaff 2020 Project Coordinator from an advertisement in the Arizona Daily Sun.

I talked with my powers that be at the university and said, “I think we should take this on. I think this is something we should do.” Of course, when I interviewed they were like, “You’re an NAU person.” And I said, “Yes, and the benefit you get is, you’re not displacing someone for 18 months. You have an employee who has benefits and health insurance.” Key points, right? We’ll serve the need. So I interviewed on February 1st, and they called me on February 14th. Happy Valentine’s!

-Kathy Turner

As Project Coordinator, Turner was in charge of many of the day-to-day tasks of organizing volunteers and spreading the word about Flagstaff 2020 around town. There are few aspects of the original Flagstaff 2020 project that weren’t touched by Kathy Turner.

Letter from Kathy Dunn Turner inviting different organizations to participate in Flagstaff 2020.
Flagstaff 2020 Vision Today and for the Future. 1996. Flagstaff 2020 Records [manuscripts], NAU.MS.294, Box 1, Folder 7. View this item via Digital Collections.