Trevor Tormann M'23 Uses Skills Gained as Community Fellow As Planner for City of Allentown

When Trevor Tormann M'23 helped the City of Allentown win an historic $20 million federal grant, he was applying skills he developed in Lehigh’s Community Fellows Program. Tormann, a senior planner for the city, was the lead author on the grant funding the Allentown Works project. The initiative includes partnering with community organizations to support neighborhoods, facilitate local employment, expand access to childcare, invest in transportation options, and build connections to high opportunity industries. 

Tormann came to Lehigh to earn a master’s degree in public policy after earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from Loyola University Maryland. His first experience in writing grants came during his placement as a Fellow in the City of Bethlehem’s Office of Community and Economic Development. Tasked with helping to write Bethlehem’s grant to fund its Safe Streets initiative, he remembers feeling overwhelmed. 

“It was my first exposure to grant application building,” Tormann recalls. “It’s so much more than just writing the narrative. How are you convening community partners to write letters of support or making commitments to the project? How are you drafting a budget? And how are you deciphering the Notice of Funding Opportunity from the federal government?” 

He was able to get help via the weekly seminar attended by Community Fellows. Program Director Karen Beck Pooley urges participants to request sessions that will complement work they are doing in their work as Fellows. “I told her I wanted to take her up on that,” Tormann says. Pooley invited staff from the university’s development office to teach sessions about grant writing.

He strengthened those skills when the City of Bethlehem provided additional training and by working closely with the city’s grant writer. Although the first grant application to fund Safe Streets was not successful, he had the opportunity to contribute to the subsequent successful re-application that resulted in a $9.9 million grant. As a Fellow, Tormann also helped to write the narrative for a grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to renovate Bethlehem’s Friendship Park.

Developing such skills and gaining meaningful work experience sets the Community Fellows program apart from the internships he had as an undergraduate. “Being able to take a piece of a project and run with it was huge,” Tormann says.

Tormann notes that he brought those skills with him when Allentown hired him after graduation. They were integral to his work on the grant application for Allentown Works. He also leveraged skills using ARC GIS mapping software that he learned in his “Mapping Data for Public Policy” class at Lehigh. His mapping skills were used on a project leading to a complete revision of the Allentown zoning code. 

He emphasizes his Lehigh classes provided more than technical skills. “The more important piece is that you’re distilling complex problems, and that is something I use every day,” he says.