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Joanne Ng
Housing Market Systems - Sustainable Urban Development
Professional Background
Joanne Ng is a distinguished professional in the field of architecture and social impact, boasting a rich career trajectory that showcases her commitment to improving lives through innovative design and operational excellence. Presently, she serves as the Senior Manager of Portfolio + Partnerships for New Story NEXT, where she leverages her extensive background in architecture and program management to create sustainable housing solutions for underserved communities. Joanne's work at New Story, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating global homelessness, illustrates her passion for driving social change through thoughtful architecture and collaboration.
Joanne's journey in the architecture sector began with her academic immersion in the field. She has worked in various capacities at New Story, starting as a Global Operations Associate and advancing through various levels until her current senior management role. Her leadership at New Story is characterized by her ability to form impactful partnerships and oversee large-scale projects that align with the organization's mission. This experience has equipped Joanne with a deep understanding of the intersection between architecture and community engagement, enabling her to create frameworks that foster collaboration among diverse stakeholders.
Before her tenure at New Story, Joanne accumulated a wealth of experience in operational management and program coordination. She held the position of Director of Global Operations, where she successfully streamlined processes and improved operational efficiency, allowing for greater impact in the communities served. Her role as Alumni Coach at IDEO U further highlights her commitment to fostering talent and guiding future leaders in design thinking principles that champion innovation and empathy.
In her earlier career, Joanne embraced roles that allowed her to apply her architectural skills in various contexts, such as her position as an Architectural Designer at Nuru International. Here, she contributed to projects aimed at enhancing the quality of life in communities through sustainable design practices. Joanne also gained valuable field experience while coordinating summer programs for Project Esperanza, reinforcing her belief in the importance of community-oriented design solutions.
Education and Achievements
Joanne Ng's educational background is equally impressive, laying a robust foundation for her career in architecture and social leadership. She began her journey at Temple City High School, where she undoubtedly developed the collaborative and communicative skills necessary for professional success. Her education continued with a degree in Architecture from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she also minored in Spanish and Leadership in Social Change. This unique combination of studies offered her a multi-faceted perspective on architecture, empowering her to blend creative design with social advocacy effectively.
Joanne's academic prowess is further exemplified by her international education at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina, where she expanded her architectural comprehension within a different cultural context. Additionally, her immersion in Spanish Language and Literature at Camino Barcelona not only enhanced her communication skills but also enriched her understanding of diverse cultures, which she integrates into her architectural work.
Her commitment to honing her skills is reflected in her participation in the Architecture Pre-College Summer Program at Pratt Institute, which allowed her to delve into advanced architectural concepts early on. Through these experiences, Joanne has cultivated a holistic understanding of architecture's role in enhancing community well-being and addressing social issues.
Joanne's dedication to impactful design and social change has earned her recognition across her professional and academic pursuits. Her role as an Impact Leadership Incubator Fellow at New Sector Alliance and as an Emerging Leaders - Impact Design Fellow at Net Impact highlights her strong commitment to leadership in the design community, creating pathways for future architects to think critically about their impact.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Joanne Ng has achieved remarkable milestones that demonstrate her dedication to her field and the communities she serves. Under her leadership at New Story, she has been instrumental in developing partnerships that have led to innovative housing solutions, impacting numerous families across various regions. Her strategic approach to portfolio management ensures that every project aligns with the overarching mission of eradicating homelessness through sustainable and community-focused design.
Joanne's ability to navigate complex operational challenges has resulted in notable improvements in operational practices at New Story, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity among teams. Her visionary leadership has garnered respect from peers and community stakeholders alike, positioning her as a key player in merging architecture with social impact.
In addition to her operational achievements, Joanne continues to mentor emerging leaders in the field through her work as an Alumni Coach at IDEO U, where she cultivates a new generation of designers equipped with the tools necessary to address pressing global challenges. Her approach emphasizes empathy, innovation, and community engagement, establishing a legacy of positive influence in the architecture sector.
Joanne's work at Nuru International notably showcases her ability to create designs that resonate with local communities, reflecting cultural nuances and addressing specific needs. Her contributions as a Lead Data Collection Assistant II at Virginia Tech Center for Survey Research further exemplify her analytical skills and commitment to evidence-based design practices.
In summary, Joanne Ng is a dynamic professional whose career reflects her unwavering commitment to leveraging architecture as a means of social change. With an impressive blend of educational achievements, extensive operational experience, and a passion for community empowerment, she continues to lead initiatives that create lasting positive impacts in the communities she serves. Her journey is a testament to the power of design in fostering inclusivity, sustainability, and social justice.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.