About Us

Photo of Jon Commers

Jon Commers, Principal

Jon's background includes project management of municipal financing ranging from $250,000 to over $100 million. Projects focus on navigating placemakers - planners, developers, engineers - through public finance and the property tax system. Jon also writes the Cents of Place blog, a forum for discussion of the financial issues around placemaking.

In addition to his work with Donjek, Jon is a member of the Planning Commission for the City of St. Paul, Minnesota. He has served as a Fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute Policy Forum, and as an Adjunct Professor of Economics at the College of Saint Catherine. Jon holds an MBA (University of Saint Thomas, St. Paul, MN) and a BA in History and Political Economy (Carleton College, Northfield, MN). He lives in St. Paul with his family.

Photo of Dan Walsh

Dan Walsh, Vice President

A graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Dan brings a wide range of experience crafting and implementing urban development strategies. He serves clients with skills in analyzing and planning economic development initiatives, transportation investments, and public-private development projects.

While with St. Paul-based Transit for Livable Communities, he helped to pass the 2005 Minnesota state transportation bill that authorized the 2006 constitutional referendum on the use of the State's Motor Vehicle Sales Tax. Dan has also worked with Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies and as a Dukakis Fellow in the office of Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. Dan earned his BA in political science (University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI). He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Annie.

Partners

We have developed strategic partnerships with firms and individuals, with whom we provide ad-hoc and ongoing specialty expertise to clients. Foremost among these is Mary deLaittre, Founder and Principal of Groundwork. Mary has extensive experience working in city building, focusing primarily on facilitating and coordinating public/private projects. She has practiced both architecture and urban design, working primarily with neighborhoods to develop plans and programs to help them address current and future issues and needs.

Mary has been involved in design education, including teaching Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Minnesota's College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. She was General Manager of the Design Institute's Twin Cities Design Celebration, a year long series of design education events. Mary also participated in the research and development of Planning to Stay, an acclaimed handbook about neighborhood development. Mary received a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Brown University and a Masters of Architecture with a concentration in Urban Design from the University of Minnesota.