Before she even graduated college, Shanie Mohamed was already brainstorming ways to uplift NEPA. During her senior year at Penn State Scranton, she joined a team of local college students at Wilkes-Barre Connect, the economic development and entrepreneurial arm of the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber. The challenge: work together to reimagine the economic future of NEPA. After months of hard work, Mohamed and her peers ultimately laid the foundation for NEPA Works, an initiative to enhance the region’s workforce.

Graduation drew closer, and as chance would have it, the Chamber opened up a position to carry out NEPA Works. Mohamed landed the job and got to bring her ideas to life, including the highly successful Coding the Coal Region program, which provided free, online computer science courses for children in Luzerne County.

Mohamed was recently promoted as Director of Economic Development at the Chamber. Every day is filled with creativity, innovation and collaboration as she works to improve the region socially and economically. Her latest initiative is Project PIVOT, which provides workforce training and upskilling opportunities in the wake of the pandemic. She was also recently selected for the US Chamber Foundation’s Business Leads Fellowship Program, where she’ll learn about workforce development from some of the top chamber professionals in the country.

Mohamed currently lives in the Poconos. In addition to her work at the Chamber, she is enrolled in Leadership Northeast. Her project team, Kitchen Impossible, is renovating the kitchen at Ruth’s Place, a women’s shelter in Wilkes-Barre.

We sat down to talk about the importance of setting big goals and discuss NEPA’s bright future. And we had to ask, Why NEPA?

How long have you lived in NEPA?

I was born in New York City, and my family moved out, I believe, around 2002. So we’ve been in the Poconos for about 20 years.

What brought you to NEPA?

I know a big consideration was the fact that my father had his heart set on expanding his trucking company. It’s a family-run business. We all have our roles to play in helping out. This is such a prime location to do things like that, having the really accessible highways nearby, and at the same time, having the space. When you’re in New York City, everything’s just so limited in capacity. It’s hard to grow companies like that in areas that have been so developed and have so much going on already. You want spaces where you have room to establish a foundation and let it run and let it grow. I feel like this area has that. You have the ability to set roots for something and watch it flourish. There’s really no place to go but up.

What do you love about your town?

It’s interesting, because I feel like I’ve been in so many corners of NEPA, even though I live in the Poconos. I feel like I’m right in the middle of everywhere that I want to be in the region. Where I live is in Monroe County, which borders that tri-state region. It’s close enough that my family and I can visit our other family members that are in New York and New Jersey, and I can still drive up to Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Scranton is where I went to school, and Wilkes-Barre for internships and work. Being here gives me the space, the open air, the privacy. That’s typically hard to get in big cities. Yet, I’m close enough to those places that I can still experience it whenever I want to. It really is a good balance for me.

What’s your favorite NEPA restaurant?

Nucleus Raw Foods has been a staple of mine ever since I started my internship here in Wilkes-Barre. I think it’s really important to have healthy food options that are easily accessible. I was interning on the square, and where I work now is right here on the square too. To have Nucleus set up right on the square as well makes it so accessible and makes me feel nourished in a bunch of different ways. Just because I have a busy day or a busy life or things on my mind, it doesn’t mean that I can’t take care of myself, and I think that’s super important. I also love Red Leaf Salad. I never pass up either of those options.

What’s your favorite thing to do in NEPA?

It depends on the time of year, because we do get to experience all the seasons, which I think is great. In the winter, I’ve been taking up snowboarding. I like going and taking advantage of the cold months rather than dreading them. I don’t particularly like the cold, but having something like snowboarding helps you appreciate it and helps you get through some of the colder months. And I do live in the mountains, so, after all, I probably should take advantage of it.

In the summer, I go on a lot of lake trips and camping trips. I’ll bring a lot of my family with me, and we’ll go to Lake Wallenpaupack, take the boat out, sometimes even set up camp for the weekend. I love doing those laidback things and just enjoying the weather and nature.

What’s next for you?

Oh, I don’t know. [laughs] I’m really excited that I’m growing within my organization. I think we’re mission-driven to do such great things for the area, and you don’t find that in every company. I’m excited that I’m making a positive impact in the work that I’m doing. I saw it with my first pilot program and just how big of an impact that is. I’m excited to keep addressing those social and economic issues and finding solutions for them. I think we’re positioned to do really great things in the future, and I’m really excited to be a part of making that happen.

And I think personally—personally is probably the “I don’t know” part. But I always set really ambitious goals for myself. I think it’s probably due to my family. I come from a family of immigrants. My parents and just about all of their siblings were born in Guyana. I’m the first generation to be born in America and the first generation to go to college. I was the first for a lot of things. Even now, I find myself going after opportunities, and my imposter syndrome is telling me that I’m not cut out for it. But I think I set those big goals for myself because my support system worked so hard to give me the ability to pursue them in the first place. It pushes me to do a little better every day. So I guess I don’t know exactly what’s next. Who knows? I can’t say exactly what’s next, but all I can say is that it will be a great chapter in my book one day.

Where do you see NEPA heading in the future?

I think it has tremendous potential. Places like these bigger cities might have all the glitz and the glam, and that’s great. That’s super fun. That’s amazing. But those are really developed places. Those are places that have so much attention put into them. I think we have the potential to keep developing and getting ourselves to a point where we’re a destination that people want to be all the time. Especially our younger generation is really excited about NEPA. I think that they’re key to bringing our area to new heights. I speak for myself in that group as well. We all want to see this area be as vibrant as possible. It’s that energy that I think is going to breathe so much life into it. It’s going to show the rest of the world just how much we have to offer. We’re going to be recognized for that.

Why NEPA?

I have an answer, and it’s very short and very simple: why not NEPA? It speaks for itself.