WHO WE ARE
Block Party is an initiative of MountainTrue, a regional nonprofit organization championing resilient forests, clean waters and healthy communities in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains. MountainTrue has been working to protect the places we share since 1982 by fighting threats like oil and gas extraction within our region’s National Forests and also by promoting responsible land use according to smart growth principles.
Driving forward the last of these three goals, MountainTrue expanded its Healthy Communities program to address two urgent challenges in Western North Carolina: a worsening housing shortage and a deepening climate crisis. Both stem, in part, from how and where we build our communities.
Join us in supporting policies that protect and create homes for our neighbors in places that reduce our collective carbon footprint.
Susan Bean
Housing & Transportation Director
(828) 617-0816 | susan@mountaintrue.org
As the Housing & Transportation Director for MountainTrue, Susan analyzes and informs the organization's policy priorities for housing and transportation projects across our geographic footprint. Originally from Atlanta, GA, Susan earned her B.A. in Religion from Davidson College, despite spending the majority of her time there running outdoor adventure trips with the Davidson Outdoors program. Following her passion for outdoor education, she next traveled out west to work for the National Outdoor Leadership School leading whitewater paddling trips in Utah, Colorado and Idaho. She returned to the Southeast to earn her Masters in Public Administration from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she continued training wilderness trip leaders as a graduate assistant for the university’s outdoor program.
In 2011 Susan moved to Asheville and applied her program and leadership development skills as the program director for Leadership Asheville for four years before joining MountainTrue as our Community Engagement Director. After 7 years in that role, she transitioned to working within our Healthy Communities program focusing on housing and transportation issues. She is actively involved in the community serving as a chief judge for Buncombe County Election Services, a member of the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, and volunteering as a facilitator with the Building Bridges program in Asheville. In her free time, she loves hiking with her dog, road biking, and gardening.
Shea Kinser
Asheville Housing Organizer
(828) 617-0853 | shea@mountaintrue.org
As the Asheville Housing Organizer, Shea is excited to bring her experience as an organizer and educator to MountainTrue’s Block Party campaign. Prior to moving to the Asheville area in 2025, she managed a large environmental education program for K-12 students in Northern California, where her team took thousands of students outside on field trips to learn more about the region’s ecology. Originally from Texas, she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English from Georgetown University, and called Washington, DC, home for many years. There, she found her passion for local advocacy and organizing by volunteering with community groups working on housing issues and DC statehood. Now settled in Western North Carolina, Shea looks forward to educating and mobilizing community members to advocate for housing policy reform in Asheville so we can build sustainable communities and protect the environment. In her free time, you can find Shea hiking, reading, or playing soccer.