Arun GuptaCEO of the NobleReach Foundation

The Impact | Episode 3: Marne Zahner on Micaela Simeone

28 Sept 2026 · 2 min

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1:47

In this interview segment, Marne Zahner discusses the challenges of the construction industry and highlights how Micaela (Mikayla) Simeone quickly made an impact as a Noble REACH Fellow. Micaela’s first major project was developing an AI prescreening tool for construction permitting, for which she conducted extensive stakeholder interviews across diverse communities, ensuring that under‑represented voices were included in policy discussions. Marne praises Micaela’s ability to dive deep into the interview process without needing extensive onboarding, noting that her contributions allowed the team to focus on thorough research. Micaela reflects on how moving to a new location boosted her confidence to take risks and pivot. Marne advises future collaborators to trust the talent of incoming fellows, give them autonomy, and let them leverage their strengths, as Micaela did by exceeding expectations from day one.

Chapters

Construction is a challenging industry. I've seen very bright people kind of like run aground on some of the complexities of construction. So it was cool seeing Mikayla dive right in and picking it up. One of the first projects she got involved in was an AI for permitting tool, so like an AI prescreening tool.
I was asked to conduct a lot of the stakeholder interviews for this project and ask them what they thought about the prospect of AI being used in the permit application process. It's been one of the most meaningful parts of this work, and I am grateful for that because it makes me feel that I'm bringing voices into the policymaking and process improvement process that otherwise wouldn't be in the room.
It's a lot of work to go and interview dozens of people across all these different communities, find these people, reach out to them, interview them, and she has those skills. And bringing her on the team gave us the time to really focus on that, allowed us to actually do a true deep dive, give it the attention it deserves.
Moving out here has made me feel more confident in my ability to pivot and to take risks and try new things that I might not have expected I'd ever try.
Having a new young person join, you kind of have to block out a fraction of your time to kind of pull this person along the way, and that was not at all the case with Michaela. She was just a strong add, strong, like, direct member of the team kind of from day one, which was wonderful. I would tell someone else who's working with a Noble REACH Fellow, I would tell them to don't hold back. See what— the person who's coming in is very talented. Talk to him or her about what they're good at, what they like doing. There'll be something that they're very good at and can really run with and just take far beyond what you thought was, was possible. That's what Mikayla has done.