Community engagement is a cornerstone of how Diode develops data centers. Large-scale infrastructure projects succeed when communities are informed, heard and involved, and Diode is committed to building trust through clear communication and shared goals. By actively listening and providing access to information at every stage, community engagement becomes not just part of our process, but a defining strength of our business model.

A key player in that process is Community Engagement Senior Manager, Charissa Huntzinger.

In the early stages of her career, Charissa had an interest in public policy as a means for helping improve people’s daily lives. Two career milestones impacted her community engagement work with Diode, with the Texas House of Representatives and with Amazon Web Services.

As a director for the Health and Human Services committee with the Texas House of Representatives, Charissa developed public policy, stakeholder engagement strategies and tools for navigating a variety of community priorities.

As part of the program development, digital policy and economic development teams at Amazon Web Services, Charissa interfaced with various levels of government officials on technology, infrastructure and development strategies.

Charissa’s experience in both the public and private sectors has demonstrated how critical community engagement is to the development life cycle of digital infrastructure projects. As the need for data centers continues to grow to support the digital world and modern economy, Charissa’s goal is educating community members on the benefits of data centers and how they can elevate communities.