Our Vision
Our vision is a thriving “Middle Coast” of America where its people are the drivers of change.
As a local leader, you have the ideas and heart for how to transform your city and region.
Middle Coast Project accelerates your progress by leveraging a group of preferred partners to co-create a vision to transition your city from past to future industry verticals.
This inclusive strategy bets on the people of your city by putting them at the center of development plans as both the creators and beneficiaries.
Abby Skeans
Founder & CEO
Abby was born and raised in rural Oklahoma, boomerang’d to Washington, D.C. for more than 15 years where she advised global leaders across philanthropy, government, pop culture and the private sector on social impact strategies and partnerships, and ventured to Waxahachie, Texas during the 2020 pandemic, seeking a return to her roots.
After moving to the heart of Texas, Abby launched the Middle Coast Project (MCP) to accelerate economic development happening across the region, just like in her hometown.
Leveraging her network of partners and the proven strategies that have made them successful, MCP aims to catalyze industry transition and inclusive progress where local leaders drive a shared vision that empowers all members of a community to be agents of creation and change.
Abby previously served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Stand Together, the philanthropic community founded by Charles Koch that supports social entrepreneurs who help people realize their potential.
In this role, she led the team who stewarded local, regional and national partnerships with influencers across business, sports, entertainment, media, music, faith, and public policy. From the Business Roundtable to the NFL, these partnerships advanced movement strategies for Stand Together’s extensive network to work alongside more than 1,000 scholars and tens of thousands of teachers to improve education at the university and K-12 levels, supported more than 200 community organizations addressing persistent poverty, and empowered millions of grassroots activists across all 50 states to improve public policy through non-partisan advocacy.
During her tenure at Stand Together, Abby built the vision, investment strategy and foundational partnerships for New Pluralists, a funder collaborative deploying $1b of capital to support the growing field of practitioners, storytellers, researchers, and innovators working to foster a culture of pluralism in America.
In 2020, she produced the launch of Believe in People: Bottom Up Solutions for a Top Down World by Charles Koch which became a bestselling manual for social entrepreneurs. In 2021, she was instrumental in building Stand Together Music which unites changemakers and musicians to co-create solutions to criminal justice reform, addiction and mental health.
Prior to her domestic work, Abby was based in East Africa where she contributed to systemic reforms on behalf of children in conflict with the law in Uganda, Malawi and South Sudan. Her work has been featured in The Economist, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and USA Today. Abby graduated from Calvin University with a concentration in International Relations and Art History, and she earned her law degree at Regent University School of Law.