25 Years After 9/11, Lessons from Historic Ground Zero Dialogue Shape Trauma-Informed Leadership Today

Kansas City facilitator who helped guide public input on rebuilding the World Trade Center site reflects on the power of listening, meaning and being heard

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Kansas City-area facilitator and Remarkably Resilient CEO and co-founder Kathleen Harnish McKune is reflecting on an extraordinary experience that helped shape the rebuilding of Ground Zero – and the lessons it still holds for leaders navigating trauma, conflict and change today.

In July 2002, McKune was among more than 500 professional facilitators who volunteered to travel to New York City for Listening to the City, an historic public dialogue about the future of the World Trade Center site and Lower Manhattan.

More than 5,000 people ultimately participated in the Listening to the City process, including approximately 4,300 who gathered at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on July 20 to consider six preliminary redevelopment plans and share what mattered most as New York sought to rebuild following the attacks. At the time, it was one of the largest public meetings of its kind.

A new documentary, 9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero, released Sept. 1 ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, revisits that historic public process and how citizens helped influence what ultimately would rise at Ground Zero. (Watch the trailer) | (Watch the documentary)

For McKune, the film's release has brought renewed attention to an experience she describes as the most meaningful facilitation work of her 35-year career.

"I knew our country was experiencing an extraordinary time of grief, need and rebuilding, and I felt deeply called to step up," McKune said. "I was honored and humbled to be selected."

McKune paid her own way to New York and arrived expecting to facilitate a table discussion. That morning, organizers asked if she would work through a translator with 10 Mandarin-speaking Chinese Americans whose homes and businesses had been significantly affected by debris from the attacks.

She agreed.

Over the course of the day, McKune listened, asked questions and helped capture the group's perspectives through what was then innovative technology designed to collect feedback from hundreds of tables in real time.

"The emotions, personal stories, grief and pain were present at every table," McKune said. "But as people listened to one another, there was also hope and possibility. My role was to listen intently, ask gentle probing questions and make sure the voices at my table became part of the larger conversation."

That larger conversation had an impact.

Participants rejected the six preliminary redevelopment concepts presented to them, with concerns that the proposals placed too much emphasis on restoring the area's commercial activity and not enough on remembrance and the significance of what had happened there. The response helped send planners back to the drawing board.

"What has stayed with me for all these years is the message that meaning matters," McKune said. "People needed the rebuilding to honor the lives lost and the lives forever changed. They also needed to know that their voices had been heard."

Today, the same foundational facilitation skills – listening without judgment, creating space for reflection, asking thoughtful questions and ensuring people have a voice – are incorporated into the trauma-informed leadership and resilience work McKune leads through Remarkably Resilient, Inc.

The national nonprofit helps individuals and organizations better understand trauma, its effects on the brain and body, and practical skills that can support resilience, emotional regulation, reflection and recovery.

McKune said the experience at Listening to the City demonstrated something that remains relevant for leaders and communities confronting difficult circumstances today: moving forward does not require ignoring pain or disagreement.

"The power of reflection in processing trauma and moving toward healing is something we understand and incorporate in the work we do today," McKune said. "Sometimes moving forward begins with something very basic but very powerful – giving people a safe place to speak, listening deeply and letting them know their experience matters."

For McKune, the connection came full circle when she visited the National September 11 Memorial & Museum while in New York for her documentary interview.

Standing beside the memorial pools more than two decades after Listening to the City, she thought about the message that emerged so clearly from the 2002 dialogue.

"Standing there, I could see that meaning and memory had become central to what was ultimately created," McKune said. "It was incredibly emotional to realize that, in one very small way, I had been part of a process that helped people be heard."

About Remarkably Resilient, Inc.

Founded in 2024, Remarkably Resilient, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to empowering people to live happier, healthier lives by understanding the impacts of trauma and stress and practicing resilience-building skills. Co-founded by sisters Kathleen Harnish McKune and Karen Dickson, the organization combines the neuroscience of trauma with the founders' lived experiences to create practical, evidence-informed resilience education for individuals, healthcare professionals and organizations. Their work was inspired by their 2019 book, Remarkably Resilient: Community Matters. Through its signature program, Remarkably Resilient Together, the organization provides practical, evidence-informed tools to regulate emotions, reduce stress and build connections. To learn more, access tools or support the mission, visit www.remarkably-resilient.com.

SOURCE Remarkably Resilient