The Advisory Council will have representation from environmental groups, government agencies, residents from throughout the state, and other concerned stakeholders who will share their insights and experience.
Dr. John Bembry
Dr. Bembry practices veterinary medicine in Hawkinsville, Georgia, where he is also a tree farmer. He currently serves on the Georgia Land Conservation Council.
Tim Beatley
Author and Professor of Sustainable Communities, in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. Recently, Dr. Beatley’s research and writing has been focused on the subject of sustainable communities and creative strategies by which cities and towns can fundamentally reduce their ecological footprints, while at the same time becoming more livable and equitable places.
Dickey Boardman
Senior Vice President of Meybohm Realtors in Augusta, Georgia and a member of the University of Georgia Terry College of Business Alumni Board. Last year Meybohm Realtors did more than $1 billion in sales and was number two in the nation in number of transactions per agent.
J. Lewis Glenn
President and CEO of Harry Norman Realtors, Atlanta’s oldest and most well-respected residential real estate company. In 1994, he was named among Atlanta’s Top Twenty Brokers by Communities Magazine. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Board of REALTORS, a member of the Georgia Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. He is a Director of First Multiple Listing Service and is on the Georgia Advisory Council for the Trust for Public Land. He is a past President of the Atlanta Society of Residential REALTORS and a member and Director of the Georgia Association of Realtors and member and Director of the National Association of REALTORS. He served as President of the Atlanta Board of REALTORS for the year 2000. He also serves on the Georgia Legislative Joint Study Committee on Historic Preservation in Georgia. In 2001, he was named Chairman of the Board of AMAS (Asset Management and Association Services).
Bryan Thompson
Bryan Thompson is Mayor of the City of Brunswick and President/CEO of Blueprint Brunswick, Inc.
From 1999 to 2003 he served as Executive Director of the Brunswick Downtown Development Authority.
He is a member of and serves on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Coastal Georgia; The Glynn County Health Department; The Coastal Georgia Area Community Action Authority; the Policy Committee for the Brunswick Area Transportation Study (BATS), the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Regional Advisory Council, and the Coastal Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee.
He is married to Heather Heath who is Executive Director of Golden Isles Arts and Humanities Association, the coordinating arts council for Glynn County and the City of Brunswick.
Tom Raney
Tom Raney is Senior Vice President of R. J. Griffin & Company one of the nations premier Multi-family and Healthcare general contractors. Tom has been with R. J. Griffin & Company for the past 18 years and has helped the company grow from $35 million in annual revenues to over $800 million today. He is the co-founder and active board member of The Northside Athletes Foundation whose mission is “Youth Character Development through Sports.” Tom is involved in many other charitable organizations throughout the southeast. He is an active member of the Buckhead Church in Atlanta and serves on the Buckhead Alliance Board.
Larry Evans
Larry Evans is President and CEO of New Place Companies, Historic Planning and Development. Evans served as architect, developer and general partner for the award winning $20 million Jekyll Island Club redevelopment. He also served as Board Member on the Brunswick Downtown Development Authority, Georgia National Register Review Board, Coastal Georgia Historical Society, Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce and as Trustee to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. Evans was the winner of the 2003 Coastal Living Environmental Design Award.
Gregg Bayard
Gregg Bayard is the Principal at Salt Creek LLC, a sustainable and conservation developer of residential, commercial and mixed-use properties, with operations focused in coastal Georgia. In addition to his duties with Salt Creek, Gregg serves as the Co-Executive of Parallel Housing, Treasurer and Secretary of the Athens Land Trust, CFO and Membership Chair of the Historic Boulevard Neighborhood Association and Charter Member of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Natural History.
Liz Kramer
Liz Kramer is the director of the Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory (NARSAL) and co-director (with Dr. Jeff Dorfman) of the Land Use Studies Initiative at the University of Georgia. She holds a PhD in Ecology from University of Georgia, a Masters of Forest Science from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Michigan State University. In her current position at UGA, Liz works with federal, state, and local governments as well private organizations to assist in the integration of natural resource management and environmental protection into the planning process. She does this by developing geospatial data and tools that facilitate planning and management. These projects include the Georgia Land Use Trends (GLUT) project, an analysis of 35 years of land use change in Georgia and the Georgia GAP Analysis project, a landscape assessment of the status of biodiversity protection in Georgia, and a statewide analysis of impervious surface, and forest canopy change.
In addition to her work at the University of Georgia, Liz serves on the Athens Clarke County Hearings Board and as a member of the Transferable Development Program’s advisory committee. She serves as a board member of the Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund. She is an avid cook and boasts of a large cookbook collection and also enjoys any opportunity to explore nature.
Roy Bonnell
Roy is a manager, consultant, and educator. Roy was a founding member and served as Project Manager for Florida Gulf Coast University’s Green Building Project from February 1999 until April 2002. In 2000, Roy became one of the founders of the Florida Green Building Coalition, Inc. (FGBC), which is a statewide organization composed of builders, developers, universities, government agencies, and environmental groups, working together to develop “Green Building Standards” for certifying Florida homes, commercial buildings, developments, and local governments. In July 2003, Roy became the first Executive Director of the Florida Green Building Coalition, Inc., which he currently manages along with doing outside green building consulting and scale model building.
James H. Shepherd, Jr.
James H. Shepherd, Jr., is the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shepherd Center, the country’s largest catastrophic care hospital. James has served as a Director of the National Rehabilitation Awareness Foundation and served on the Board of Directors of Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Rehabilitation Technology, and the Governor’s Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Trust Fund Authority. In addition to his work with the Spinal Center, James serves as Chairman/CEO of Plant Improvement Company, a concrete construction company in Atlanta that performs highway construction and infrastructure improvements in southeast Georgia. He has also served on a variety of advisory committees for the following organizations: MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rail & Transit Authority), the City of Atlanta Airport, the World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome.
Stacy Patton
Ms. Patton is currently with Minerva Properties, LLP, an international real estate investment and development company based in Atlanta. She is managing member of the development team that is undertaking plans to build the first high density, mixed-use village in the Chattahoochee Hill Country to be called “Friendship Village.” Ms. Patton was formerly the President/Executive Director of the Chattahoochee Hill Country, a non-profit organization of landowners, conservationists and partnering organizations creating innovative sustainable development and conservation tools in west central Georgia, including Fulton, Coweta, Carroll and Douglas counties. Stacy currently serves on the Georgia Land Conservation Council, the board of Partnership for Tomorrow and on the South Fulton Parkway Design Review Board. She was a participant in the Georgia Institute for Environmental Leadership class of 2004, a by-invitation environmental advisory group selected from individuals recognized as environmental leaders in Georgia. She has served as a Board member of the Georgia Economic Development Association. She previously served on the Board of the City of Atlanta Supplemental Environmental Project and on the Environmental Program Advisory Board of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
Scot Horst
Scot serves as Chair of the US Green Building Council's LEED Steering Committee and President of Horst Inc, a sustainable materials consulting firm that develops innovative programs relating to materials and their environmental impact. Scot also serves as President of 7Group, a multi-service green building consulting firm. As a LEED Accredited Professional he has worked on over 60 LEED projects. Horst also serves as Vice President of Athena Institute International, the U.S. non-profit affiliate of the Canadian Athena Sustainable Materials Institute. In this capacity he is involved with a broad range of work related to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), including the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database Project of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, regional database development and LCA education.
Katie Hoover Alvarado
Katie Hoover Alvarado is a faculty member of the University of Georgia, stationed at the Marine Extension Service in Brunswick, GA. Ms. Alvarado provides technical and policy assistance to local governments on the critical link between land use planning and natural resource protection. Ms. Alvarado previously worked for the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources and also worked with various local governments. She received a Master in Environmental Management degree from Duke University, with a concentration in Environmental Economics & Policy. Her undergraduate degree is in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She firmly believes that environmental protection and economic development are parallel goals that must be accomplished jointly. Ms. Alvarado currently serves on the Coastal NonPoint Source Advisory Committee, the Glynn County/City of Brunswick Greenspace Advisory Committee, and the Scientific Technical Advisory Committee for the Coastal Comprehensive Plan.
C. Jack Ellis
C. Jack Ellis is the 40th mayor of the city of Macon, Georgia. Mayor Ellis is a member of the United States Conference of Mayors where he serves on the Economic Development and Smart Growth committees; he was elected co-chairman of the U. S. Conference of Mayor’s Advisory Board to Amtrak; and he is a member of the National Conference of Black Mayors. He is a member of the Governor’s Greenspace Commission and was one of the speakers at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, CA. Georgia Trend magazine named Ellis one of the 100 most influential men in the State of Georgia.
Cheryl Contant
Professor and Director of the City and Regional Planning Program at Georgia Tech's College of Architecture. Prior to this position, Ms. Contant served as the College of Architecture's Interim Director for the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. In addition to her work at Georgia Tech, Ms. Contant serves as a Board Member for the Georgia Planning Association and is affiliated with the American Planning Association, Soil and Water Conservation Society, Institute for Alternative Agriculture and the American Water Resources Association. She has also helped raise over $600,000 to fund projects with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Kellogg Foundation and Conservation Resource Alliance, to name a few.
Deke Copenhaver
Deke Copenhaver currently serves as Mayor of Augusta, Georgia. In addition to his mayoral duties, Deke serves on the boards of the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area, the Augusta State University Foundation, the Georgia Conservancy, the Augusta Museum of History, the Family Y of Metro Augusta, the Georgia Alliance of Land Trusts and the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation. He is a past board member of the Augusta Symphony, Historic Augusta, Young at Art and Main Street Augusta. Mr. Copenhaver served as chair of the Environmental Issues Committee and on the Editorial Committee for Leadership Augusta’s Destination 2020 Initiative. Mr. Copenhaver is a 2004 graduate of Leadership Georgia. He is also serving on Georgia Municipal Association’s Legislative Policy Council. Mr. Copenhaver is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Augusta and Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church, where he serves as a deacon. In 2003, Deke was recognized by Georgia Trend magazine as one of Georgia’s “Forty Under Forty”. He is the 2003 recipient of the Family Y of Metro Augusta’s “Linda H. Walter Leadership Award”. In 2004, Mr. Copenhaver was appointed to the Georgia Land Conservation Partnership Advisory Council by Governor Sonny Perdue, serving on the Partnering and Leveraging Committee. In 2005, the Council's work resulted in the setting aside of $100 million in state funding for statewide land conservation through the passage of the Georgia Land Conservation Act. In 2005, Deke served as Augusta’s co-chair for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s “Red Carpet Tour”, which promotes statewide economic development. In 2006, he was named a Notable Georgian by Georgia Trend magazine and in 2007 was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians.
Scott S. Weinberg, FASLA
Scott S. Weinberg is a Professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Environmental Design at the University of Georgia and currently is serving as Interim Dean of the College of Environment and Design. He has been a member of the faculty at UGA since 1982. Professor Weinberg has both a BSLA and MLA from Iowa State University. Prior to entering the teaching field he practiced in the St. Louis area. His work in the St. Louis area in the Design/Build arena has influenced his teaching and research at UGA.
Professor Weinberg serves the Athens/Clarke County government by serving as a planning commissioner. He has been active in both the ASLA and APA and has provided workshops for both organizations. Weinberg was elected to the status of Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1994. For the past twenty years he has served as the Technology Editor for the magazine Landscape Architect and Specifier News, before stepping down this past October.
Along with everything else, Professor Weinberg has served on numerous committees at the University of Georgia, including a year as the head of the University Council, the UGA’s governing body.
Laurie Fowler
Laurie Fowler is an environmental attorney with a joint appointment at the School of Law and the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia. She is the director for policy of the UGA River Basin Center, which brings together ecologists, lawyers, planners and economists to research the effects of land use on water quality and develop management strategies to protect our natural resources. Fowler has served on Governor Barnes’ Environmental Advisory Council, Governor Purdue’s Land Conservation Partnership Advisory Council, Attorney General Thurbert Baker’s Water Advisory Committee, the Georgia General Assembly’s Water Plan Advisory Committee and the Steering Committee for the Department of Natural Resources’ Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy.
C. Ronald (Ron) Carroll
Ron Carroll is currently Professor of Ecology and Co-Director for Science of the UGA River Basin Center. He was formerly Director of the Institute of Ecology. He is currently a member of the state science committee for Ossabaw Island. His interests include sustainable land use, coastal impact of climate change, renewable energy sources, and general conservation of natural resources. He has worked throughout the southern and western US, much of Latin America and the Caribbean. He is a co-author of the leading graduate textbook on conservation ecology and has numerous publications top tier journals such as Science, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Ecology, among others.
G. Robert Kerr
G. Robert Kerr is a Georgia Advisory Board Member for The Trust for Public Lands and a National Council Member for the National Parks Conservation Association. After retiring from state government in 2004, Bob began a consulting career focused on leadership training and the facilitation of conflict resolution. He was the founding Director of the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division (P2AD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Bob is also known as one of the state’s leading conservationists. Prior to joining state government, he served as the Executive Director of the Georgia Conservancy, a leading statewide conservation advocacy group. In that role, he was instrumental in ensuring Congressional designation of wilderness areas in north Georgia and western North Carolina. He currently chairs the Board of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute.
Dr. Willie Adams
Dr. Willie Adams has served as Mayor of Albany since February 10th, 2004. He was the Founder and Director of the First National Bank of South Georgia, and served on the Albany Dougherty Inner City Authority, Dougherty County Board of Education, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Advisory Board of the Salvation Army and the Mag Mutual Board of Directors. In January 2005, Mayor Adams was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, a state agency that serves as a liaison between state and local governments.
Mick Barron
Mr. Barron has been in the energy business for 22 years. He began his career as an engineer with the country’s largest electric municipal organization. Since then he has held various executive positions including Vice President of Westinghouse Nuclear, TVA Senior Consultant, Utility Sales Vice President of Tradeout.com, and Senior Principal of Luminant Worldwide.
In his international career he had the opportunity to build power plants in China and Vietnam. Barron founded his own firm, “World Energy,” in 1991 and in 1999 sold the company after completing a number of power generation projects. Barron is a frequent speaker for E-Commerce and is considered an Internet Pioneer.
As President, CEO and Founder of The Energy Site, Mick’s company assists businesses with their Procurement and Asset Disposal needs. The Energy Site has more years of experience working with manufacturers, private developers, co-op’s, municipals, and electric utilities than any other company in the industry.
Bill Stembler
Bill Stembler is President & CEO of the Georgia Theatre Company, which is one of the 20 largest theatre circuits in the USA, operating 279 screens at 29 locations in Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. The Georgia Theatre Company is a pioneer in the film industry with its roots in the early days of film exhibition. In addition to his work at GTC, Bill has served as Chairman of the National Association of Theatre Owners, President of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, President of the Capital City Club, Trustee to the Westminster Schools and is the Director of the United Community Bank in Brunswick, GA.
Jack Davis
Jack Davis is Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. Professor Davis has taught at the University of Florida and then later at the Boston Architectural Center. He practiced in Cambridge, Massachusettes for the architectural firm of Cambridge Seven and Associates and was project architect for the Forest Hills train station, Atlantic City convention center and several office complexes. In 1993, he took a sabbatical to practice in Basel, Switzerland for Suter and Suter, working in their international department, developing housing, university and banking projects. In his practice he has won design excellence awards from the Blue Ridge Chapter of the AIA as well as from the Virginia Society AIA and the Virginia Masonry Council. Since 1984 he has been Principal and Co-Principal investigator on over 2.5 million dollars in research grants and continues to teach in the Professional Program in Architecture. He is the architect for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies Research and Demonstration Facility, a laboratory research center for all programs of study in the College. He has recently launched a new Urban Design degree program with an emphasis on environmentally sustainable and energy efficient design principles. He has been recognized and endowed as the Reynolds Metal Professor of Architecture and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
John Fretti
John serves as Mayor of Valdosta, GA. Past and current initiatives during his term as Mayor include creating an Economic Development Director position for the City, a downtown art initiative, securing the final funding for the expansion of the Regional Airport, pressing to increase the General Fund Balance, and championing the transfer of election qualifications.
In addition to his work as Mayor, John served as a member of the Valdosta Rotary Club, Lowndes Valdosta Chamber of Commerce, Valdosta Technical College Foundation, Water Advisory Board, and as Chairman of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission. Mayor Fretti was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue and currently serves on the Governor’s Work Force Investment Board.
Otis Johnson
Otis Johnson is the 64th Mayor of the City of Savannah. Mayor Johnson was a founding member of the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change in 1992 and the National Community Building Network in 1993. He was a member of the founding board of directors of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP) in 1995. He served as an elected official on the Savannah City Council (1983-1988) and the Savannah Chatham County Board of Public Education (1998-2002). He was Executive Director of the Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Program, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation for ten years (1988-1998). He was on the faculty of Savannah State University for 26 years and retired from the position of Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Savannah State University in 2002.
Mayor Johnson serves on the board of directors of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, MDC, and the Georgia Municipal Association. He is a member of the National League of Cities Council on Youth, Education, and Families. He was given the Public Elected Official of the Year Award by the National Association of Social Workers at the organization’s 2005 National Awards Reception in Washington, DC.
Dr. Casey Dawkins
Dr. Casey Dawkins is currently Director of the Virginia Center for Housing Research and a Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech. His current research focuses on racial and economic disparities in housing market outcomes and the impact of land use regulations on housing affordability. He has written two books and over 20 refereed journal articles and book chapters on these topics. Dr. Dawkins was recently awarded an Urban Scholars Fellowship from HUD to examine the impact of racial segregation on racial disparities in the transition to first-time homeownership and is currently a member of the HUD Assisted Housing Research Cadre. Other organizations sponsoring Dr. Dawkins’ research include the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Brookings Institution, the National Association of Realtors, the Center for Housing Policy, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He is co-guest editor of a special issue of Urban Geography focusing on the measurement of residential segregation and neighborhood change, is an Associate Editor of the journal Housing Policy Debate, and serves on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of the American Planning Association.
Dr. James P. Heaney
Dr. James P. Heaney serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida. Prior to his current work at UF, Dr. Heaney spent 9 years as a Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a Diplomat of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and of the American Academy of Water Resource Engineers. Dr. Heaney is also an Inaugural Board Member of the Alliance for Water Efficiency and served as Chair for the Urban Water Resource Council. Recent University Research Activities include the Urban Water Conservation Clearinghouse, Airport Stormwater Management, and Methods for Evaluating Water Reuse Options, to name a few.
Joseph J. Delfino
Joseph J. Delfino is Professor and Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida. He served as Department Chairman from January, 1990 through August, 1999, Interim Chairman during 2002-2003, and has been on the faculty there since 1982. Previously, he served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and other institutions, including the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he was concurrently a Captain in the USAF. He was also a manager in an environmental consulting firm with emphasis on environmental impact studies, particularly related to nuclear power plants. Throughout his professional career, his research has resulted in approximately 100 publications as book chapters, peer reviewed journal articles, and co-authorship of a book. His professional activities have included service to the American Chemical Society (Environmental Chemistry Division and the Florida Section), and Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. He has been Regional Vice President for North American Committee on Technology for the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, served on several U.S. Government Agency and Florida DEP technical peer review panels, and has contributed extensively to governance committees at the Universities of Florida and Wisconsin. Dr. Delfino’s research has resulted in approximately 100 publications as book chapters, peer reviewed journal articles, and co-authorship of a book.
Joseph Hughes
Joseph Hughes is Professor and Chair of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Hughes received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Iowa in Environmental Engineering and a B.A. from Cornell College in Chemistry. Prior to his employment at Georgia Tech, he held the rank of George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department Chair at Rice University in Houston Texas. At Rice he also directed the Environmental Analysis and Decision Making Graduate Program. Current additional appointments include Associate Director for Research of the EPA's South and Southwest Region Hazardous Substances Research Center, Chairs the Science Advisory Board of the EPA's West Coast Hazardous Substances Research Center, and is a member of the U.S. EPA standing science advisory committee on Environmental Engineering. He received the Charles Duncan Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement at Rice University, has twice received the ASCE Outstanding Professor Award, and is a member of Chi Epsilon. In 1995, Dr. Hughes Spoke at the 1st Annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium and also spoke at the German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2001.
Heidi Davison
Heidi Davison was sworn into office as Athens-Clarke County Mayor on January 7, 2003 and was re-elected in 2006. Also serves as a member of the Clute Barrow Nelson Life Foundation, the Jeanette Rankin Foundation for Women's Education and sits on the Alec Little Environmental Award Advisory Committee. Mayor Davison's current government involvement includes the Association County Commissioners of Georgia Revenue and Finance Committee (Vice Chair), the New Cities Project (member) and the Mayor's Council on Climate Change. She also has affiliations with the Economic Development Foundation, Athens Downtown Development Authority, Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority and the Industrial Development Authority.
Ellen Dunham-Jones
Ellen Dunham-Jones is an award-winning architect and Director of the Architecture Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she teaches architectural design, urban design, and contemporary architectural theory. She serves on the board of directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism as well as the Seaside Institute, the editorial boards of the journals Places and the Journal of Urbanism, the advisory board of the Phoenix Urban Research Lab and the executive committees of ULI-Atlanta and CNU-Atlanta. She lectures widely and is the author of over 40 articles in journals including Harvard Design Magazine, Places, Design Book Review, and Lotus International; as well as chapters in The Green Braid, Sprawl and Suburbia, What People Want, The Windsor Forum on Design Education, and Dimensions of Sustainability. An advocate for alternatives to sprawl, she is currently writing a book on retrofitting suburbs through the redevelopment of shopping malls, office parks, strips and subdivisions into urban places. In 2004, she made the Design Intelligence Honor Roll as one of 30 leaders bridging practice and education. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Princeton University and before joining Georgia Tech’s faculty in 2001, she taught at UVA and MIT. In 2006-7, she was the Ax:Son Johnson Visiting Professor at Lund University, Sweden.
Douglas C. Allen, ASLA
Douglas C. Allen, ASLA is Professor and Associate Dean in the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech where he has served as a member of the faculty since 1977. In addition to his academic responsibilities, he has practiced landscape architecture for over thirty-five years. His practice includes the design and planning of commercial, residential, and institutional projects for both public and private sector clients. His projects include the development of a master plan for the University of Bir Zeit (West Bank, Israel, 1983); Korean War Memorial (Baltimore, Maryland, 1987); The Augusta Riverfront Center Project (Augusta, GA. 1990-1992); and Veterans Memorial Park (with W. Jude LeBlanc) in Smyrna, GA. (2000-2002). His work includes several award winning projects including the Perdue Garden (Atlanta, GA 1983); Piedmont Arbors Condominiums (Atlanta, GA 1986, with Taylor and Williams), Clayton Headquarters Library (Jonesboro, GA 1987-88, with Scogin, Elam, and Bray), The Dash Residence (Atlanta, GA 1996 with Lane M. Duncan and Michael Gamble), and StudioPlex a mixed use development in Atlanta (with Brock + Green, Architects, 1999). The Perdue Garden was featured in the book, Contemporary Trends in Landscape Architecture; by Steven Cantor (Van Nostrand and Reinhold, New York, 1997). Other design work has appeared in Progressive Architecture, Builder magazine, and House and Garden. He co-authored the book, Cambridge Massachusetts: the Changing of a Landscape (Harvard University Press, 1979) which won the Conservation Medal from the Victorian Society in America in 1980. He has also published “The Tanner Fountain”, in Peter Walker: Experiments in Gesture, Seriality, and Flatness (Rizzoli, New York 1991. He has also served on professional awards juries for the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Michelle Pugliese
Ms. Pugliese is Director of Land Protection for the St. Simons Land Trust, for whom she focuses on developing land protection programs, educating landowners and local professionals about conservation options, and negotiating conservation easements and land acquisitions. She conducts all stewardship activities for the Land Trust, including baseline reporting, monitoring, native tree planting and nature trail construction. Michelle serves as Vice Chairperson on the Glynn County Tree Advisory Board, is an active member on the Coastal Advisory Council for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and sat on the advisory committee for the recently completed St. Simons Island Village Master Plan. Michelle received a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in 2002, and has been dedicated to coastal land protection efforts in Glynn County since that time.
Robert Hamrick:
Mayor Robert Hamrick has dedicated a portion of his life to serving the citizens of Gainesville. He was educated at Emory at Oxford, Emory University and the Atlanta Law School. After Military Service, he enjoyed a long career in the poultry industry and banking before his retirement in 1993. During more than 35 years of public service he has helped transform Gainesville into the regional business center of Northeast Georgia.
Mayor Hamrick serves on Salvation Army's Advisory Board and other community outreach programs, and is a member of First United Methodist Church. He is married to Carolyn Ashe Hamrick. They have three children and 5 grandchildren.
David Austin:
David Austin currently serves as mayor of Toccoa, GA. He served as a city commissioner since his election for his first term in 1999, and he was a member and chairman of the Toccoa Planning Commission from 1996-2000. In addition to his public service efforts, Mayor Austin hes been employed in broadcasting at WNEG 32 since 1984. He attended Toccoa Falls College.
