Regional Coastal Community Workshop Series Speaker Introductions

Jeff is the director of the South Carolina Water Resources Center, as well as, research coordinator at the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs at Clemson University. Prior to coming to the Thurmond Institute, he worked for the S.C. Wildlife and Marine Resources Department as a cartographic database manager; Clemson University and the National Park Service as an outdoor recreation planner for military installations across the U.S.; and the Regional Resources Development Institute at Clemson University as the program administrator. His work currently involves administering grant money from USGS, coordinating water research with a national network of water research institutes and identifying and pursuing critical water research needs for South Carolina. Additionally, his work includes project design and administration of research within the Institute’s Spatial Analysis Laboratory. Jeff received his BS degree in Wildlife Biology from Michigan State University, his MS degree in Geography from the University of South Carolina and his Ph.D. in Policy Studies at Clemson University.

Bob has worked for the S.C. Sea Grant Extension Program since 1990, and has served as its leader since 1992. He manages the S.C. Sea Grant Extension Program grant, serves as a member of the Consortium’s core management team, and represents the S.C Sea Grant Extension Program on national Sea Grant fisheries, climate change and coastal hazards program teams. Bacon is currently leading an effort to create a Center for a Hazard Resilient Coast, at 113 Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston. Bacon was also the former Chairman of the Assembly of Sea Grant Extension Program Leaders, 2000; an alumnus of Leadership South Carolina, Class of 2003; a past President of the Clemson Extension Senate, 2005; and the recipient of the Clemson University College of Health, Education and Human Development Award for Excellence in Service/Outreach in May 2005.

Russell has worked for SCDHEC in many of the agency’s field programs and has been the regional director of SCDHEC EQC Region 8 Office in Beaufort since 1995. He is a graduate of The Citadel and currently enrolled in the UNC Management Academy for Public Health. Russell served as a member of the Beaufort County Clean Water Task Force and as an advisor to the Beaufort County Special Area Management Plan development.  

Carolyn was named the deputy commissioner for the SCDHEC Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) in August, 2005. As deputy commissioner, she heads the office that is responsible for preserving sensitive and fragile areas while promoting responsible development in the eight coastal counties. Prior to working with OCRM, Carolyn was a researcher with the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson, where she focused on coastal zone plantations, and has also served as chief of the Natural Resource Damage Division of the National Pollution Funds Center in Arlington, V.A.

Alec has been with the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments for 5 ½ years, prior to which he practiced architectural design with two Lowcountry design-build firms. Currently working as a senior planner for the BCDCOG, Alec is responsible for land-use planning, urban design, and regional planning initiatives. He has BS and MS degrees in architecture and city and regional planning from The University of Michigan and Clemson University. Alec is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

As the 208 Water Quality Management Program Director, Jan works with sewer providers to identify cost effective, environmentally sound alternatives to upgrade/expand wastewater treatment facilities in the Waccamaw/AIWW System and other parts of the region. In addition to her environmental planning duties as the 208 Program Director, Jan works with other WRCOG planning staff to provide planning assistance to local governments on a contractual basis.

Rick DeVoe has been with the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium since 1980, and has served as its executive director since 1997. He also is a research associate of the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research at the University of South Carolina, and associate faculty member of the Graduate Program in Marine Biology and adjunct faculty member with the Marine Environmental Studies Graduate Program at the College of Charleston. Rick earned degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University, CUNY/City College of New York, and the University of Rhode Island.

Bill has worked for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management since 1989, as staff oceanographer and more recently as Assistant Director of the Regulatory Division. His job duties include establishing the location of his agency’s beachfront jurisdictional lines, reviewing all beachfront permit applications, from residential construction to beach renourishment projects, and writing the Annual State of the Beaches Report. He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina.

Joe is the manager of engineering and state certifications at the S.C Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.  He directs and supervises the implementation of the state storm water management and sediment reduction program and the state Coastal Zone consistency certification program in the eight coastal counties.  Joe supervises all agency engineers doing land disturbance permitting for the S. C. Coastal Zone.  He also oversees the design and conduct of all agency engineering and engineering related studies.  Joe is a registered professional engineer in the state of South Carolina and has a Ph.D. degree (ABD) in water resources and civil engineering from Clemson University, an M.S. degree in construction management and civil engineering from Clemson University, and a B.S. degree in civil engineering from Clemson University

Rheta has been working with the Bureau of Water for 16 years and currently oversees four program areas for the Division of Water Quality: 1) Water Quality Certification, Standards and Wetlands Programs; 2) 401 Water Quality Certification; 3) Water Quality Modeling; Watersheds and Planning; and 4) Outreach and Education. She also works closely with the SCDHEC’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

Vonie Gilreath is currently a regional planner at the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments. While working for the BCDCOG, she has been involved with several projects relating to the region’s Groundwater Management Plan, Long Range Transportation Plan, and Berkeley and Dorchester Counties’ Comprehensive Plan Updates. In the area of environmental planning, she reviews subdivision and septic permit applications to insure that the projects are in conformance with the Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Regional Water Quality Management (208) Plan. Vonie is also the project manager for a $25,000 EPA Smart Growth grant linking land use and seniors and is the project coordinator for the $200,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living by Design grant awarded to complete and implement a bicycle and pedestrian plan for the region. She is a native Charlestonian who has a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Clemson University.

James began working for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management in 1993. He is currently an environmental planner in the agency’s Planning Division. He works extensively with other state agencies, local governments, and the general public on natural, cultural, and recreational resources projects. James graduated from Coastal Carolina College in 1990 with a double major of history and political science. He received his Master of Public Administration degree, with a focus in environmental policy, from the College of Charleston and University of South Carolina in 1992.

Dan has worked for the S.C. Sea Grant Extension Program as the coastal environmental quality specialist for the past two years. He educates individuals and communities about environmental quality issues, assists in the development and implementation of extension programs focused on environmental quality education and outreach in S.C., and serves as an information broker between researchers, resource managers, decision-makers and the public. Dan is also an adjunct faculty member at the College of Charleston and Clemson University.

Dr. Holland is currently the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hollings Marine Laboratory located in Charleston, S.C., where he is responsible for the oversight of scientific and administrative operations. Dr. Holland has 30 years of experience in designing and implementing monitoring, assessment and research programs linking human activities and the ecological condition of estuarine environments. He co-authored a publication for the National Academy of Sciences entitled "Managing Troubled Waters: The Role of Marine Environmental Quality Monitoring" that reviewed the current status of marine and estuarine monitoring systems and developed recommendations and approaches for improving these programs. Dr. Holland's current research focuses on defining the linkages between anthropogenic activities affecting coastal watersheds and the quality of shallow tidal creek ecosystems, including development and evaluation of indicators and assessment strategies that evaluate the linkages between watershed properties, tidal creek environmental quality and ultimately public health.

Since 2001 Ginnie has worked with the Lowcountry Council of Governments where she is presently the director of Planning, responsible for projects in areas such as transportation, economic development and community planning, and water quality. After graduating from Vassar College in New York, Ginnie earned a Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. Ginnie is also an adjunct business professor at the Beaufort campuses of Webster and Park Universities where she teaches economics, finance, marketing and operations management at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

Dr. Susan M. Libes is a professor of marine science and chemistry at Coastal Carolina University, Conway, S.C.  She is the founding Director of CCU’s Waccamaw Watershed Academy which houses a state-certified Environmental Quality Laboratory.  She is also a founding member of the Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium.  From 1993 to 2000, she served as the chair of CCU’s marine science department.  In 2003, she was named CCU’s Distinguished Teacher-Scholar.  Her current research activities focus on eutrophication and hypoxia in fresh and marine waters with funding from the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and SCDHEC OCRM.  She is the lead on an EPA-funded project to develop a management plan for the Kingston Lake Watershed in Horry County.  Dr. Libes is also the author of a textbook, “An Introduction to Marine Biogeochemistry” published in 1992 by John Wiley & Sons.

Ron Mitchum has been the Executive Director of the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) for13 years. Ron is responsible for the agency’s overall work program which includes activities in areas such as planning, transportation, water quality management, financial management and community and economic development. In addition to overseeing the administration of the BCDCOG, he is also responsible for the overall management of the Charleston Area Transportation Study (CHATS) Policy Committee, which is the Region’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Ron has also served as treasurer of the South Carolina Association of Regional Councils for 12 years and served as chairman of the State’s Executive Director Committee. He has been active in a number of other associations including the American Planning Association, SC Economic Developer’s Association, SC City/County Managers Association and the Southeastern Regional Directors Institute.

Barbara has been working with the SCDHEC Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management since 1991. From 1992-1999, she worked as a project manager for SCDHEC’s Stormwater and Coastal Certification, and in 1999, she was named assistant director for the OCRM’s Regulatory Division. Barbara is currently serving as the director for the OCRM’s Regulatory Programs Division. She has also worked for the Charleston Harbor Project, a Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), and with the USDA SCS, providing technical assistance to farmers and large land owners in Charleston County prior to working for the State. Barbara has a BS degree from College of Charleston in Geology.

Jeffrey Pollack coordinates the Coastal Training Program (CTP) at the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Georgetown, S.C.  The CTP is a grant-funded program that provides science-based information about timely coastal issues (with a strong emphasis on watershed and stormwater management) to municipal and county leaders and other professional audiences.  Jeff has a Masters in Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University.

Hop came to the S.C Department of Health and Environmental Control from the consulting world and has now been with the Department for ten years.  He worked for the Division of Underground Storage Tank Management as a compliance coordinator, writing and negotiating consent orders, for the first three yeas he was with SCDHEC.  Hop currently serves as the 401 Project Manager for the SCDHEC Water Quality Division.

Denise currently works at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management as the senior scientist, but will soon be employed as the Director of Planning and Research at the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium. Previously, Denise worked for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources as an assistant marine scientist and for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as an associate coastal resource coordinator. She obtained her doctorate in Marine Science in 1998 from the University of South Carolina and in 1993 her Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Denise has experience in coastal zone management and environmental assessments, in particular the assessment of the impacts of human land use on the estuarine environment.

From 1999 until June 2003, he worked as coastal environmental quality specialist for the SC Sea Grant Extension Program where he investigated and educated individuals about nonpoint source pollution, aquatic nuisance species, and toxic algae. In July 2003, he began work as the water quality coordinator for the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service. Among other endeavors, he coordinates the development and implementation of numerous water quality programs throughout the state including South Carolina's Clear Water Contractor (CWC) and Certified Erosion Prevention and Sediment Control Inspector (CEPSCI) programs. He currently holds a faculty position in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

April has been with the South Carolina Sea Grant Extension Program since June of 2000. She is responsible for designing, developing and implementing outreach education programs on issues related to the balance of coastal growth and development and the conservation of natural resources. Currently, she is involved in a variety of community projects including the SC water quality program, Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO), natural resource conservation planning for Jasper County, and administering and coordinating the S.C. Coastal Communities Initiative Small Grants Program. Prior to joining SCSG staff, April worked at the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) as a planner for the Charleston Harbor Project Special Area Management Plan and for the OCRM Planning Division. She received her BA in geography from the University of Colorado and a Master of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management from Clemson University.

Rebekah moved to South Carolina for a Coastal Management Fellowship in 2003 to work with SCDHEC-OCRM and SCDNR on an oyster management plan. Currently she is the coordinator for the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve Coastal Training Program, providing science-based training for coastal decision-makers. She received a biology degree from St. Mary’s College in Maryland and obtained a master degree in marine biology and coastal zone management from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. 

David began working for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, Marine Resources Division in 1976. He was named director of the Office of Environmental Management in 1999 and by 2001, was named director of Office of Fisheries Management. David served as chair of the Charleston Harbor Project’s Biological Resources Committee and is currently, the chairman of the Slocum-Lunz Foundation, a member of the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council’s Science & Statistical Committee, and an adjunct faculty member with the College of Charleston. In addition to routine fisheries management work, he is currently the team leader of a cooperative fisheries research grant, a BMP study for wildlife in developed coastal habitats, and a feasibility study for replacing the causeway with a bridge at Edisto Beach.