Author Biographies Vol. 5.2

Author Biographies Vol. 5.2

Chris Beagan is a Historical Landscape Architect with the National Park Service Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation in Boston, Massachusetts. He works to strengthen research, planning, and stewardship of cultural landscapes through technical assistance to national parks and the development of cultural landscape inventories and reports.

Elizabeth Brabec, Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is presently Interim Director of the Center for Heritage and Society and visiting researcher at the Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague. She has worked with the Gullah communities on St. Helena Island and Beaufort County, South Carolina, since 1995. Her research focuses on the cultural attitudes toward land and the use of land in diverse cultural communities. She has worked on cultural land use and conservation issues in both the academic and professional realms, founding the landscape conservation and planning firm, Land Ethics, Inc.

Elizabeth Chilton is Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and founder and past director of the Center for Heritage and Society, a multidisciplinary research center crafting new approaches to heritage around the world. A Professor in the Department of Anthropology, she has written numerous books, monographs, and journal articles on the importance of heritage as well as her archaeological research in northeast North America.

Gregory Wade De Vries, ASLA, ICOMOS, IFLA, brings degrees in landscape architecture, anthropology, and languages to diverse undertakings at Heritage Landscapes LLC, where he serves as an Associate and project manager. In addition to Jackson Park, his recent projects address the Woodstock Festival site and the Library of Congress grounds. His project and research interests focus on the intersection of people and place, recognizing the diverse values and expressions of heritage in societies. Professional contributions are being made through ICOMOS rural landscape and connecting practices initiatives.

Susan Dolan is a Historical Landscape Architect and Manager of the National Park Service, Park Cultural Landscapes Program. Her responsibilities include developing, implementing, and overseeing a service-wide landscape preservation program that includes research, planning, stewardship, education, and technology development.

Dr. Kathryn Frank is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida. Kathryn’s research and practice focus on connecting science to public decision making, public engagement to build civic capacity, rural and regional planning, and university-based action research. Currently Kathryn is a Principal Investigator on several projects related to planning for coastal change in Florida, including projects in the Matanzas Basin and Levy County.

Ursula Emery McClure, AIA, FAAR, LEED AP BDC, is a founding partner of emerymcclure architecture and the A. Hays Town Professor in the LSU School of Architecture. The firm’s work and writing has been published in books, journals, and popular magazines including Places, 306090–05, Architecture Record Online, JAE, Dwell Magazine, and Southern Living. The work of the firm has won numerous awards, including being recognized by the 2006 and 2010 Venice Biennale, Architectural Record, the AIA, and the Rome Prize in Architecture in 2008. She lectures on their work at numerous conferences and universities and often finds herself between the global petrochemical infrastructure and an alligator.

Robert Z. Melnick, FASLA, is Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at the University of Oregon and Senior Cultural Resource Specialist with MIG, Inc., in Berkeley, California, and Portland, Oregon. He is currently developing a manual for management strategies in response to the impact of climate change on cultural landscapes, funded by the National Park Service. Melnick is coeditor of the award-winning Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America (2000). In 2008, he was awarded the James Marston Fitch Award by the National Council for Preservation Education for lifetime achievement in historic preservation education.

Belinda B. Nettles is a graduate research assistant at the University of Florida, and a planning intern for the City of Fernandina Beach. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture. She has a MBA and BA in history from the University of South Florida, along with a graduate certificate in historic preservation from the University of Hawai’i. Her research projects at the university focus on urban design and include several current projects addressing sea level rise planning and adaptation.

Patricia Marie O’Donnell, FASLA, AIPC, ICOMOS, IFLA, founder and principal of Heritage Landscapes LLC, is a preservation landscape architect and planner contributing to diverse works that address the revitalization of heritage assets to sustain communities. Her recent works include Mellon Square and Niagara Falls Riverway construction, a cultural landscape report for the Capitol campus at Washington, DC, and planning and construction for Chicago’s South Parks. She is deeply engaged in the future of heritage cities through contributing to the development and mainstreaming of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape. Internationally she contributes through leadership of the IFLA Cultural Landscapes Committee and ICOMOS committees.

Liz Sargent, ASLA, is Principal of Liz Sargent HLA, a historical landscape architecture practice based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Ms. Sargent works throughout the United States on cultural landscape design, documentation, and assessment projects for a variety of clients, including the National Park Service and National Trust for Historic Preservation, on sites such as Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, Yellowstone National Park, Everglades National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Gulf Islands National Seashore, and Portsmouth Village Historic District. Ms. Sargent is also active in several historic preservation–related organizations, serves as an advisor to community-led projects, lectures at university programs, and presents papers and case studies at professional conferences.

Deborah Slaton is a Principal with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates in Northbrook, Illinois. She specializes in the preparation of historic structures reports, preservation studies, cultural landscape studies, National Register nominations, and conservation plans for significant historic sites, structures, and buildings. Her past projects have included the Nike missile base and Flamingo Mission 66 Developed Area in Everglades National Park; the Biloxi, Pensacola, and Cape Hatteras lighthouses; the Blue Ridge Parkway; and Portsmouth Village Historic District. Ms. Slaton is a Fellow of the Association for Preservation Technology International, a Director of the Historic Preservation Education Foundation, and author of the National Park Service Preservation Brief on Historic Structures Reports.

Michael Volk is a Florida-registered landscape architect, partner at Volk Design Consultants, LLC, and a Research Assistant Professor in the University of Florida Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, Department of Landscape Architecture. He has a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Florida and a degree in Architecture from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Michael has professional experience in planning and project management, specializing in work with historic and waterfront communities. His activities with the Center for Landscape Conservation Planning include work on regional conservation planning and research projects, including severalcurrent projects assessing sea level rise impacts on imperiled species and habitats in Florida.