Workshop 3 Speakers

Emily is chief of recovery and mitigation with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, a position she has held since January 2019. She leads a team of 40 staff who manage more than a $1.5 billion in federal recovery and mitigation grants and who support local governments in mitigation and recovery planning. She previously led two bachelor's degree programs in emergency management and was an emergency management consultant. From 2002-2006, she served as executive director of the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP), the national standards and accreditation program for state and local government emergency management. Before her work in emergency management, she practiced law and early in her career was a journalist. She earned her bachelor's degree from Auburn University and her law degree from Jones School of Law at Faulkner University.

Mr. Dierks is a Senior Advisor to the firm’s Climate Adaptation and Community Resilience practice. Prior to joining Fernleaf he was the head of a major engineering firm’s climate adaptation and resilience practice and led two successive environmental practices over a period of nearly 40 years focusing primarily on environmental services to municipal governments in Virginia. Mr. Dierks has a strong background in water resources planning, focusing principally on stormwater regulatory work. Since joining Fernleaf Ken has worked to expand the firm’s practice in climate adaptation and community resilience in the southeast United States.

Robert Merchant is the Director of the Beaufort County Planning and Zoning Department. He has a master’s degree in Urban Planning Design and Development from Cleveland State University Levin College of Urban Affairs. During his 22 years at Beaufort County, Mr. Merchant has played an important role in encouraging inter-jurisdictional cooperation among Beaufort County and its five municipalities. He was the lead staff person overseeing the development of the Northern and Southern Beaufort County Regional Plans which addressed a multi-jurisdictional approach to preserving water quality and natural resources; addressing the impacts of rapid population growth; and preserving community character. More recently, Mr. Merchant has focused on bring a regional, multi-jurisdictional approach to advocating multi-modal transportation networks and to coastal resiliency planning.”

Cindy Rolli is a Resilience Planning Leader for Black and Veatch. Leveraging her experiences in hydrogeology, hazard mitigation planning, and disaster recovery, Cindy supports a holistic approach to resiliency planning. Her work across the US, Caribbean, and Pacific, supports the development of decision frameworks that address common global challenges by incorporating natural and nature-based solutions. Her vision is to support community and industry in protecting our natural and physical environments.

Andy is an architect and urban designer and a leader of Waggonner & Ball’s environments practice. He focuses on developing urban- and building-scale solutions that accentuate the character of place and integrate issues of climate, nature, economy, and people. Based in New Orleans, he has been an integral part of the firm’s trademarked Dutch Dialogues and Living with Water efforts in cities across the U.S., including Charleston. He serves as project manager for Waggonner & Ball’s leading role on the Charleston Water Plan team.

A native of the South Carolina barrier islands, Erin Stevens acquired a Bachelors Degree in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University and a first-hand understanding of the power of varying environmental factors in shaping the human experience. To further explore this phenomenon, she moved to Manhattan to pursue urban studies at Columbia University. After a series of internships she completed her Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Georgia.

In her professional career, Erin has worked on a variety of planning and design projects including a federally-funded transit study for the Charleston region, the redevelopment of an environmentally sensitive low-impact residential neighborhood within a highly contaminated watershed, and development guidelines and public space design for multiple mixed-use and infill developments in the Charleston region. In 2016, Erin founded Surculus, a Charleston-based landscape architecture and urban design firm focused on increasing resilience and effectively integrating ecologically sensitive systems into urbanized and other human-affected contexts. In addition to her practice, she currently teaches a design studio within Clemson University’s Master of Resilient Urban Design Program.

Gregory G. Tucker is the Special Projects Administrator for the City of Columbia South Carolina where he manages large Capital Improvement and Development Projects on behalf of the City of Columbia for the last 8 years. Gregory has managed Capital Improvement and Development Projects in the public and private sector for more than 33 years. Recently completed or inprocess large projects include the following: Bull Street District Redevelopment; development of Segra Park; Home of the Columbia Fireflies, a Kansas City Royals MiLB affiliate; the repair of the flood damaged Columbia Canal; new alternate water supply intake facility for Columbia Water. Gregory holds Bachelor Degrees in both Design and Construction Management from Clemson University. Gregory currently resides in Lexington, SC with wife. When not at work, Gregory enjoys spending time watching baseball games.

Hope is currently working on the development of the state’s first Strategic Statewide Resilience and Risk Reduction Plan. Drawing on her previous experience in municipal and county governments, she focuses on ensuring statewide planning efforts and recommendations can be implemented on a local level.