Workshop 4 Speakers

Mark Belton has extensive experience leading state and local government organizations and retired from a 31-year military career as a Navy Rear Admiral in logistics policy and operational assignments. Formerly serving as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, he currently works as County Administrator for Charles County, MD, and previously held the same role in Queen Anne’s County, MD and Page County, VA. Belton has focused on climate resilience, championing the establishment of Maryland’s Climate Leadership Academy and creating the state’s first nonprofit Resilience Authority. He’s led Charles County to national recognition for its whole-of-government approach to climate preparedness, which was cited by S&P as influencing affirmation of Charles County’s AAA credit rating. He holds a BS from the US Naval Academy; an MBA from Regis University; and graduated from programs at the Naval War College, Armed Forces Staff College, and National Defense University.

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.

Eric Fosmire is Chief of Staff and General Counsel for the South Carolina Office of Resilience. The Office of Resilience is the successor of the South Carolina Disaster Recovery Office. Eric has been lead counsel for South Carolina’s Disaster Recovery Office and its recovery efforts since the occurrence of the 2015 flood disaster. The office deployed the HUD funded CDBG-DR housing recovery missions for the 2015 flood disaster, Hurricane Matthew in 2016, and Hurricane Florence in 2018. To date, those recovery operations have repaired or replaced more than 3,200 homes for South Carolina’s most vulnerable citizens. The Office of Resilience is now responsible for developing the Strategic Statewide Resilience and Risk Reduction Plan as well as managing the Disaster Relief and Resilience Reserve Fund and the Resilience Buyout Revolving Fund. Before working on the state’s disaster recovery and resilience efforts, Eric had more than 20 years of experience in complex construction defect litigation.

Johnny Mojica is a principal at Radbridge. Radbridge seeks to accelerate and expand investments in community resilience by helping them access federal funding for nature-based solutions. Johnny specializes in benefit-cost analysis for nature-based solutions, particularly those that reduce a community’s exposure to flood, fire, and drought. From project conceptualization to application submission, Johnny helps communities frame their resiliency projects to give them the best shot at grant award.

Tom has over 23 years of experience in stormwater management consulting serving communities throughout the southeast. He specializes in the planning and design of stormwater nature based solutions and capital improvement projects for urbanized watersheds. He has both a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from NC State. Tom is a registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina and South Carolina and a Certified Floodplain Manager.

A North Carolina native and NC State graduate, Keith Readling is, by original training, a Civil Engineer, and has almost 40 years of experience in stormwater consulting. Since 1991 he has focused on stormwater program planning and especially on stormwater funding and finance. He has helped many communities plan for, set up, and manage stormwater utilities, particularly through the Carolinas and Southeast, but including a number of very large stormwater programs outside our region, including Dallas, Baltimore, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans and the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. As Executive Vice President for Raftelis, he oversees national practices focused on stormwater, utility technology, rates and finance, and software development and support.

Kate Schaefer is the Director of Land Protection at the Open Land Trust in Beaufort. At OLT, Kate works with landowners, partners, and local and state government programs to identify strategic land protection opportunities in the region. Currently, OLT manages Beaufort County’s Rural and Critical Lands program and Kate serves as the staff liaison. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Conservation Biology from Clemson University and master’s degree from Kenan-Flagler business school at UNC-Chapel Hill. Previously, she worked in environmental advocacy and policy at the state and local level and taught high school science in the public school system.

Howard Schnabolk has served the past 19 years as a Habitat Restoration Specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Restoration Center (RC). He currently serves as the South Atlantic Team Leader for the RC and is based at NOAA’s Charleston, SC office. Howard works on developing marine restoration projects in coordination with Trustee agencies through the Natural Resources Damage Assessment process, and with partners through NOAA’s Community-based Restoration Program grants. Howard has a B.S in Natural Resources Planning from Humboldt State University and an M.P.A in Earth Systems Sciences from Columbia University.

Joanne Throwe is the President of Throwe Environmental, LLC. Joanne’s work focuses on helping governments and organizations find innovative ways to fund and finance environmental and natural resource improvements, especially as it relates to the impacts of climate change. Joanne serves as a technical assistance provider for the Southeast New England Program Network and is also field liaison for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coastal Resilience Fund and the Long Island Sound Futures Fund. Prior to work at Throwe Environmental, Joanne served as Senior Fellow at the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability and was Deputy Secretary for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Prior to that, Joanne was Director of the University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center serving the Mid-Atlantic region and helped communities finance environmental protection activities for over ten years. Joanne recently served as Chair for US EPA’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board that is responsible for providing innovative financing recommendations to the Administrator of US EPA. In addition, she served as co-chair of the National Stormwater Finance Task Force for US EPA. Joanne holds a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and currently resides in Rhode Island.