Michael T. Dawson

Mike Dawson is the Chief Executive Officer of the River Alliance, a non-profit Corporation, dedicated to river-related community development in Columbia, South Carolina. In the summer of 1994, local leaders asked Mike, then a serving Colonel of Infantry in the U.S. Army, to create an organization that could unlock the potential of Columbia South Carolina's 90 miles of rivers. This resulting structure, based on citizen participation and close relationships with local governments, is an effective catalyst for change. Mike grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Later, he earned a Master of Science in Systems Technology from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and Master of Arts in Strategy and Policy from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. In his free time, Mike runs, paddles, gardens, and works on an 92-year-old Tudor house in Five Points in downtown Columbia. He is a founding member of the Wales Garden Neighborhood Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the Waterfront Center in Washington D.C.

James L. Edwards

James L. Edwards (Jim) serves as Vice President - External Affairs for the South Carolina Horsemen's Council. In that capacity he served as chairman of the 2008 Southeastern Equestrian Trails Conference (SETC) held in Charleston, SC July 31-August 2, 2008. SETC is considered the premier equestrian trails conference in the nation and is comprised of 14 southeastern states. Jim also serves on the SC PRT trails advisory committee which involves trails of all types in SC. He is a retired educator and spends most of his time on his farm.

Charles A. Flink

Charles A. Flink, FASLA Founder/President Greenways Incorporated Charles A. "Chuck" Flink is Founder and President of Greenways Incorporated, an environmental planning and landscape architecture company established in 1986 and based in Durham, North Carolina. He is widely regarded as one of the nation's leading greenway planners, having completed comprehensive greenway, trail and open space plans for more than 100 communities within 32 States and Argentina, Canada, Japan and St. Croix, USVI. Flink was elected to the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows in November 2003. He was recently named the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus for the College of Design at North Carolina State University. Flink co-authored Greenways. A Guide to Planning, Design and Development, in partnership with The Conservation Fund. This book received a 1994 Merit Award in Communications from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Washington DC, and is cited by the American Planning Association as "the best single reference" on greenway development. Flink also co-authored Trails for the Twenty First Century, with the Rails-to- Trails Conservancy, Washington, DC. Trails received a 2001 Merit Award in Communications from the NC Chapter of ASLA. Flink has been featured in prominent national and international publications including National Geographic, Triangle Business Journal, Private Clubs, Landscape Architecture, Walking, American Planning, Good Housekeeping, Buzzworm Environmental Journal, Southern Living and American City County. In 1995, Flink received an Environmental Excellence Award from the US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration for the Swift Creek Recycled Greenway, the nation's first greenway built from recycled trash. In 2001, Flink received a Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for his involvement with the Grand Canyon Greenway project. Flink has lectured on the creation of greenways at more than 125 national and international conferences since 1986. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University's School of Design and served as an Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture for five years. He served three consecutive terms as Chairman of the Board for American Trails, Washington, DC and as a member of the North Carolina Greenways Advisory Panel, which was established by Governor James Martin. He is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees for the East Coast Greenway, a 2,600 mile urban trail that extends from Calis, Maine to Key West, Florida along the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States.

Brian Graham

Brian Graham is the Greenway Planner for the City of Greenville, South Carolina. In that capacity he works to implement the City's Trails and Greenways Master Plan (2007), including portions of the Swamp Rabbit Trail. He is a bicycle commuter and also helps to coordinate some of the city's other bicycling and sustainability initiatives. He is a graduate of the City and Regional Planning program at ClemsonUniversity. For his thesis he wrote a Bicycle Master Plan forCharleston, South Carolina. Brian will speak to the details of designing and building trails in an urban environment as a way to connect citizens to places of recreation, education, retail and the workplace. Also, please note, that I am the Greenway Planner for theCity of Greenville. The outline you sent originally has me listed as working for the county.

Oswald Nagler

Mr. Nagler is an internationally recognized land planner. He is a Harvard graduate in Architecture and Urban Design, and has been designing new communities and a variety of building projects for the past 45 years in various countries, including the U.S., Korea, Burma, Israel, Thailand, Ceylon, and Japan. For the past 30 years, Mr. Nagler has been based in Columbia, South Carolina. His best-known work in the Greater Columbia area is the design of Harbison and internationally the land planning for the 1988 Olympic Village in Seoul, Korea. He is currently the urban land planner for the River Alliance in Columbia, South Carolina

Cathy L. Ruff

Cathy L. Ruff, Director Charleston County Greenbelt Programs Cathy has been with Charleston County Government for almost 13 years and has worked with the Greenbelt Programs since its inception in 2005. Her education includes a Bachelors of Science from Charleston Southern University and a Masters of Arts from Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Cathy was born in Texas but has lived in South Carolina since the age of 9 and calls Charleston home.