South Fork Conservancy

Chair: John I. Spangler

Vice Chair: Jennifer Ide

Jennifer Ide, a former Atlanta City Council member represented District 6 on the Council from 2018-2021. She currently is the Chief Administrative Officer for Rimidi, a digital health care company in Atlanta, overseeing legal, financial, and regulatory matters. A mother of four daughters, Jennifer loves to spend time gardening, hiking, and biking.

Treasurer: JEFF RADER

Secretary: Tony Powers

Tony Powers was elected to the Decatur City Commission in 2015. He is a co-owner and manager of the popular Decatur Intown Ace Hardware, sharing expertise and materials on environmental and community projects benefiting a range of nonprofit organizations. He was a long-time member and former chair of the Decatur Planning Commission, and chaired the city's Housing Infill Task Force.  He was a founding member and former chair of the Decatur Education Foundation, which provides additional financial support to the city's top-rated school system. His extensive public service also includes leadership in PTA and school councils. He holds a BA degree in Marketing from the University of Georgia, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. He and his wife Leisa are raising their two daughters in Decatur schools and at the hardware store.

Governance Chair: Julie Ralston

Julie Ralston has for more than 30 years, served in key roles at the Atlanta Regional Commission, the regional planning agency for metro Atlanta.  As director of ARC’s Center for Strategic Relations, she focused on building stronger networks for action and progress around key Atlanta-region issues through community engagement, communications/marketing and governmental affairs.

Ralston also led ARC’s communications and outreach work, directing an extensive program of media relations, editorial services, graphic design/video services, special events and youth leadership programs. Prior to her career at ARC, Julie worked as a journalist and a communications professional with the American Cancer Society and the national Arthritis Foundation.

She retired in 2017 to pursue other life and community-building ventures.  Julie brings her extensive experience in public relations and outreach to South Fork Conservancy and will help continue raising awareness of the rich possibilities presented by restoring, conserving and connecting our natural systems.

Maintenance chair: Dave Butler

Dave Butler, an ISA Certified Arborist #SO-6236A, has worked in the environmental field for over 35 years serving as the director of  environmental services for an engineering firm, working with DeKalb County Parks Bond and Greenspace office acquiring new park space and managing all aspects of natural resources in parks, and more recently serving as Arborist for the cities of Milton and Norcross.  In semi-retirement, Dave is a consulting Arborist performing tree health assessments for residential and commercial clients. Having served on the boards of several environmental organizations including Georgia Audubon, Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, Georgia Arborist Association, and Wild Nest (a bird rescue and rehabilitation organization), Dave is pleased to join the South Fork Conservancy and help build on the great work already accomplished.

Dan Chapman

Dan Chapman, born in Washington, D.C., has lived, studied and worked in Tokyo, Paris, Washington, Ohio, North Carolina and Georgia. He started his journalistic career at Congressional Quarterly before moving on to the Winston-Salem Journal, the Charlotte Observer and, for 17 years, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has reported from Atlanta, the South, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He currently works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service writing about conservation in the South. He recently published A Road Running Southward (Island Press) which documents environmental issues bedeviling the South. He lives in Decatur with wife Bita and sons Sammy and Naveed.

Patrick Dean

Patrick Dean is a Geoscientist and a project manager at GeoWave Solutions, a company that focuses on identifying underground geologic features using high-tech methods. He also enjoys hiking, flat-water kayaking, and competing in triathalons.

Johannes G. Eckert

Johannes Eckert is Senior Vice President of Enterprise Development & Operations at Cox Communications. He’s currently responsible for the development, maintenance and operations of Cox’s applications, service, infrastructure and tools to support Cox’s internal and external customers. Johannes has more than 20 years of global experience in strategy, IT, engineering, product development and operations in telecom and cable, including consulting services for different companies in multiple countries across Europe, Middle‐East and South America. Prior to his current role, he assumed key positions over the last nine years within Cox, including leading the Wireless Technology team for IT and Engineering, the Application Development team for BSS and IT and Network Operations team.

Marc Goldberg

Marc Goldberg is the President of Alscan, Inc.  Marc grew up in Birmingham and has family ties in Atlanta going back four generations. Marc graduated from the University of Arizona, majoring in economics, and moved to Atlanta shortly afterwards to start Alscan’s Atlanta location, which is located in the Zonolite neighborhood. Alscan, Inc. specializes in commercial and industrial video surveillance and access control systems. Marc especially enjoys the connection between watching Atlanta rapidly expand while having an integral part in helping to safeguard our community. In his spare time, Marc loves getting outdoors and being with his young family in nature. He has a special appreciation for SFC as the trails around his home and work are all part of SFC’s network. He has enjoyed and appreciated SFC’s efforts to expand and connect trails throughout the city. When not at work or outside, he’s spending time with his wife, Hilary, and sons, Jake and Harrison. Marc’s other hobbies include playing golf, going to concerts, and watching the Braves.

Billy Hall: Founding Board Member

Billy Hall is the co-founder and CEO of NewFields Companies, an international environmental consulting firm specializing in natural resources management, restoration, and sustainability. His specialty is applied decision consequence analysis, a management approach to resource optimization that combines game and probability theory with the most advanced data and communications tools and engineering and scientific rigor. Billy has provided strategic planning services for a significant number of Fortune 100 multinationals such as Shell, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Union Carbide, Dow, and DuPont, as well as for government entities such as the US DOD and Park Service, and NGO's such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Riverkeeper. He has been a strategic planner on environmental projects in over 70 countries, and currently operates offices in 15 cities in the US, Brazil, South Africa, London, China and Australia. He is one of the lead authors of the textbook recently published by Elsevier Press, "Sustainable Land Development and Restoration, Decision Consequence Analysis." He also co-chairs South Fork's Capital Campaign.

Bob Kerr: Founding Board Member (EMERITUS)

Bob Kerr is one of  Georgia’s leading conservationists. He served three governors in setting policy for water management issues with Alabama and Florida. He was founding director of Georgia’s Pollution Prevention Assistance Division of the Department of Natural Resources, and led the state’s Hazardous Waste Management Authority. Bob was Executive Director of the Georgia Conservancy, his work key to ensuring Congressional designation of wilderness areas in north Georgia and western North Carolina. Along the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Bob led coalitions of conservation groups to expand federal protection for fragile river environments both urban and rural. His volunteer work includes leadership roles in the Georgia Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) and National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a 350,000 member national organization dedicated to the enhancement and protection of the National Park System. A past chair of South Fork, he is a crucial member of the Capital Campaign Committee. He is a U.S. Marine, educated at George Washington University and Georgia State University. And was recently named board member emeritus in recognition of his service and commitment to the South Fork Conservancy.

Glenn Kurtz

Glenn Kurtz is Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Legacy Parking Company. Prior to this he was the Director of Parking at Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Executive Vice President of Transportation and Sustainability for Lanier Parking Solutions. He has over 30 years of experience planning, managing and implementing complex transportation systems with an emphasis on alternative transportation solutions. He currently serves as the chairman of the board for the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and the Grant Park Conservancy. He also serves on the Green Parking Council’s advisory board and he formerly served several years on the Chastain Park Conservancy’s advisory board. He was a member of the 2011 Leadership Atlanta class.

Mary Leight

Mary Leight has spent her career as an educator and business owner.   As president of LeightWorks she worked with clients to develop curricula, mentoring programs, and internships.   In addition, Mary has facilitated leadership development workshops for clients.  Early in her career, Mary taught special needs classes in North Carolina. In retirement, Mary enjoys gardening, cooking, reading, hiking, and traveling.  She is a master gardener and sometimes birder.  Mary has been a board member at Leadership DeKalb and Odyssey Family Counseling Center.  During her time at Odyssey, Mary served as board chair. Mary is a graduate of Thessaloniki International High School, Salem College (BA) and UNC Chapel Hill (MEd). Mary lives in Briarwood Hills with her husband Bart Engram.  

Warner McConaughey

Warner McConaughey is founder and president of HammerSmith, Inc, one of Atlanta’s premier residential design and renovation firms. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Elle Décor, Better Homes and Gardens and Fine Homebuilding, as well as the CMT Networks’s Ultimate Home, CNN, PBS’s The Inspired House, and This Old House. His company has been a pioneer in the residential green building movement, helping establish the EarthCraft House renovation guidelines for green building.

Warner is past president of the Georgia Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) and is a strong supporter of Atlanta’s historic neighborhoods. HammerSmith has always given back to the neighborhoods by supporting local parks, schools and neighborhood associations. He is a graduate of Stanford University, receiving a BA with honors. His hobbies include running, trail and bridge building and organic gardening. He lives in Druid Hills with his wife Allison and their three young children. He is an Atlanta native who grew up on Peavine Creek, a tributary to the South Fork of Peachtree Creek.

RORY MOON

Rory Moon is a residential realtor who works for Keller Williams Atlanta Midtown Luxury International. He has lived in Georgia most of his life growing up on a farm just outside of Atlanta. Rory currently chairs the events committee for the annual Creek Rising fundraiser. Rory and his husband live in East Point, where he just become a member of the East Point Business & Industrial Development Authority.

REBECCA RACIBORSKI

Rebecca Raciborski is a research health scientist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Mental Health Outcomes Research. She is keenly interested in mental health services research, especially issues of access to mental health-care, substance use disorders, and the role poverty and other disadvantages play in health-care. Her specialty is in causal inference methods. Becca has a doctorate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Services, and more than 15 years of experience in health-care economics. Previously, she has worked as a senior biostatistician, a senior health econometrician, and a mathematical statistician. She and her husband Rafal live in Druid Hills, where she is a founding member of the Friends of Peavine Trail.

Mike St. Louis

Mike St. Louis is a pediatric physician at CDC. He has lived in Druid Hills for about 40 years. He has also worked all over the world as a field physician addressing improving health care delivery for children. For many years he has actively engaged is teaching kids from Padeia agriculture in his large backyard garden and orchard.

Dorothy Sussman

Dorothy Sussman spent most of her professional career in public health, beginning as a nurse in the Peace Corps in Malaysia, then teaching surgical nursing, and ending with her work at CDC’s Environmental Health Laboratory, where she was the lab’s Director for Policy and Communications.  Sussman also holds degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing from Agnes Scott College and an MFA in Poetry from Georgia State University.  Now retired, Sussman has worked for years with her civic association, Lindridge-Martin Manor, a neighborhood that borders South Fork, and has championed the removal of invasive species and the use of native plants and trees along the Cheshire Farm,  Meadow Loop, and Confluence Trails that edge the creek. Sussman has published her work in literary journals and has written and edited newsletters and health care reports about environmental toxicants, such as lead and mercury in people. 

Advisory board

Christian P. Larsen, M.D., D.Phil. 

Dr. Larsen is dean of the Emory School of Medicine, CEO and chair of the board of directors of Emory Clinic, and vice president for health center integration for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. He is an internationally recognized leader in transplant surgery and immunology, and was founding director of the Emory Transplant Center. 

Chris Nelson

Chris Nelson brings over 30 years of diverse landscape operations, maintenance, and design to the team with a broad range of experience that includes master planning of parks, recreation/playground design, lake and stream restoration projects, historic building restoration, wetlands preservation, forest restoration, invasive species control, community gardens, park programs, irrigation design and water management, concessions/vending, trail/path circulation planning, pedestrian signage/messaging, facilities management, landscape operations/turf management, special events coordination, recycling programs and other sustainable initiatives, contract negotiations, and security operations. Chris has a career full of experiences working with community-based organizations as well as other nationally-recognized conservancy and park organizations. In the role as Executive VP / COO for the Piedmont Park Conservancy, Chris had for over fourteen years played a significant role in the preservation and restoration of Piedmont Park, including the work outlined in the 2005 $40 Million Master Plan, which was completed in 2011 and expanded the park by 53 acres. A key part of this vast project was the North Woods Stream Restoration project, which included the remediation and re-naturalization of the Clear Creek and its tributaries.  In January, 2014, Chris joins the 38 year old Chattahoochee Nature Center as the Executive Director.

Sally Sears: FOUNDING BOARD MEMBER

Sally Sears, an award-winning news reporter, is a Founding Board Member of the South Fork Conservancy and a key member of the Capital Campaign Committee. The Trust for Public Land named her its 2015 TrailBlazer for her leadership of the vision of the South Fork. Her work is an outgrowth of 35 years of news reporting in growing cities across the South. Special televised reports on solutions to north Georgia’s growth issues of water, land use and traffic helped her find the broader community connections to create cooperation among partners.

She covered politics and suburban growth for WAGA and WSB TV since 1984. Current television reports include specialized news reporting on CBS 46. She served as the founding chair of the DeKalb County watershed oversight committee. Sally is a native of Montevallo, Alabama, and a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University.