Helen Milliken was Michigan’s First Lady from 1969 to 1983 and is widely recognized as one of the state’s visionary conservation leaders. Among Helen’s many accomplishments was the key role she played in supporting the Pigeon River Hydrocarbon Development Plan. The agreement, completed in 1980 after a decade of fierce debate, allowed for limited development of oil and gas wells in the southern third of the 90,000-acre Pigeon River Country State Forest near Wolverine. The agreement is generally considered to be the best land use plan in the nation for developing energy reserves in a sensitive environment. In 1997, the Institute published Rivers at Risk, a thorough review of the Pigeon River plan that called for its principles to be applied in other sensitive watersheds. Helen was raised in Denver, educated at Smith College where she received a B.A. in American studies, and later studied landscape architecture at Michigan State University. She serves on the boards of the Michigan Nature Conservancy and the Women’s Resource Center in Traverse City. She and her husband, former Governor William G. Milliken, raised two children and now live in Traverse City.
Reg Bird, Chairman
Reg Bird is an environmental activist and a former member of the board of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, where he served the last four years of his 11-year term as chairman. His greatest achievement with the conservancy was leading the negotiations and the campaign to raise more than $23 million to permanently protect 6,300 acres of rare freshwater dunes and forest along the northern coast of Lake Michigan in Benzie County, including three miles of untouched Lake Michigan shoreline. Prior to returning to his home in Antrim County in 1992, Reg and his wife Ann led a peripatetic life overseas for 25 years. From 1987 to 1992 Reg was a full-time consultant to the World Wildlife Fund, leading the effort to reshape their global mission and strategy for the headquarters in Switzerland and 28 WWF offices throughout the world. From 1967 to 1987 Reg worked in Brussels, Geneva, and London as creative director and, eventually, as chief executive officer and a principal of Marsteller International, an advertising agency, and at Burson-Marsteller International, a public relations agency. Reg is an avid road biker and for 10 years led tours through the state for Michigan Bicycle Touring. In the fall of 1996 Reg rode his bike completely around Lake Superior and all the way to North Dakota, where snow forced an end to the adventure. He is part owner of Torch Theater, a community theater that performs in the summer in the Elk Rapids Township Hall Opera House. Reg graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in theater and playwriting. He says he was “a pitiful student but an avid anti-Vietnam War advocate.” Reg and Ann, the parents of two sons, live in Eastport.
Gary Appel, Secretary, Board of Directors
Gary Appel is a senior associate at Learning Point Associates in Naperville, Illinois. He currently serves as the Michigan state manager for the Great Lakes East Comprehensive Assistance Center, a federally funded center that provides capacity building assistance to state departments of education in the Great Lakes region.
A former science teacher, curriculum developer and professional developer, he co-authored The Growing Classroom: Garden-Based Science (National Gardening Association, 2007), a curriculum guide to help teachers use school gardens to teach science, and Leading Lesson Study: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Facilitators (Corwin Press, 2007) on adapting a Japanese approach to teacher collaboration to the US educational system. He was a Kellogg Foundation National Fellow, a founding board member of the Michigan Land Use Institute, and a board member at Crystal Mountain Resort for six years.
Prior to moving to Michigan, Gary served as the executive director and co-developer of the Life Lab Science Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz for over ten years. Gary has followed, with interest, MLUI’s evolution from its origins as a highly effective advocacy group to a robust organization with a complex mission focused on coalition and movement-building.
The social justice aspects of MLUI’s work particularly resonate with him. He believes that poor planning and unbridled growth often hurt most those who have the least. Gary lives in Traverse City with his wife, Mimi, an educator, and their two teenage sons, Raffi and Micah.
Craig Sharp, Treasurer, Board of Directors
Craig Sharp is a wealth management advisor and certified financial planner with Merrill Lynch in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He specializes in comprehensive wealth management planning and provides investment consulting services for non-profit endowments and foundations.
A former economics and history teacher, Craig spent time in Washington, D.C. with the Academy for Educational Development, focusing his work on sustainable development projects in the third world. His passion for sustainable development ranges from global to local, with particular interest in northern Michigan’s Benzie County where he has had a home for over a decade.
Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Craig owned and operated the Coho Café in beautiful downtown Frankfort, Michigan. He holds a Bachelors degree from Hope College, and two Masters degrees from the University of Michigan. Craig, an avid triathlete, lives in Grand Rapids with his wife, Michele, and their two children, Maddy and Jacob.
Hans Voss, Executive Director
Hans is the Michigan Land Use Institute’s immensely capable and visionary executive director, a post he has held since August 2000. He joined the staff in 1995 as the coordinator of the Institute’s project to bring about more environmentally sensitive practices in the oil and gas industry. His work helped to make oil and gas development the most visible grassroots environmental policy debate in Michigan. His articles on the subject were published in the Detroit Free Press, the Traverse City Record-Eagle, and the Great Lakes Bulletin.
Under his guidance as executive director, the Institute constructed a new green office in Beulah, opened three regional offices in Lansing, Traverse City, and Grand Rapids, and expanded its staff and budget. The organization is now among the largest state-based environmental and land use policy and advocacy organizations in America. In 2003 Hans was appointed by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm to the bipartisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council, where he distinguished himself as one of the 26-member panel's best-prepared, most knowledgeable and most influential members. In August 2003 the council made 160 recommendations to the Legislature and the Granholm administration about how to curb sprawl, rebuild cities, preserve farmland, and improve Michigan's economic competitiveness. The recommendations were consistent with policies the Institute has advocated since its founding.
Prior to joining the Institute, Hans worked for an environmental consulting firm in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In 1991, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Resource Development from Michigan State University. He and his wife Maureen and two young daughters, Aiden and Lucy, live in Traverse City.
Kim Albright
Kim Albright has a broad background in corporate management, marketing, education, and fundraising. Most recently Kim served as chair, board member, CEO, and consultant to Printvision Inc., a New York City-based software and services firm that provides printing solutions for medium and large-scale companies. Before that she directed enrollment management and financial aid at the Hackley School in Tarryton, New York. Her work in education also includes teaching English and history at middle and high schools and directing alumnae fundraising for Smith College. While working at Smith she formed fundraising committees, designed a three-year capital campaign, made extensive personal visits to former classmates and other alumnae, managed telephone campaigns, and established a corporate gift-matching program. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Kim worked in London, New York and Chicago for some of the top trading and financial firms in the world, including the London Commodity Exchange, the London International Financial Futures Exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Citicorp International Bank, and Morgan Stanley & Co. Kim, who has degrees from Harvard Business School and Smith College, lives in Larchmont, N.Y. and spends much of her summer each year in northwest Lower Michigan. She joined our Board in 2006, attracted to the Institute’s overall mission and its commitment to Benzie County. She worked closely with staff to fund a new Program Coordinator position in 2009 to strengthen the Institute’s community outreach efforts in Benzie County and enhance donor relationships organization-wide.
John "Chip" Hoagland
John “Chip” Hoagland has a heartfelt interest in smart land use and building a local-food economy. As a member of the Michigan Land Use Institute Board of Directors he combines that passion with a strong business background that includes more than 30 years of investment management and chairmanship. He currently chairs the Leelanau Economic Development Corporation and has been involved in investment management since the early 1970s. Chip was born in Ohio, raised in Michigan, and summered near Traverse City. Over the years he’s watched the region’s growth, much of it poorly planned, and is committed to making a difference through public service, including his work on the Institute board. “We can build on what we have in this special corner of the world by making it a model for quality of life and preserving it for generations,” he says. Chip studied at Oberlin College and the University of Detroit before graduating from Michigan State University, majoring in economics, political science, and African studies. He has managed several private investment firms and worked with several small companies, most of them connected to food. Today he chairs Purity Foods, of Okemos, Mich., an organic grain company. He is part owner of Earthy Delights, a gourmet food purveyor; two years ago he helped launch Cherry Capital Foods, dedicated to distributing local food to local retailers, restaurants, hospitals, and other businesses and institutions. Chip supports positive, reasoned development, preservation of the environment, and maintaining the majestic quality of life found throughout northwest Lower Michigan. He also supports wilderness protection, preservation of open space, and the productive use of land for farming and sustainable timber harvesting. Chip and his wife, Shirley, have lived on Glen Lake since 1999.
Robert E. Mossburg
Robert E. Mossburg is a New Urbanist developer and owner of The Cottage Company, a real estate development, construction, and interior design firm based in Harbor Springs. The company, founded in 2002, has attracted state and national notice for the quality and environmental sensitivity of its residential and resort properties, particularly its Bay Street Cottages project in downtown Harbor Springs, which Builder Magazine named the best cluster community in the country. Before settling in Harbor Springs Rob was an executive in the hotel industry. He was a management and real estate consultant with Laventhol and Horvath in Atlanta, and with Kenneth Leventhal and Company in Los Angeles. Later Rob was the finance and development director of the team that started Residence Inn Hotels, a 104-unit chain that in 1987 was sold to the Marriott Corporation. Rob went on to become co-founder of the Summerfield Hotel Corporation, and led a national expansion program that developed 50 new hotels. He also was president and founder of Sierra Suites Hotels, a division of Summerfield. In 1998, Rob and his partners sold the company to Patriot American Hospitality/Wyndham International, which also named him executive vice president for its all-suite division. Rob was raised in Monroe County and is a graduate of Michigan State University’s School of Hospitality Business, where he is an honorary professor. He serves on the board of the Little Traverse Conservancy, is a major conservation easement donor and land protection advocate. An avid outdoorsman, Rob and his wife, Vee, have two daughters and split their time between Santa Barbara, Calif. and Harbor Springs.
Bill Palladino
Bill Palladino is an expert in business leadership. As executive vice president of business results with ISB Worldwide, of Dallas, Tex., Bill provides training, coaching, and consulting services. He specializes in health systems management, education, manufacturing, and economic development, and his work allows him to travel the world. Bill is also an entrepreneur: He operates Krios Consulting, a Traverse City-based firm that provides businesses, communities, and governments with guidance in strategic planning, organizational development, and leadership training. Bill shares the Institute’s goal of improving communities, particularly in northern Michigan. “I have the highest priority for a sense of place and a sense of community,” he says. “My guiding question for myself always is: ‘How does doing this make my community a better place to live?’” Bill studied journalism and mass communications at North Dakota State University, in Fargo, and Herbert Lehman College, in New York and has won awards for his documentary and news reporting. In 1990, he won a travel and study fellowship from the Jerome Foundation to investigate audio as an art form. His varied roles as a reporter, producer, and manager in public broadcasting included six years with Minnesota Public Radio, where he helped engineer broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion. Bill wants to help the Institute by increasing the Board of Directors’ involvement with staff. “I see the board as the key empowerment tool for a busy and motivated organization,” Bill said. “Rather than a board that simply shows up once every few months, I see a board that works hand in hand with the staff to accomplish the mission.”
Bob Sutherland
Bob Sutherland is president and chief executive officer of Cherry Republic. A lifelong resident of Leelanau County, Bob is building one of the region’s most innovative and successful small companies. Cherry Republic, a retail, mail order, and wholesale distributor of cherry products and apparel, is among the largest buyers and sellers of farm products in northwest Michigan. Bob, who chaired the Institute from 1998 to 2005, also is developing The New Neighborhood in Empire, which is based on traditional design principles. From 1992 to 1994, Bob served as a Leelanau County commissioner. Bob is a founding member and performer with the Beach Bards Bonfire, a popular summertime storytelling group that meets weekly on the beach at the Leelanau School. He is a board member of Friends of the Dunes, on the steering committee of the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments Greenways Project, co-chair of Leelanau Citizens for Farmland Preservation, and sponsor of an orchard preservation project that is managed by the Leelanau Conservancy. Bob is a graduate of Glen Lake High School and Northern Michigan University.
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148 E. Front St., Suite 301. Traverse City, MI 49684-5725 Phone: 231-941-6584 Fax: 231-929-0937 webinfo@mlui.org
