Hans Voss, Executive Director hans@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 14
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.
Brian Beauchamp, Policy Specialist brian@mlui.org 231-941-658 ext. 19
Before becoming an Institute policy specialist in June 2008, Brian spent 10 years cajoling the state Legislature to protect the Great Lakes, steer Michigan towards renewable energy and energy efficiency, and conserve the beauty and bounty of our vast natural resources. As former campaign director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Brian brings us deep experience in state policy, which he now focuses on the Institute’s Northwest Michigan program. He understands that the best way to move Smart Growth policy is by building citizen support to get it done: “Sound public policy has to begin at the grassroots level in order for it progress through the minefield of any decision-making body at the local or state level,” he says. Brian moved from downtown Ann Arbor to downtown Traverse City and says he sees many comparisons between the two: They are both hip places with vibrant downtowns, livable neighborhoods, and abundant recreational options nearby. Despite Michigan’s abysmal economy, both places are thriving. The native Michigander has quite a passion for the Mitten State, and that drives his passion for the Institute’s mission: protecting the environment, strengthening the economy, and enhancing the quality of life. Brian de-stresses from his demanding desk job by running, biking, swimming, and practicing yoga at a local studio. His long-term vision for the state includes a rail-transit system connecting Traverse City to the rest of the state…especially southeast Michigan, where he grew up and which he visits often.
Janice Benson, Marketing Coordinator, Taste the Local Difference janice@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 21
Janice is the newest addition to the Institute’s blue-ribbon Entrepreneurial Agriculture Project. She supports the development and execution of the 2006 Taste the Local Difference guide to farm foods; the planning, logistical coordination, and promotion of the statewide Seeds of Prosperity Conference; and outreach, program development, and information management for the overall project.
Janice grew up in Auburn Hills and spent many summers in northern Michigan, where the beautiful lakes, forests, rolling hills and farmland were a great escape from the fast-sprawling Detroit area. After earning a B.B.A. in Human Resources Management at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti and working in the business world for a few years, she realized that she longed for something more. She spent some time traveling and then set out for the South, where she worked as the House Manager for the American Dance Festival at Duke University in North Carolina.
Later, she moved to rural eastern Kentucky and volunteered for the Christian Appalachian Project, where she fell in love with the landscape, the local culture, and her husband, Kevin, who is originally from New York City. While there, she helped to open a child development center, provided home visitation to homebound seniors, taught adult education, and gave health education presentations to area schools. She noticed big-box stores replacing small town businesses, asphalt replacing natural areas, driving replacing walking, and generic replacing unique. She’s seen that back in Auburn Hills, but witnessing it in culturally rich Appalachia hit her hard.
“I was moved by the small, simple towns and a community-minded way of life where people walked to the post office and gathered there to share local news,” Janice says. “Over the years, though, I realized that the things that drew me to the area were starting to change because of the arrival of large chain stores. I watched small town businesses close their doors one after the other as people chose to drive great distances in search of a great deal—a recurring theme in almost every place I moved to.”
This pointed Janice’s personal and professional commitments toward community building, local farms and businesses, historic preservation, and environmental stewardship. After moving to Traverse City in 2000, she used her formidable skills to recruit, train, and supervise volunteers for Catholic Human Services’ Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent program. Janice developed program videos, partnerships with new agencies, and computerized processes; she also planned the 2005 Michigan Association of Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions State Conference.
She left that position in 2005 to devote more time to promoting local farms, and says she is thrilled to be doing exactly that at the Institute. Janice enjoys working in her organic vegetable and herb garden, fixing up her century-old house in downtown Traverse City, hiking, biking, and swimming with her husband and their dog, Tanner.
Patty leads the Institute’s innovative and far-reaching statewide project to strengthen entrepreneurialism in agriculture. The project, now in its third year, is introducing local and state leaders to the 21st-century potential of innovative, market-savvy farm and food operations and showing them how they can improve their communities by helping these new and inventive approaches to farming succeed.
Raised on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks, Patty began her career as an economic research associate at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a leading economic and environmental policy think tank in Snowmass, Colorado. She later joined the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader as a senior business reporter and columnist, and won the Exceptional Merit Media Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus and Radcliffe College.
After leaving the newspaper, Patty taught business administration at Drury College and embarked on a freelance journalism career that included publishing articles in Ms. magazine, and U.S. News & World Report. She is the author of a ground-breaking report for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center on the hazards of factory hog farming, a report that a Kellogg Foundation program officer said is the most learned assessment of the issue ever published.
Patty joined the Institute in 1998, and has served as a grassroots organizer and journalist, managing editor, and project director.
Patty graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri, earning B.A. degrees in economics and political science. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Cologne, Germany. She also earned a M.A. in Business Administration from Drury College.
Patty’s co-workers were impressed by how she found all the best places in the area for great music and swing dancing within weeks of arriving in Benzonia from Missouri.
Diane works with Patty Cantrell to help family farms in northwest Lower Michigan increase their reach and revenues by meeting new consumer demand for safe, healthy foods from nearby farms. Diane focuses on local food marketing, including building bridges between farms and area restaurants, food services, and retail buyers.
Diane brings to her work a proven record of superb reporting and writing, extensive knowledge of local growers and markets, and passion as an advocate for entrepreneurial agriculture. She began her journalism career as a reporter for the Manistee News Advocate, and then worked for a time in Minneapolis for the Twin Cities Courier, an African American family weekly, and for Northern Sun News, an alternative monthly that focused on environmental issues. In 1986 she joined the Traverse City Record-Eagle, and over the next 12 years produced thoughtful, well-reported, and consistently fair work on agriculture, poverty, water, economics, health, and the environment.
Diane's reporting earned a bushel of state Associated Press and Michigan Press Association awards, and national honors from the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for a series she contributed to on poverty in the region.
After leaving the paper in 1998, Diane focused her writing on agriculture and developed a new voice as an advocate for fresh, flavorful fruits, vegetables, breads, meats, and other area farm products. In 2000 she joined the board of the Oryana Food Cooperative in Traverse City, a successful member-based natural food store, and started a new effort to stock and promote local farm foods.
In 2002 Diane helped start and became the market master for the Leland Farmers Market, building the weekly enterprise into a showcase of local agriculture discovery. Diane served on the Leelanau County Farmland Preservation Board, where she helped draft one of the first county farmland preservation ordinances in the state. She also researched and amassed a listing of 140 local food producers and their offerings for the Institute's Select a Taste of Traverse Bay guide to local farm foods.
Diane was raised near Springboro, Ohio, south of Dayton, and educated at Michigan State University, where she received a B.S. degree in journalism. She and her husband, Dean Conners, live in Cedar. They invite family and friends every March to join them around the fire and a long metal tray bubbling with maple sap collected from trees on their land.
It was the writer Alexis de Tocqueville, who during a tour of America 177 years ago noted the crucial role of local leaders and small associations in making the country work. That clearly is the case with Judy and all of the exceptional public interest work she’s done in Benzie and Manistee counties. We’ve known Judy a long time, ever since the early 1990s when the Institute’s predecessor organization, the Michigan Communities Land Use Coalition, was just getting started and Judy was one of our most active supporters in Manistee County. At the time Judy was the program coordinator for the Manistee Area Public Schools and organized a collaboration between industry, educators, students, and local governments in Manistee to recycle paper in four county school districts. The trash-to-cash project collected 1,200 tons of paper and returned almost $30,000 annually to youth activities in Brethren, Bear Lake, Onekama, and the public and Catholic high schools in Manistee. In the late 1990s, as the program coordinator for Lakeshore Enterprises, Judy helped to organize a similar school-based paper recycling program in Benzie County. Judy convened 200 students for EarthSave, the first Manistee County Regional youth environmental conference, which the Institute co-sponsored in 2000. She was a leader in the 2004 citizen campaign to block a coal-fired power plant in Manistee and develop a cleaner alternative regional energy strategy. A graduate of Michigan State University, Judy lives in an energy-efficient, resource-conserving straw bale house she built herself in Bear Lake.
Gail Dennis, Development Director gail@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext.12
Gail is currently the Development Director for the Institute. She began working for MLUI as the Design Director more than eight years ago. In her current role she manages our annual giving campaigns, donor relationships, and oversees the Milliken Fund. Her responsibilities also include overseeing the administrative staff and human resources.
Her commitment to the mission of MLUI began as a child. "I grew up wandering the fields and woods around my family home gazing at the spectacular view from our hilltop home. I grew to know and love the natural world," says Gail, who joined the Institute staff in 2000. "Those same fields now are crowded with subdivisions. I watched it happen with a sense of helplessness. Until I heard the Institute’s message — local control, planned growth, respect for land and the people who inhabit it — I believed there was nothing I could do to stop uncontrolled growth. Now I see that we all can make a difference locally, nationally and globally."
Gail lives on the Old Mission Peninsula north of Traverse City with her husband, author Jerry Dennis. They are the parents of two sons, Aaron and Nick. In her spare time Gail enjoys gardening, reading, knitting, and walking the beaches of Lake Michigan.
Jim oversees the Institute's publications and assists in the production and development of the Web site and other communications tools. Prior to joining the Institute, Jim spent two years in the 1990s as managing editor of Metro Times in Detroit, the state's largest weekly newspaper. Jim also directed the Ford Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival and has spent time behind and in front of the microphone as a broadcast radio producer and on-air host. Most recently he hosted a Saturday evening rhythm and blues program on WDET-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate in Detroit.
A skilled environmental journalist, Jim is a talent in every aspect of his professional life. In 2003 he received the Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers for his 2002 Jazz Times cover article, "Hard Bop/Hard Times: Music, Madness & Drummer Roy Brooks." Jim received the award, one of the most revered in music journalism, at Lincoln Center in New York.
Jim brings the same energy, creativity, experience, and firm grip to his work as the Institute's managing editor. And he brings the proven capacity to oversee complex print and broadcast projects. He is refining the Institute's ability to use its Web site, news service, and reports to inform the public and influence useful changes in public policy. Jim also plays an important role in marketing the Institute.
"I've always felt that in building a staff it's a real advantage to have people onboard who bring other talents to the table," he says. "It gives the organization more depth, experience, knowledge, and, ultimately, wisdom. Editing the Institute's publications is a very exciting and satisfying prospect, and it's just one of many ways I hope to be able to help the Institute grow."
Jim joined the Institute in 2002 after it had already spent nearly a decade developing an effective communications program that is unique among state-based Smart Growth research and policy organizations in the United States. With his help the Institute has plans to add radio and television to its communications toolbox and become a multi-media organization.
Jim is a University of Michigan graduate, earning a B.A. in journalism and music literature. He's a native of Detroit and a longtime resident of that city who also has life-long ties to northern Michigan: His family has a summer cottage on Lake Huron near Rogers City. He now lives in Beulah and, true to the Institute's mission, walks a rails-to-trails path on his way to work.
Jane Kowieski, Design and Production Coordinator jane@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 17
Jane Kowieski, the Institute’s graphic designer, is responsible for making all Institute publications look superb. Mixing color, form, space, and typography, Jane's graphic design has produced a distinctive look that engages our members, and thousands of citizens. Jane is also responsible for coordinating and overseeing all aspects of print production from start to finish. She has degrees in design and visual communications from Michigan State University and Northwestern Michigan College. A veteran freelancer, Jane has done everything from teaching calligraphy to adults to managing production for one of Traverse City’s top graphic design studios. She considers herself extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to align her professional life at the Institute, with her personal convictions about Smart Growth, preserving natural resources, promoting local food, and green energy. Jane’s commitment to protecting open spaces and natural resources is deeply rooted in childhood camping trips in northern Michigan and summer visits to her grandparents’ farm in Illinois, where she worked in the vegetable garden and tended the animals alongside her family. Jane was born and raised in East Lansing, then moved to Northwestern Michigan over twenty years ago, after traveling all over the country and Europe. “When it was time to settle down and plant both feet firmly on the ground, this was where it was. Being a lover of nature, animals, and the seasons, it was a natural place for me to settle.” These days, Jane and her husband, Dan, live with two Labrador retrievers and two parakeets on 32 acres of land near Interlochen. They provide a wildlife refuge on their land, and grow much of their own food and flowers. They are avid foragers, naturalists, and organic gardeners. Jane is also an enthusiastic long distance runner who loves hitting the trails near her home and crossing the Mackinac Bridge for races on Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula.
Jim Lively, Program Director, Northwest Michigan jim@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext.13
Jim, a certified AICP planner, directs the Leelanau Smart Growth Coalition, a grassroots support project that focuses exclusively on assisting citizens and local governments in one of the Midwest's most beautiful counties.
Jim joined the Institute in 2001 and immediately put his widely recognized expertise in planning, and his patience in the public policy process to work. In 2002 he helped to resolve a seven-year dispute and produced a new management plan for ensuring the ecological integrity while providing greater access to Whitefish Point in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Jim worked with social service and transit officials in Livingston County to develop a strategic plan for expanding public transit. And he led the Institute’s campaign to protect publicly-owned and globally-rare sand dunes on South Fox Island which the state was determined to trade for private land owned by an important political donor.
Prior to joining the Institute Jim served for nine years as the regional planning programs manager at the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments. There he promoted the development of computerized mapping programs to enhance planning, prepared a regional Greenways plan highlighting trail and wildlife corridor connections, implemented training and education programs for citizen planners, and managed transportation, solid waste, and demographic programs.
From 1999 to 2001, Jim was a community planner at the Land Information Access Association, a nonprofit land use research group in Traverse City. Jim studied at Michigan State University, where he received B.S. degrees in fisheries and wildlife, and biological sciences as well as a secondary teaching certificate. He also has an M.S. in resource development from Michigan State.
Jim and his wife, Kelly, live on a farm in Leelanau County with their four children, Emily, Marley, Jane, and Anna.
Joe Mielke, Technology and Outreach Coordinator joem@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 23
Joe is always hard at work fixing computer problems, fielding questions, improving file-sharing and communication between our offices, and generally helping us get the most out of our computer technology. Joe officially joined MLUI’s staff in early 2006, after working for the Institute on a consulting basis for a year and a half.
Before joining the Institute, Joe was a computer consultant in northern Michigan. He’s spent the last installing newspaper and publishing computer systems, training people, and managing projects at an Ann Arbor software company that grew from five people to 130 people while he was there. Joe picked up most of his computer skills through extensive practical experience and continues to hone his skills and introduce new, time-saving programs to the Institute.
Joe also draws on his first-hand experience as a newspaper reporter and editor and his bachelor’s degree in communications and journalism from Michigan State University as he provides technical support and guidance for the Institute’s award-winning journalism. A tremendous asset for the Institute in many ways, he is excited to work for an organization that positively affects growth and development.
Joe lives in Kingsley with his wife, son, 13 ducks, 15 chickens, one rabbit, one turtle, one cat and one dog. The family enjoy snowshoeing, exploring the woods, short trips to the Upper Peninsula, and adventures in England, Costa Rica, California, and other worldwide destinations. They also share an unusual hobby, geo-caching, a sort of worldwide Easter Egg hunt in which people hide small objects, post theirs geographical coordinates on the web, and search for objects other people have hidden. Joe says that it’s a great way to discover new places that you would never visit otherwise.
Before becoming the Institute’s journalist and policy specialist in Emmet County in May 2007, Glenn spent 11 years at the Las Vegas Review Journal, where he distinguished himself as one of the West’s best investigative reporters. Glenn brings an exceptional mix of skills to his Institute post, as well as a winning personality to a rural county of 33,000 people that is growing by nearly 500 new residents a year. He works with citizens and elected leaders to develop effective responses to big-box store and strip mall proposals, support new development that enhances existing neighborhoods in Harbor Springs and Petoskey, and make sure that transportation projects promote downtown businesses and not sprawl. “I can’t tell you how ready I am for this,” he said. “I wanted a new challenge. I also was extremely impressed with the people at the Institute when I first came out in March. They are kind and energetic. I could tell immediately they were going to be the type of people I wanted to be around.” Glenn was raised in upstate New York, in Lansing, a small town near Ithaca, where he learned his way around a dairy farm, cold weather, and deep snow. He spent three years on the staff of the Florence, S.C. Morning News, and then joined the Review-Journal, where he held various posts and won numerous awards reporting on police, the courts, and crime. He served as a journalism instructor at the University of Nevada, and is the author of two well-received true-crime books: Witch (Berkley, 2005) and Fire in the Desert (Stephens Press, 2006). Glenn’s journey to Michigan began several years ago, when he had earned enough from his book advances and sales to consider building a home near the water. He searched around the Midwest. Guided by a realtor’s tip to look in the Upper Peninsula, he landed near Houghton and found the right spot on Lake Superior, where he built a vacation home. “That’s what got me interested in Michigan,” he said. “I was overwhelmed by the beauty. I think it’s the most beautiful place in America.” Glenn received a B.A. in journalism from Indiana State University. He was twice voted the Best Print Reporter in Las Vegas by the weekly Citylife newspaper. He and his wife, Tina Lee Allen, a former teacher from San Diego, have three young children; Garrison, Glenn Jr., and Gracie Lee.
Doug Rose, Senior Web Coordinator doug@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext.15
Doug is the wired wizard who manages the content, design, production, user-friendliness, and dynamism of the Web site. While keeping current with the online publishing of the Institute’s work, he’s always developing new ways to make the site more interactive. The result is one of the widely-read Web sites in the environmental and land use policy arena. The Institute's site has received numerous awards for excellence and is a two-time winner of Planetizen.com's annual "Top 50 Web Sites." Doug attended the Interlochen Arts Academy for two summers as an art and drama student. In 1995 he returned to school to train as a graphic designer at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, where he became enthralled by the potential for merging graphic design into all forms of communication on the Internet. After graduating from the visual communications program with honors, Doug launched a successful freelance Web design company. He also worked as a graphic designer for print publication, laying out the arts and entertainment sections for Northern Express, a weekly newspaper based in Traverse City. He joined the Institute's staff in 2000. Doug enjoys reading and staying current with trends in art, design, and new media. On working for the Institute, he says, "It’s rare you get to combine something you enjoy with something worth doing. I feel lucky to be here."
Traverse City Office:
148 E. Front St., Suite 301
Traverse City, MI
49684-5725
231-941-6584
Fax: 231-929-0937
Benzie Office: Michigan Land Use Institute
254 South Benzie Blvd.
Second Floor
Beulah, MI 49617
231-882-4122
Emmet Office: Glenn Puit Emmet Policy Michigan Land Use Institute
325 E. Lake Street, Ste. 22
Petoskey, MI 49770-2463
231-487-0930
Fax – 231-487-0932
Grand Rapids Office: Andy Guy Grand Rapids and Great Lakes Policy Michigan Land Use Institute
25 Ionia SW, Ste. 505
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616-308-6250
2008 Michigan Land Use Institute.
The images, marks, and text herein are the exclusive property of the Michigan Land Use Institute. All Rights Reserved.
148 E. Front St., Suite 301. Traverse City, MI 49684-5725 Phone: 231-941-6584 Fax: 231-929-0937 webinfo@mlui.org
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