My Bio

My introduction to community development came 15 years ago when, as a student in Oglethorpe University’s Urban Leadership Program, I interned as a community organizer with Charis Community Housing, a nonprofit community development corporation in South Atlanta. At that time, Charis was working intensively in South Atlanta to revitalize neighborhoods through infill development of new affordable housing and pairing this development with programs to keep existing homeowners in place. In my organizing work in South Atlanta, I mentored some of the neighborhood’s indigenous leaders, spurring the development of several neighborhood watch groups and a campaign to help homeowners take advantage of homestead exemptions to reduce their tax burdens.

Fascinated by my work with Charis, it occurred to me that the Charis model relied upon an external entity to build organization within a neighborhood. Were there not other models where an institution already existing within a neighborhood might organically go about the work of community development? This question eventually led me to Centenary Church, a dwindling (and now flourishing) congregation in downtown Macon, Ga. that had once been a pillar of the surrounding Beall’s Hill neighborhood. Centenary was seeking to build up its community with the belief that a growing and vital neighborhood would return the church to its former role as a growing and vital community institution. For three years, Centenary paid my salary as an investment in the community. I moved into Beall’s Hill, got to know my neighbors, and formed a neighborhood association that is still active today. I worked with developers on plans for neighborhood revitalization (using HOPE VI, CDBG, and HOME funds) and was appointed by Macon’s mayor to the College Hill Corridor Commission, a group designed to engage neighboring Mercer University with the community. During this same period of time, I also led the design and operation of a transitional housing program for homeless, addicted men and served as a founding board member of First Choice Primary Care, a federally-funded community health center.

Having learned a great deal about community development from the project-level perspective, I was offered an opportunity with WFN Consulting in 2008 to manage federal and state affordable housing (HOME) and human services (CSBG) grant programs for Cobb County, a suburban Atlanta client jurisdiction. I was Deputy Director of WFN’s office managing Cobb County’s total grant program portfolio (including CDBG, HOME, NSP, ESG, EFSP, and others) for a year before becoming WFN’s Vice President for Consulting & Research, where I established and led the firm's national consulting practice focused on federal grant-related plans and community analyses. 

In 2015, I co-founded Mosaic Community Planning with a partner I had worked with at WFN. We formed Mosaic to help communities plan differently. Our planning work, encompassing consolidated and comprehensive plans, housing and retail market analyses, community surveys, and needs assessments, focuses on the crucial intersection between the people in a community and the places those people inhabit. Our plans are written with implementation in mind and our public engagement strategies are industry-leading. I am particularly interested in neighborhood revitalization, affordable housing, and community planning engagements that include a social equity dimension.

I am an AICP Certified Planner, an accredited LEED Green Associate, a Certified HOME Program Specialist, Certified LIHTC Professional, and have been trained in the NCI Charrette System. I hold a Master of Public Administration degree from Georgia College & State University and a B.A. in Environmental Policy from Oglethorpe University.

My wife and I have two children and love living in intown Atlanta.

Professional Highlights