Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia

Advisory Panel

The Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia established an independent Advisory Panel to provide general recommendations on Program maintenance and improvement.

The Panel, whose members represent a cross-section of Program stakeholders, also reviews Red and Blue Level applications, recommends new Partners to the Program, reviews annual performance reports and compliance screens and recommends Partners for annual awards.

The panel's members come from the following sectors: business/industry, commercial/institutional, academia, regulatory and environmental organizations. The current members of the panel are:

Brent Darnell, Brent Darnell & Associates (Business and industry)

Brent Darnell has worked in the fields of construction, environmental, quality, teaching and entertainment. Positions he has held include project manager, quality manager and environmental manager. He is also a professional actor and playwright. Mr. Darnell graduated from Georgia Tech with a mechanical engineering degree, is a LEED accredited professional and a founding member of the Atlanta chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Mr. Darnell was environmental manager for Skanska USA in Atlanta from 1998-2000. In this position, he helped Skanska create a simple, easy-to-follow environmental management system and led them to attain ISO 14001 certification. Skanska was the first contractor in the U.S. to achieve this certification.

He has worked all over the world with people from many different cultures teaching a variety of subjects including branding, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and environmental business opportunities. Mr. Darnell's area of expertise is teaching “people skills” to technical people using emotional intelligence as a foundation. His book on the subject is, The People-Profit Connection, Using Emotional Intelligence to Enhance People Skills and Increase Your Bottom Line.

Dr. Michael Elliott, Georgia Tech (Academia)

Dr. Michael Elliott is an associate professor, jointly appointed to the City and Regional Planning Program and the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech.  He also serves as a director of the Southeast Negotiation Network (which he co-founded in 1987) and the inter-university Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (which he co-founded in 1986).

Dr. Elliott has worked in negotiation, environmental dispute management, environmental risk management, and environmental planning and policy for 25 years. His particular expertise lies in the design and evaluation of environmental dispute resolution and public participation processes, and in the mediation of public policy disputes. He has worked with numerous cities, state and federal agencies, and international groups in mediation and conflict resolution. He also is the author of more than 50 publications on dispute resolution, public participation and environmental management.

He earned a Ph.D. in urban and regional studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a master of city planning degree in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley and bachelor of science degrees in urban studies and architecture from MIT.

Julie Mayfield, Georgia Conservancy (Environmental organization)

Julie Mayfield is vice president and general counsel for the Georgia Conservancy, where she works on policy issues in the areas of air and water quality, natural areas and coastal conservation. Prior to joining the Conservancy, she was the director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law. Ms. Mayfield also practiced environmental law with the firm of Kilpatrick Stockton, and clerked for Judge Robert J. Castellani in DeKalb County Superior Court.

Gary Rush, U.S. Army Southern Regional Environmental Office (Commercial and institutional)

Gary Rush is regional environmental coordinator for the U.S. Army Environmental Center at the Southern Regional Environmental Office (SREO) in Atlanta. He represents SREO as the co-chair for the Georgia DNR-DoD Sustainable Installations Partnership where he serves as a liaison between military installations and the state. His duties focus on regulatory and compliance assistance, including RCRA, CAA, SDWA, CWA and EPCRA. He is the regional environmental coordinator for South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.

Mr. Rush has more than 25 years experience in the environmental health and safety (EH&S), environmental and geotechnical fields. He has worked in private industry as an EH&S engineer for Metcalf & Eddy, Lockheed, United Technologies-Sikorsky Aircraft, BP Chemicals, and Lucent Technologies managing complex environmental issues with multi-facility, multi-state operations.

He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in geology from the University of Southern Mississippi (1985) and a master’s of science degree in environmental science from the University of New Haven (1994). He is a registered professional geologist in Georgia and South Carolina.

Mark Smith, Environmental Protection Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources (Regulatory)

Mark Smith is chief of the Hazardous Waste Management Branch in the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD). Responsibilities of this branch include regulating Georgia facilities that generate, treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste; administering the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund and cleaning up abandoned sites; and implementing Georgia’s Brownfields Program and promoting environmental protection via economic development.

Mr. Smith was chief of the Land Protection Branch from 1997 to 2004. His responsibilities there included solid waste, scrap tires, surface mines, underground storage tanks and lead-based paint and asbestos abatement.

During his 22 years with EPD, he has worked as a permit writer for RCRA hazardous waste facilities and as a manager in solid waste permitting, underground storage tank remediation and the HSRA or state Superfund program.