Valerie Jean Conner, PhD

Valerie Jean Conner, PhD, is Professor Emerita, Department of History, Florida State University, at which she taught senior and graduate classes in late nineteenth and early twentieth century United States history from 1974 – 2004 and served as the department’s associate chairman for graduate studies.

From 2001 to 2004 she also directed and taught classes in the department’s program in Public History and Historical Administration. At FSU, she received a number of departmental and university teaching awards. Professor Conner is on the board of directors of the Myers Park Neighborhood Association and spearheaded the neighborhood effort in the creation of Tallahassee’s first residential historic district, the Myers Park Historic District, in 2001.

She received a Tallahassee-Leon County Historic Preservation Award in 2002 for community leadership in preservation. She served as chairman of the TTHP board from 2002-2004. She received her PH. D. from the University of Virginia in 1974.

Laura Lee Corbett

Chair
Laura Lee Corbett offers a variety of historic preservation services with an emphasis on community revitalization, not-for-profit development and cultural resource management. She provides technical assistance to Main Street programs, Community Redevelopment Agencies, not-for-profit organizations and government agencies on the local, state and federal levels.

She is an approved consultant by both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Florida Department of State. Ms. Corbett also provides technical assistance to FEMA’s disaster programs. As an architectural historian, she assists the private sector with cultural resource compliance.

A fifth generation Floridian, Corbett is a native of Jacksonville and served as a mayoral appointee to the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. She was the Downtown Development Director for the City of Lancaster, SC where she ran an award winning Main Street program.

Ms. Corbett went on to become the Coordinator of the Florida Main Street program at the Florida Department of State. She has an MFA in Architectural History and a BFA in Historic Preservation and Interior Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Scott Edwards

Ex Officio
Scott Edwards works for the Florida Division of Historical Resources as a Historic Preservationist. He is responsible for reviewing projects for possible impact to historic properties listed, or eligible for listing, in the National Register of Historic Places. He meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification standards for Architectural History.

He has been with the Division since 1993 and has more than thirteen years experience in compliance and review issues relating to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Florida preservation law Chapter 267, Florida Statutes, and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Historic Buildings.

Scott was born and raised in Tallahassee and his family roots can be traced back to Territorial Florida. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architectural Studies from Florida A&M University. Scott was appointed as an Ex Officio board member in 2003.

Judy Nicholas Etemadi, PhD

Judy Nicholas Etemadi, PhD recently retired from the Florida Department of Education, where she worked in the areas of educator preparation and professional development, grants management for exceptional student education, and research for policy development.

She has a B.A. degree in History from Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas; a M.A. in History as well as an M.S. in Instructional Systems, Ed.S. and Ph.D. in Adult Education, emphasis Human Resource Development, all from Florida State University.

Judy is a native of Texas where she developed an interest in historic preservation growing up in small East Texas towns that had numerous historical structures due to their association with the Texas Republic. She has several publications in history and education.

Prior to relocating back to Tallahassee in 1979, she taught English as a Foreign Language at Iran Girl’s College. She has served on the Board since 2003.

John Jameson

John H. Jameson is senior archeologist and Program Lead, Technical Assistance and Partnerships, for the Southeast Archeological Center, U.S. National Park Service. At NPS, John has led important initiatives in public interpretation, education, and outreach. Beginning in the 1990s he managed the Center’s Public Interpretation Initiative, a long-term outreach program, international in scope, that involved numerous government-sponsored symposia, training workshops, seminars, exhibits planning and development, website development, and publications on the topic of public education and interpretation of cultural heritage. As Curriculum Coordinator and Interpretive Development Program (IDP) Certifier, he evaluates professional interpretation and education programs in the National Park Service. In the late 1990s, he organized and coordinated an interdisciplinary Task Group in developing the Archeology Interpretation Training Module (NPS IDP Module 440). In November 2005, he received the coveted Sequoia Award for significant, long-term contributions to interpretation, education, and partnerships in the National Park Service. In recent years, he has served as founding member and Vice President, Methods and Policy, for the International Committee on Interpretation and Presentation (ICIP) of ICOMOS.

John is a prolific writer, having edited and contributed to a number of seminal works on cultural heritage management and interpretation, including Presenting Archaeology to the Public: Digging for Truths (1997), Ancient Muses: Archaeology and the Arts (2003), The Reconstructed Past (2004), Past Meets Present: Archaeologists Partnering with Museum Curators, Teachers and Community Groups (2007), and The Heritage Reader (2008).

John enjoys travelling and bicycling. He is president of Jameson Family Cemetery, Inc., a preservation association he helped found in his native South Carolina. The association has accomplished significant landscaping improvements and a ground penetrating radar (GPR) study under his leadership. John created an association Web site that has enabled hundreds of Jameson descendents throughout the U.S. to share genealogies, photos, and family histories through the Internet.

Jennifer Koslow, PhD

Jennifer Koslow, PhD is Assistant Professor of History, Florida State
University and the Director of FSU’s Historical Administration and
Public History program. She teaches classes on public history, the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century United States, and courses on the history of medicine and public health.

Before teaching at FSU, Koslow worked at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois as a public historian. At the Newberry, she developed exhibits, programs for secondary school teachers, and organized works-in-progress seminars for scholars.

Her manuscript Cultivating Health: Los Angeles Women and Public Health Reform with Rutgers University Press was published in July 2009. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001.

Don Lanham, AICP

Don Lanham, AICP is currently the Grants Program Coordinator for Leon County Florida. Mr. Lanham oversees funding research, proposal development, grants administration and conducts programmatic and fiscal monitoring for all ongoing grant funded programs under the management of the Leon County Board of County Commissioners.

His career prior to his County employment included the positions of Manager of the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board, Director of Community Development for Quincy, Florida and Planning Director for Gadsden County, Florida. Mr. Lanham has incorporated the use of grants throughout his professional career, successfully addressing both social needs and the physical environment.

These projects range from the restoration of the historic Gibson Hotel in Apalachicola to the $8.2 million restoration of Lake Jackson in Leon County, Florida.

He has received two degrees from Florida State University, a Bachelor of Science in 1982 with a specialty in historic archeology and his Masters of Science in Planning in 1984. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Randy Lewis, AIA

Randy Lewis, AIA graduated from Florida A & M University with a Masters’ degree in Architecture, following a BS degree from Tulane and ten years experience as a building contractor. He is a registered architect in the states of Florida and Georgia.

Mr. Lewis is the owner and principal architect of MLD Architects, Inc. Mr. Lewis has more than 25 years experience as an architect on numerous historical, rehabilitation, restoration, renovation, roofing and envelope repair projects.

Several historic restoration/rehabilitation projects have received local and state recognition and awards. He is the past chairman of the board of the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation, and is the past chairman and currently serving on the board of the Tallahassee/Leon County Architectural Review Board. He has been a guest lecturer at the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s state convention.

Andy McLeod

Secretary
Andy McLeod is government affairs director for the Florida chapter of The Nature Conservancy www.nature.org/Florida. Previously he served the Trust for Public Land as deputy Florida state director and national conservation finance director.

Andy has also served as director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, deputy secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, and press secretary to former US Senators John Chafee of Rhode Island and Lowell Weicker of Connecticut and former Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa.

Andy has a BA from George Washington University, MA from Georgetown University, and MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Andy and his family live in a 1927 Craftsman style house in Tallahassee’s historic Lafayette Park neighborhood.

Arleen Pabón-Charneco, PhD

Arleen Pabón-Charneco, PhD is a professor at the School of Architecture, Florida A&M University and a preservation consultant and lecturer in the areas of research, compatible rehabilitation and cultural interpretation.

Prof Pabón-Charneco has carried out consulting work for the US Navy, the National Park Service, the Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office, the Republic of Panamá, and several municipalities in the Island.

She was recently appointed Advisor Emeritus of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has published extensively, and has taught courses in the area of historic preservation at both the University of Puerto Rico and Florida A&M University. Tallahassian by choice, Dr. Pabón-Charneco was born in Puerto Rico where she served two tenures as State Historic Preservation Officer.

She holds a PhD in Architectural History from Northwestern University and a JD, a MArch and a BED from the University of Puerto Rico. Dr Pabón-Charneco is a licensed attorney in Puerto Rico and has conducted studies in historic preservation in London and Barcelona.

Ben Phipps

Treasurer
Ben Phipps became involved with historic preservation in Tallahassee when he first served as tax counsel to the newly organized Florida Heritage Foundation. Later, as its president, he led the efforts to have the legislature create the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board as a state agency. He served on that board for 20 years, ten as chairman.

Under his leadership, the state acquired and restored to Brokaw McDougall House and the Knott House Museum. During his tenure, the Board was a main player in saving and restoring the Historic Capitol and in writing the historic preservation element into the Tallahassee-Leon County Growth Management Plan.

When the Board was dissolved and its functions transferred to the Tallahassee Trust, he was elected to that board, where he still serves. He has been recognized for “outstanding individual achievement furthering historic preservation” and awarded the Tallahassee/Leon County Historic Preservation Award.

Doris E. Pollock

Doris E. Pollock was born and reared in Portland, Oregon where she received her B.A. in Elem Ed in 1963. As a commissioned 2nd Lt. from Officer Training School at Lackland, AFB, Texas, her first assignment was as an Education and Training Officer to the Mediterrean Communication Command in Libya, Africa and Ankara, Turkey. In 1967, she was assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) Headquarters at Wurtsmith AFB in Oscoda, Michigan.

She received a M.A. in Guidance and Counseling from Central Michigan U. in 1969. While serving in the Bomb Wing as a Capt., she married Maj Arnold H. Pollock, Staff Judge Advocate. She taught and counseled in Sumter, S.C., Okinawa, Japan; Melbourne, Fl and Tallahassee.

In Tallahassee, she has served and serves on various boards and organizations such as the Girl Scouts Council of the Apalachee, Florida Heritage Foundation, Inc., Tallahassee Garden Club, Tallahassee Music Guild, Tallahassee Symphony Society, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra Board, and Tal-MOAA Scholarship Com. Doris wrote the Grant for the FHF’s Miccosukee Historic Tour. As President of the FHF, Doris lobbied for the preservation of Laura Jepsen’s Estate on High Road.

In 2001, the Tallahassee Symphony nominated Doris for the Tallahassee Democrat’s Volunteer of the Year Award in the Arts.

Eduardo Robles

Vice Chair
Eduardo Robles was born in Chile and he spent his youth in both Chile and Argentina. He entered UADE University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While studying at the university, he attended the Buenos Aires Art Institute and also spent a term at Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts at Oxford University in the UK.

He graduated with a Licenciatura de Ciencias Sociales. Mr. Robles was accepted by the University of California, San Diego to study in the Visual Arts Department and graduated with a MFA. He obtained a Master in Architecture from Rice University. Mr. Robles worked as an architect in Houston and New York. He worked as a visiting professor at Rice University.

He then moved to Tallahassee where he has been teaching at the School of Architecture of the Florida A&M University. Architect Robles was a member, contact person and also president of Jefferson County Historical Association in Monticello, Florida. He has also served as Chair for the Historic Design Review Board of Monticello.

His collaboration with the Florida Department of State has included being a panelist for the International Cultural Exchange Program, the Sister City Programs, and the International Educational Linkage Institute.

Phil Summers

Phil Summers bought a 70-year-old home in Lafayette Park in 1989, because he loves the atmosphere and accessibility of this Midtown neighborhood. He soon learned first-hand the joys (and challenges) of renovation. He now has redone several Midtown homes. Presently, he has completed Midtown Design Center Building and lives on the top floor in the Penthouse, a new concept in urban living right here in Tallahassee.

Using his knowledge and expertise of 20 years in real estate, he also helps many others discover these same joys. In fact, Phil’s office was built in 1940 and is located in “Old Town-Tallahassee” on the corner of Magnolia and East Tennessee. Not only does he live in the area, but for over 12 years he has had his business located there.

Phil’s commitment to working hard at being successful, his need to keep moving, his love of a challenge, his unique ability to make things happen, and his laid back, friendly nature-all make him a natural Realtor. Add to that his expertise in managing endless details, his mediating and negotiating skills and the fact that he is always accessible and you have an invaluable resource in the Midtown area.

Francis Ventre, PhD

Francis Ventre, PhD is a Professor Emeritus from Virginia Tech in the field of Architecture and Urban Planning, specializing in the built environment. He served for ten years as chief of the Environmental Design Research Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology where he led 45 men and women—many with their doctorates—doing research in such fields as architecture, sensory environment and acoustics.

Dr. Ventre was instrumental in founding Environment and Behavior, wrote 50 books, chapters in books, peer-reviewed articles and other articles, book reviews, etc. Dr. Ventre graduated from Penn State, California at Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught at UCLA, Maryland and Virginia Tech.

Michael Wing

Executive Director

Michael Wing has been the Trust’s Executive Director and the Tallahassee-Leon County Historic Preservation Officer since October of 2004. A native of Michigan, he attended Michigan State University earning a BA in Multidisciplinary Social Science (sociology, psychology, and art/architectural history).

After working for a number of years in the field of social work he returned to school to pursue his interest in architectural history and obtained a Master of Heritage Preservation degree from Georgia State University. While attending GSU he served as editor of The Alliance Review, the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions’ newsletter, and interned with the Environmental Division of Georgia Power.

After graduation he did consulting work for the City of Atlanta Urban Design Commission and survey work for the Georgia Department of Transportation. He then accepted the position of Historic Preservation Director with the City of Paterson, NJ, where he remained for ten years before accepting his current position.

Mike’s interest in historic buildings extends beyond his employment. In Michigan he rehabbed a 1920s craftsman bungalow and in New Jersey a 1915 craftsman style home (for which he received a Preservation Award from the City). He is now working on a 1950s ranch style home here in Tallahassee.

Tiffany Baker

Program Coordinator

Tiffany received her Bachelor’s in History from American University in 2004, where she completed an undergraduate thesis on the influence of the world wars on the production of British children’s fantasy novels. In addition to history, she completed coursework on cultural studies and household archaeology.

Ms. Baker received her Master’s in Historical Administration and Public History at Florida State University in 2008 with a thesis titled “Discover Our Sunshine State. Rediscover Yours.”: The Public’s Participation in Florida Mythmaking in the 20th Century.

Ms. Baker has presented portions of this thesis at both state and international conferences, and her chapter on the 1985 license plate contest is currently being considered for publication as part of an edited collection. Her other research interests include historic preservation, environmental history, the creation of the built environment, and the ideology of statehood.

Ms. Baker joined the staff in October 2005 as a writer/researcher for the Myers Park Local Residential Historic District Guidelines and acted as Office Manager/Education Coordinator from 2006-2008.

Prior to moving to Florida, Ms. Baker resided in Washington, DC, where she worked as an archival assistant for the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and northeast Ohio, where she was employed by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society as an interpreter and the Children’s Museum of the Valley as a birthday party coordinator.

Nicole Hoekstra

Office Manager/Research Assistant

Nicole Hoekstra received her Bachelor’s Degree in History from Florida Atlantic University in 2007. From 2006-2007 Nicole worked as an intern, and then as a docent and Town Hall greeter at the Boca Raton Historical Society. Her activities at the BRHS included directing and assisting with tours for school groups and the general public at the Boca Express Train Museum; a museum consisting of two restored 1940 SAL train cars and a restored 1930 train depot.

Nicole is a graduate student at Florida State University in the Historical Administration and Public History program where she is currently working on her thesis about the public display of Holocaust memory in Florida. In March of 2009, Nicole began working at the Trust as an intern and is currently employed as the interim Office Manager and Research Assistant.