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 231-941-6584 ext. 19
Before joining the Institute in June 2008, Brian spent 10 years cajoling the state Legislature to protect the Great Lakes, steer Michigan toward 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, he brings us deep experience in both state policy and grassroots organizing, and he’s both on northwest Lower Michigan. 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 to progress through the minefield of any decision-making body at the local or state level,” he says. Brian moved to downtown Traverse City from downtown Ann Arbor, and says he sees many comparisons between the two: They are both hip, vibrant places with walkable neighborhoods and abundant recreational options nearby. The native Michigander has quite a passion for the Mitten State, and he takes it out on 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 promotes farms and other food-related businesses in northwest Michigan and spreads the word about the importance of buying and eating local. She manages the annual publication of Taste the Local Difference: Northwest Michigan’s Local Food Guide, and oversees our companion Web site, www.localdifference.org. Janice also builds community partnerships, enjoys terrific relationships with dozens of farms across the region, and manages our farm marketing, sponsorship and special events, including our signature TLD Summer Celebration. She grew up in Auburn Hills, attended Eastern Michigan University, and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration. Janice was a human resources manger in the healthcare industry before pursuing some of her other passions. She served as house manager for the world-renowned American Dance Festival at Duke University, and then moved to southeastern Kentucky to provide outreach to homebound seniors, teach adult education, help open a child development center, and promote healthy eating in local schools, all through the Christian Appalachian Project. Her favorite activity there was providing seeds to low-income families for their own gardens each spring. Janice’s Kentucky work solidified her commitment to supporting local businesses, community gardens, and the environment. She moved back to Michigan in 2000 to coordinate Catholic Human Services’ Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent Program in northwest Michigan. Janice joined the Institute in 2005 because she wanted to promote and preserve local farms, which she says are essential to Michigan's economic future. She and her husband, Kevin, live in downtown Traverse City and enjoy hiking, biking, swimming, and working in their own vegetable garden.
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 Conners, Senior Policy Specialist, Healthy Food for All diane@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 16
Diane helps schools, hospitals, and community agencies connect people to healthy, locally grown food from area farms, regardless of their income. Her Healthy Food for All project maintains an online directory of farms offering educational opportunities to school children, food for their cafeterias, and products for their fundraisers. She works with Head Start, the Northern Michigan Diabetes Initiative, Munson Healthcare, MSU Extension, health departments, other agencies, and anti-poverty groups to connect good food, good health, and the local economy. Diane also serves on the Great Lakes Steering Committee of the National Farm to School Network, and is a veteran journalist who writes about successful local-food models and policies for local, state, and national audiences. Diane has a superb record of reporting and writing, extensive knowledge of local growers and markets, and deep commitment to building a vibrant, local food economy. Here journalism career began with the Manistee News Advocate, continued with Minneapolis’ African-American Twin Cities Courier and the alternative, pro-environmental Northern Sun News. In 1986 she joined the Traverse City Record-Eagle, and produced thoughtful, well-reported, and consistently fair work on agriculture, poverty, water, economics, health, and the environment. She won a bushel of state Associated Press and Michigan Press Association awards, and shared the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for a series she worked on about northern Michigan poverty. She left the paper in 1998, refocused her writing on agriculture, and advocated for fresh, local fruits, vegetables, breads, meats, and other area farm products. In 2000 she joined the board of the Oryana Food Cooperative in Traverse City, and moved it toward more local food. Two years later she helped start and then became the market master for the Leland Farmers Market, building it into a showcase of local agriculture. She then researched and compiled the listing of 140 local food producers and their offerings for the Institute's inaugural edition of what is now our popular Taste the Local Difference food and farm guide. Raised near Springboro, Ohio, Diane received a B.S. in journalism from Michigan State University. She and her husband, Dean, live outside of Cedar, where they tend a large vegetable garden and, every March, invite family and friends to join them around the fire and a long, metal tray bubbling with sap from their many maple trees.
During a tour of America almost two centuries ago, Alexis de Tocqueville noted the crucial role of local leaders and small associations in making the country work. That clearly is the case with Judy and the exceptional public interest work she did in Benzie and Manistee Counties before joining the Institute. We’ve known Judy ever since the early 1990s, when the Institute’s predecessor organization, the Manistee County Land Use Coalition (MCLUC), was just getting started. Judy was one of our most active supporters. At the time she was the program coordinator for the Manistee Area Public Schools and organized a collaboration among Manistee industries, educators, students, and local governments to recycle paper in four county school districts. The trash-to-cash project collected 1,200 tons of paper and returned around $30,000 annually to youth activities in Brethren, Bear Lake, Onekama, and the public and Catholic high schools in Manistee. In the late 1990s, Judy helped organize a similar school-based paper-recycling program in Benzie County. She convened 200 students for EarthSave, the first 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. Along with her role as office administrator, she represented the Michigan Land Use Institute on the planning board for the Michigan Energy Fair, held in Onekama at the Manistee County Fairgrounds every June from 2006 to 2009. A graduate of Michigan State University, Judy lives in Bear Lake in an energy-efficient, resource-conserving straw-bale house she built mortgage-free over 10 years, completing it in 2008. Although she currently carpools to work, she looks forward to the day she can ride public transit from Bear Lake to Traverse City!
Gail Dennis, Development Director gail@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext.12
Gail strengthens our long-range financing and programming by managing all of the Institute’s member-based fundraising efforts, from our annual giving campaign to donor relationships. She must be doing something right: Her efforts have helped maintain stability and growth in our fundraising efforts during two of the most economically challenging years in recent history. She works with the staff and board to design, build, and expand our wonderful development and fundraising soirees, member communications, and new programming new member campaigns. Remarkably, Gail joined the Institute staff in 2000 as our design director, producing many volumes of beautifully designed reports and publications. Prior to joining the Institute, she was the art director for a publishing company, the coordinator for an award-winning illustration and Web design studio, and a freelance graphic designer. Gail lives on the Old Mission Peninsula, north of Traverse City, with her husband, author Jerry Dennis. They have two grown sons, Aaron and Nick. In her spare time Gail enjoys traveling 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.
Shauna Fite, Outreach and Program Coordinator shauna@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 25
Shauna leads the Institute’s Benzie County projects and adds greatly to our member outreach and development horsepower. In Benzie, she meets with local governments, community organizations, and business community to promote quality planning that both grows and protects the area’s rural beauty, and also participates Grand Vision housing and transportation work groups. When she’s in Traverse City, she works on building our membership, improving communications with supporters, and planning and promoting our events. In her 15 years in Benzie County, Shauna grew strong local roots while serving her community as a public advocate and a community organizer. She started with a stint at Benzie County’s MSU Extension, working with at-risk youth in after-school and summer recreation programs as an Americorp VISTA* volunteer. Then she joined Big Brother and Big Sisters of Northwest Michigan as a case manager before shifting gears into affordable housing, an issue dear to the Institute, as outreach coordinator at the Benzie Housing Council. So Shauna brings a great deal of community building, fundraising, and networking experience to the Institute. “We live in one of the most beautiful areas in the Unites States, but people struggle to make a living here,” she said. “The Institute confronts this head-on. It advocates for policies and planning that can bring new jobs and new people to the area, build our local economy, and at the same time protect our rural beauty and environment. I’m thrilled to be part of it!”
Amy Kinney, Director of Program Development amy@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 29
Amy oversees the Institute’s financial well-being, and her wisdom and diligence on financial matters has a profoundly positive impact on the Institute’s strength as an organization. Amy, with guidance from the Institute’s management team and Board of Directors, is responsible for monetary oversight. She maintains Institute accounts and preserves the Institute’s monetary commitments. Amy also helps manage human resources and staff benefits. But Amy also spends a lot of time coordinating one of the Institute’s most important endeavors—finding, applying for, and managing foundation grants, and coordinating her work with MLUI’s strategies for new growth. She works with the Institute’s visionary policy teams so that their objectives, strategies, and program successes are thoroughly and accurately communicated to funders. Amy, who is by training a lawyer, worked for the Institute more than a decade ago. She then turned to raising her three children before returning to the Institute in 2008. “What I really like is I’m able to put my skills in finance and the law towards a mission that I wholeheartedly get excited about every day,” Amy said. “The work here is so very important to me.” Amy’s husband, Larry Kinney, is the proprietor of Harmony Home Construction, one of the first green builders in the Grand Traverse region. The couple and their children—Erich, Emily, and Cora—live in Long Lake Township.
Jane Kowieski, Graphic Design and Art Director 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 jim@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext.13
Jim has more than 20 years experience working as a planner, organizer and activist in northwest Lower Michigan. He was a key player in initiating and implementing much of the Grand Vision public planning process from its earliest phases. Jim helped secure federal, state and local funding for the Vision; pushed successfully to select a world-class management team and expand its geographic scope to include six counties; and was deeply involved in the public involvement campaign that drew close to 15,000 participants to the project. He’s still very involved in Grand Vision activities, providing technical assistance, communications, and strategic thinking about community development and transportation. A certified planner, Mr. Lively joined the Institute in 2001 and immediately put his widely recognized expertise in planning and his patience with and understanding of the public policy process to work. He led MLUI’s development and promotion of Great Lakes shoreline protection tools for local governments, advocated for alternative transportation solutions—especially public transit—and promoted walkable communities. Before joining the Institute, he spent two years at the Land Information Access Association, in Traverse City, and 10 years as a regional planner at the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments. He has a B.S. in both fisheries and wildlife and biological science from Michigan State University, and an M.S. in Resource Development, also from MSU. Jim and his wife, Kelly, have four daughters—two still at home—and live on a small flower farm in Leelanau County. Jim commutes to work by bus or carpool every day.
Joe Mielke, Technology Coordinator and Communication Specialist 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.
Glenn plays a critical role in the Institute’s Energy and Environment team. His journalism challenges Michigan’s rush to build new coal plants and reports on the push for policies and economics that can accelerate the state’s emerging clean-energy manufacturing economy. In particular, Glenn’s reporting on a proposed Rogers City coal plant helped change the public dialogue on the issue as the nation and Michigan move in the opposite direction. His reporting on coal and clean energy is the state’s most extensive and in-depth. “Working at the Michigan Land Use Institute is something I take great pride in,” Glenn said. “I believe in the power of journalism and communications. If done right, it can literally change society for the better.” Before joining the Institute’s in May 2007, Glenn spent 11 years at the Las Vegas Review Journal distinguishing himself as one of the West’s best investigative reporters and as a nationally published author of “true crime” novels with Berkley Books. As a reporter at the Review-Journal, Glenn was twice named Best Print Reporter in Las Vegas. He was the first reporter to identify John Doe #2 in the Oklahoma City bombing, while working as a reporter in South Carolina. Glenn was raised in the small, upstate New York town of Lansing. He spent three years at the Florence, S.C. Morning News before joining the Review-Journal, where he reported on police, the courts, and crime. He’s taught journalism at the University of Nevada Las Vegas; his four well-received true-crime books are Witch (Berkley, 2005) Fire in the Desert (Stephens Press, 2006), Father of the Year, (2009) and In Her Prime (2009). He lives in Kingsley and has strong ties to the Upper Peninsula. His three children are Garrison, Glenn Jr., and Gracie Lee.
Doug Rose, Senior Web Coordinator doug@mlui.org 231-941-6584
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."
Jim Sluyter, Policy Specialist, Get Farming! jimsluyter@mlui.org 231-941-6584 ext. 15
Jim coordinates the Institute’s Get Farming! program because he knows exactly what it takes to become a grower, and to succeed at it: He and his wife, Jo, ran their own CSA (community supported agriculture) operation, Five Spring Farms, for 16 years. But now Jim and Jo have hung up their hoes and Jim’s now passing along his rich knowledge of small-scale farming to a new generation—something that is absolutely crucial to growing the local good food movement. Get Farming! focuses on helping new and aspiring farmers get started in the business, but veteran growers seeking new approaches to their business, especially marketing or production, show up for Jim’s workshops, too. His background makes sure that growers, no matter their experience, get what they need—whether it’s tips on farmland inheritance, building season-extending hoophouses, or purchasing the right kind of crop insurance. Jim is an experienced communicator—which is perfect for his work at the Institute. He published The Community Farm, a quarterly newsletter for CSA farmers and the local food movement, for 12 years and organized conferences and workshops on farming and renewable energy. Before he started farming, Jim had a brief career in social work (with a degree from Western Michigan University) and a somewhat longer stint in public park management, after earning a masters degree in the subject from Michigan State University. True to MLUI’s values, Jim and Jo kept their carbon footprint low while they farmed near Bear Lake: They were early pioneers in off-the-grid living, complete with their own wind turbine and solar panels. Now that they’ve moved to Traverse City, Jim’s still keeps the faith: He gets to the office by bike or BATA.
2008 Michigan Land Use Institute.
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