Community Advisory Board

This group, which is made up of community stakeholders and appointed by Mayor Kelly, serves to advise and guide Southface, Greenlink, and ACCGov through the planning process. Before any decision is made, the CAB will weigh in their opinions and any potential oversight.

• 100% Athens
  • "Grassroots campaign for a just and equitable transition 100% Clean and Renewable Energy in Athens by 2035. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!"

• NEGA Business Alliance
  • "To expand access to capital and procurement opportunities for African-American organizations in Northeast Georgia."

• Athens Land Trust
  • "Athens Land Trust conserves, empowers and sustains communities through responsible and visionary land use."

• Athens Housing Authority
  • "Our Mission is to provide secure, affordable, quality housing and resources which encourage and sustain independence for wage earners, elderly, and families."

• East Athens Development Corporation
  • To help individuals achieve safe and comfortable housing, obtain food security, access to high quality public education, opportunity to gain meaningful employment, equal access support for entrepreneurs, equal access to primary healthcare, and to be happy and engaged with their community.
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• Action Inc.
  • "We are breaking the cycle of poverty by helping individuals who want to help themselves through our newest and innovative higher education-based training programs"
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• Athens Tech
  • "Athens Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, provides educational programs and services through traditional and distance education methods to foster lifelong learning, facilitate workplace success, and promote economic development."

• Athens Area Homebuilders Association
  • "Together we’re building more than homes...we’re building Communities!"

• W&A Engineering
  • "W&A’s talented civil engineers, traffic engineers, surveyors, landscape architects, economic development consultants, planners, and support staff consistently provide superior customer service through open communication, accessibility, respectfulness, and honesty. Our expert knowledge and understanding of the planning and development process allows us to provide sound advice to each and every client while creating future standards of excellence in engineering and design."

• Athens USGBC
  • "We’re committed to transforming how our buildings are designed, constructed and operated through LEED, because we believe that every person deserves a better, more sustainable life."

Athens-Clarke County

Office of Sustainability

• Andrew Saunders
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  • Andrew Saunders is the recently appointed Director of the Central Services Department of the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government. This department supports sustainable government operations through the provision of environmentally-focused facility, fleet, and landscape services. Prior to this appointment, he served as the first Sustainability Officer for the organization in a role that coordinated local resource stewardship through extensive greenspace, energy, and water conservation programs. He has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Forestry from the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. His professional work experience includes working as a municipal forester, environmental program manager, natural resources consultant, public policy consultant, sustainability professional, and department director.

• Mike Wharton
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  • Mike Wharton is the ACCGov Ecological Resources Administrator and is currently serving as the Interim Sustainability Officer. Along with Andrew Saunders, he helped establish the ACCGovs’s first Sustainability Office.  Not a stranger to new beginnings, he was one of three people who established the Clarke County Parks Department in 1981 (now Leisure Services) where served as an environmental educator/naturalist, nature center director, Natural Resources Division Administrator, and Operations Administrator.  He has promoted conservation and sustainability throughout his career and led the Leisure Services team during the development of ACCGov’s first “green building”, a project that galvanized ACCGov’s commitment to sustainable energy and construction.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and a Masters in Science Education, both from UGA. Professional work experience includes serving as a technical advisor for community conservation, resource interpretation, school district curricula, and the development of policy.   His consulting experience includes science and natural resource writer, natural resource management, park planning, and natural resource/recreation master planning.
    
• Maggie Songster 
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  • Maggie Songster works with the Athens Office of Sustainability as a Sustainability Consultant. Maggie graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor's of Science in Ecology from the University of Georgia, and shortly after joined the Sustainability Office in January of 2019. She helped collect information and resources that served as the foundation for the 100% Clean and Renewable Resolution, and has since been assisting with the Planning process while also conducting sustainable analysis' for the office. 

ACC Office of Inclusion 

ACC Office of Housing and Community Development

• Hayley Banerjee
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  • Hayley Banerjee serves as the director of the Athens-Clarke County Housing and Community Development Department (HCD). Banerjee has worked in HCD since 2016 and has held positions as interim director, community development coordinator, and community development specialist where she worked closely with community organizations receiving Continuum of Care and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, among other responsibilities.

    She has also held positions with the University of Georgia School of Social Work as a part-time instructor in the Master of Social Work program, with the Athens Area Homeless Shelter as an Emergency Shelter Program Coordinator, with the University of Georgia J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development as a Fellow coordinating a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site, and with Advantage Behavioral Health Systems as a Homeless Day Service Center Case Manager and with the Assertive Community Treatment Team providing intensive mental health case management services to individuals.

    Banerjee holds a Bachelor of Social Work Master of Social Work from UGA, with a concentration in community empowerment and program development. She has served as a member of the Athens-Clarke County Homeless Coalition, the Athens Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH) Committee, the Georgia Homeless Management Information System Collaborative Steering Committee, the University of Georgia Institute for Nonprofit Organizations Advisory Council, and the Mayor's Task Force on Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity. She also plays the violin in the Athens Symphony Orchestra.

    
    

ACC Office of Economic Development

• Ilka McConnell
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  • Ilka McConnell enjoys helping communities thrive and grow through strategic collaboration. She has a background in community economic development and loves serving the place she calls home. 

ACC Mayor and Commission

Southface

Southface is a nonprofit promoting sustainable homes, workplaces, and communities. We envision a regenerative economy through responsible resource use, social equity, and a healthy built environment for all. For the past 40 years, Southface has been a leader in the research, design, and transformation across the Southeast. Over this time, we have driven innovative solutions to address resource efficiency, building science, and sustainable communities. It is through this approach that we help foster a renewed vision in a changing economy, generating the outcomes that lead to vibrant, healthy communities for all. Most recently Southface has assisted the City of Atlanta with 100% Clean Energy Plan initiatives.

• Austin Robinson

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  • Austin is a Project Manager on the Sustainability Services team at Southface. Austin helps lead Southface’s planning portfolio, creating energy, land use, and community planning solutions to problems at the intersection of the natural and built environments.

• Lisa Bianchi-Fossati
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  • Lisa is the Policy & Sustainability Services Director for Southface, a non-profit organization based in Atlanta, GA. In her role as Policy & Sustainability Services Director Lisa is responsible for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions with legislatures and utility commissions.
• Bailey Shea
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  • Bailey is a Program Coordinator for Southface’s Policy & Sustainability Services teams and is responsible for supporting efforts to advance clean energy through working with local governments across the Southeast.

Greenlink Analytics, Inc.

Greenlink Analytics, Inc. (formerly “The Greenlink Group”) (“Greenlink”) is an Atlanta-based energy research and consulting firm equipped with sophisticated analytical technologies and deep industry knowledge in the clean energy space, receiving accolades from MIT, Georgia Tech, and the National Science Foundation, among others. It uses these technologies to help create a smarter, cleaner, and more equitable future.

• Matt Cox
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  • Dr Matt Cox is the founder and CEO of Greenlink Analytics, an energy research and advisory non-profit based in Atlanta, GA. In this role, Matt provides domain expertise for Greenlink’s energy and resource analysis software tools and serves as a consultant on energy efficiency strategies, renewable energy deployment and system operations in the electric power sector. He has authored over 80 scientific publications in energy policy, renewable energy, energy efficiency, economic development and job creation, the social and environmental impacts of energy use, and water policy. His policy recommendations have been adopted by dozens of cities and states, the U.S. government, and 12 other nations. Matt holds a Ph.D in climate and energy policy with a minor in sustainable development from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
• Yeou Jih
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  • Yeou-Rong Jih serves as the Director of Urban Initiatives at Greenlink Analytics, an energy research and advisory NGO based in Atlanta, GA. She is part of the consulting team that helps cities design clean and equitable energy policies and plans based on Greenlink’s award-winning climate analysis and equity models. Yeou received her undergraduate degree from Emory University in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and a Master of Science in Research Psychology from the University of Oxford. Post graduate school, she worked at the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter as a Volunteer Coordinator and the City of Atlanta as a Senior Manager of Resilience Policy and Programs.