Events

Mary Coleman, Executive Director of City of Promise will speak about family-centered strategies for tackling generational poverty.

After 22 years as a full-time homemaker and mother of seven, Mary entered the field of fundraising in 2005 as Director of Donor Relations at Woodberry Forest School in Madison County. Her work in Charlottesville began in 2012 as Director of Institutional Advancement at The Covenant School, then in 2017 as Development Director at City of Promise where she was named Executive Director in December 2019.

The land that is now known as the Ivy Creek Natural Area was previously known as River View Farm. River View Farm is a rare surviving example of the Union Ridge/Hydraulic Mills community of African American farmers, pastors, craftspeople, and businessmen that flourished in the region beginning in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. Recently River View Farm has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sue Erhardt has more than 20 years of senior leadership experience working in the conservation, nature, and place based education movement. Over her career, she has been able to grow programs, expand staff, and develop organizational infrastructure in a sustainable fashion. She has worked for urban forestry organizations in Detroit and Washington DC, and most recently for an agriculture nonprofit based in Augusta and Highland Counties, in Virginia. Her programs included a Food and Farm Fellowship program, as well as designing and implementing a Farm to Hospital project which has become a resource for the community by providing educational programming and vegetables for a Food Farmacy program. Ms. Erhardt holds a Masters degree in Environmental Studies. She is a Certified Arborist and Certified Interpreter Guide. Her efforts have been recognized by prominent groups with several notable awards, such as the National Park Service Centennial Award and Outstanding Educator Award from the Arbor Day Foundation. Sue began working for the Ivy Creek Foundation in December 2019. Working for the Ivy Creek Foundation combines her passion for history and the national world with her experience running non-profit organizations.

Imagine being able to ‘see and walk through’ your building before construction starts!

Barton Malow’s innovative methods help manage the lack of certainty in schedule and cost, a shrinking workforce, and outdated processes and methods.

An example of their innovation is the use of virtual design, which allows for more collaborative partnerships and creates better project results by helping client ‘see’ their proposed construction.

Join us to learn more about how the Barton Malow team brings collaboration and innovation into their award-winning projects – that will help you find ways to include innovation in your projects.

Speaker Bios:
Paul Littlefield, DBIA - Paul has 32 years of experience in construction management of
commercial, sporting venues, parking structures, heavy/industrial, residential,
healthcare, and retail projects including design development and coordination, preconstruction
services, construction services, and contract management. He also has
hands-on experience in various trades.

Jim Miller, CHC, LEED AP - Jim has 11 years’ experience in the construction industry.
His experience on facilities of various sizes has brought him the expertise to quickly
evaluate the pertinence of construction documentation and how it relates to the
construction materials, methods and overall building design. He applies lessons
learned from previous projects to provide clients with a well constructed and cost
effective facility.

Jevon Brookes, LEED AP BD+C – Jevon has 11 years of experience in the design and
construction industry. He is a team player with the ability to utilize a problem-solving
approach to deliver solutions, help develop new ideas for new projects, and
communicate with well-developed presentation skills. His passion for 3D
visualization and BIM has led to his continuing interest in researching and learning
new software and hardware.

Building a public botanical garden is not an easy feat. So far, Botanical Garden of the Piedmont (BGP) has been driven by the community’s input, aspirations, insights, and desire to be a place of healing, unity, education and beauty.  But the input phase of the garden design process is not complete and through reaching out to other organizations, we are hoping to gather more feedback to ensure the built garden will represent the hopes and dreams of the entire community.  The design and construction of Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is a very ambitious project.  This presentation will briefly outline what has already been achieved in the process toward building this garden, give insight into the road map ahead, and provide information about how the Garden is responding to community needs in the time of COVID.   For more information about the Garden: https://mcintirebotanicalgarden.org/

The Botanical Garden seeks feedback about the desired features and programming. Please visit this link below to share feedback on how we can continue to improve services - and share the link with family, friends and neighbors. The more input we get, the better!

Botanical Garden of the Piedmont (google.com)

Jill Trischman-Marks moved to the Charlottesville area more than 30 years ago to attend graduate school in the fields of landscape architecture and historic preservation at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. After receiving her master’s degree, she spent nearly a decade with the firm Ian Robertson, Ltd, where she honed her design and horticultural skills, and was instrumental in designing private and public gardens across the region, including the first five gardens of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond.  Jill then established her own firm, Jill Trischman-Marks, Landscape Architect, where she specialized in edible landscapes, native plant design, designing for organic landscape management, and landscape restoration.

After spending several years volunteering as a member of the McIntire Botanical Garden Board of Directors, Jill retired her private practice in September 2019 to become the first executive director and “chief cheerleader” for the Garden.

When not cheerleading for MBG, Jill spends her time in her garden, cycling the Virginia countryside with her husband, or traveling to exotic places to visit her grown daughter.