Organizational Development and Project Management

Mike has an MP in Environmental and Land Use Planning from the University of Virginia School of Architecture and a B.S. in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech. In 1986, working as a public school science teacher, Mike started an environmental citizen’s group, Friends of Culpeper, with Piedmont Environmental Council Attorney Art Larson, to advocate for  watershed management to protect the water supply watershed for the County. In 1990, he began working as an Environmental Planner for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District in Charlottesville and managed the Rivanna River Basin Roundtable and State of the Basin Report, the Interfaith Roundtable on Sustainability, and the Sustainability Accords of 1998.  In 1998, he and his wife Anna, opened Healthy Home, LLC, a sustainable goods general store in Charlottesville, to provide sustainable or green construction goods. In 2000, he began working for ENSAT Corporation and co-authored hydrogeologic and source water planning studies. In 2002, he and Nick Evans formed Virginia Groundwater, LLC, a science-based well drilling firm that continues today.

In 2004, he formed a new Planning Department for the Town of Orange, Virginia to create policies and codes to help the community cope with the 2004-2006 housing market. In four years, the Town of Orange completed its first CIP, Proffer Policy, Joint Proffer Policy, and an award winning Comprehensive Plan (Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association-2006). In 2006, he began the Association of Conservation Real Estate/Conserv.