2022 Discussion Series

George Dusenbury

Georgia State Director
The Trust for Public Land

George Dusenbury serves as the Southern Hub Director for The Trust for Public Land. He leads a team of professionals working to improve access to the Chattahoochee River, increase the number of residents who have a park close to home and develop partnerships that dramatically change how Georgians interact with the outdoors. From 2010 to 2014 Dusenbury served as Commissioner of the Atlanta Parks & Recreation Department. There, he helped expand park acreage in the city while increasing the percentage of local residents living within a half-mile of a park. He also led an effort to reopen and transform 16 closed recreation centers. Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, Dusenbury was Executive Director of Park Pride. Under his leadership, the organization significantly increased its capacity while launching a wide range of programs designed to bring community gardens to underserved neighborhoods and help residents create plans for their parks. The organization also played a pivotal role in engaging community groups and corporate partners to realize the vision of the Atlanta BeltLine, a transformative urban park and trail system. Dusenbury earned a B.S. degree in English from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor degree from Emory University where he served as the president of the Environmental Law Society. He has been a Certified Park and Recreation Professional through the National Recreation and Park Association, is a member of the Historic Oakland board of directors and is a graduate of regional leadership programs.

Cheryl Smith

Agrotourism Manager
Georgia Department of Agriculture

Cheryl is a native Georgian, born in Atlanta.

She attended Clemson University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.  She also graduated from Clemson University’s Honors Program, Calhoun College. While at Clemson she was awarded the Outstanding Student in Tourism by the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism.

Cheryl has been with the Georgia Department of Agriculture since July 1, 2019.

Before this, Cheryl worked for the Georgia Department of Economic Development since 1988 as Tourism Project Manager for the 17-county, Northeast Georgia Mountains Travel Region.

She is a graduate of Southeastern Tourism Society’s Marketing College, the Georgia Academy for Economic Development, and Leadership Hall County. She served on the Georgia Scenic Byway Advisory Board, which developed the guidelines and standards for the Georgia Scenic Byway Program.

She has also served on the Boards of several organizations, including the Northeast Georgia Mountains Travel Association, the Byron Herbert Reece Farm & Heritage Center and the Appalachian Regional Commission Tourism Council where she represented the state of Georgia.

Heather Hodges

Executive Director
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor NHA

Heather L. Hodges became the Executive Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor NHA in November 2017.  During her tenure, she has placed an emphasis on developing educational programs, supporting cultural documentation and historic preservation efforts, encouraging heritage tourism, and fostering new research.  Under her leadership the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor was awarded two major grants by the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation in 2019 to assist it with developing a heritage tourism marketing plan for the Corridor and to create new systemic, infrastructure supports for Gullah Geechee heritage festivals.  She also led the development of VisitGullahGeechee.com, a new destination portal for visitors launched in 2019 that is being upgraded in 2020 with new, visitor-friendly content.

Ms. Hodges did graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with honors from the Tulane University School of Law.  She spent most of her legal career in private practice in Washington, D.C.  She sits on the advisory boards of South Carolina Sea Grant, Reconstruction Beaufort and the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Studies at Coastal Carolina University.  She is a member of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in downtown Charleston and a supporter of the Charleston Area Justice Ministry, a social justice advocacy network of faith-based congregations.

Dionne Hoskins-Brown

Fishery Biologist
NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service

Dionne Hoskins-Brown is a fishery biologist with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service and serves as the Director of NOAA Programs at Savannah State University, where she also earned her B.S. degree in Marine Biology. She holds a doctorate in Marine Sciences from the University of South Carolina. Since 1999, she has administered NOAA-funded student research training programs while researching essential fisheries habitat, African-American participation in Georgia fisheries, and approaches to increasing minority representation in marine fields. In 2009, she established the African American Fishermen Oral History Project to capture the experiences of Gullah-Geechee families on the Georgia coast through the Voices From the Fisheries database.  She was appointed to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission in 2017, serving as vice-chair that year and was elected chair in 2018.