Mr. Emory Shaw Campbell

​

The contributions of Emory Shaw Campbell to the cultural and environmental heritage of South Carolina are enormous. He and his family live on Hilton Head Island, where he grew up and developed his love of the Sea Islands. Born in 1941, on Hilton Head Island, SC, he graduated from high school in 1960, as class Valedictorian. In 1965, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Savannah State College and in 1971 he earned a MS in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University in Boston.

Mr. Campbell’s concern for the future of the Sea Islands became apparent as he began to apply his education to real life situations in 1971 at the Beaufort- Jasper Health Center. For almost ten years thereafter in his capacity as an Environmental Health Engineer he addressed issues that affected the daily lives of island people. His goal was to inform and discuss methods of preserving and enhancing the unique and rich Gullah cultural and environmental heritage in the face of rapid development on the islands.

In 1980, he took a step closer to his goal, becoming the Executive Director of Penn Center, located on St. Helena Island. He vigorously embarked on a program to revive the Center’s historical significance and its educational programs, and to preserve the cultural and environmental assets of the Sea Islands. To help achieve this, he organized the now nationally recognized Penn Center Heritage Days Celebration. He also revised the family farm program and expanded the cultural program to assist cultural artists, environmentalists, linquists, filmmakers and authors -- among them Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Patricia Jones-Jackson and Verta Mae Grosvenor. He served as inaugural Chairman of the Federal appointed Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission for preserving Gullah Geechee culture, 2008 -2012.

Mr. Campbell has appeared in many documentaries, news magazines, films and radio and television programs, including 60 Minutes; The Today Show; a PBS special, Family Across the Sea; as well as on C-Span’s Washington Journal. He has been awarded the Governor’s Award for Historical Preservation (1999), was inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame (1999). He was awarded the Carter G. Woodson Award for Civil Rights by the National Education Association in 2006. In 2010 his essay titled “A Sense of Self and Place: Unmasking My Gullah Cultural Heritage” was published with ten other essays in the book, “African American Life in the Georgia Lowcountry” by the University of Georgia Press. Later that year he received the Environmental Stewardship Award from the SC Aquarium. He was awarded honorary Doctors of Humane Letters by Bank Street College, N. Y. in 2000 and by the University of South Carolina, Beaufort, 2012.

He authored the guide Book “Gullah Cultural Legacies” in October 2002, Second Edition 2005, Third Edition 2008. He retired from Penn Center in December 2002 after twenty-two years. He is currently President of Gullah Heritage Consulting Service whence he conducts institutes on Gullah Cultural heritage and related issues through lectures, short courses and the Gullah Heritage Trail Tours on Hilton Head Islands  He and his wife Emma reside on Hilton Head Island, SC and are the parents of two adult children, Ochieng and Ayoka.

​

Dr. John W. Day, Jr.

​

John W. Day, Jr. is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, School of the Coast & Environment at Louisiana State University, where he has taught since 1971. He has published extensively on the ecology and management of coastal and wetland ecosystems and has over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He is co-editotr (with B. CRUMP, M. Kemp, and A. Yáñez-Arancibia) of Estuarine Ecology 2013, coeditor (with C. Hall) of Ecological Modeling in Theory and Practice, coeditor (with W. Conner) of The Ecology of the Barataria Basin, An Estuarine Profile, coeditor (with A. Yáñez-Arancibia) of the Ecology of Coastal Ecosystems in the Southern Mexico: The Terminos Lagoon Region, coeditor (with A. Yáñez-Arancibia) of Ecosystem Based Management of the Gulf of Mexico in 2013.

Professor Day received his PhD in marine sciences and environmental sciences from the University of North Carolina in 1971 working with Dr. H.T. Odum.  Since then, he has conducted extensive research on the ecology and management of the Mississippi Delta region and for the last 40 years, he has studied coastal ecosystems in Mexico.  He was a visiting professor in the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National University of Mexico in 1978-1979, at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands during 1986, at the Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Unversité Claude Bernard in Arles France during 1992-93, and in the Department of Geography at Cambridge University in 2000-2001.  He has also worked with the University of Campeche and the Institute of Ecology in Xalapa, Mexico.

From 1992-2004, Professor Day worked in the Mediterranean studying the impacts of climate change on wetlands in Venice Lagoon and in the Po, Rhone and Ebro deltas.  He is presently working on using wetlands as a means of removing nitrogen from the Mississippi River.  Dr. Day also served as a member of the hypoxia reassessment taskforce and published with Dr. William Mitsch an article in BioScience on approaches to removing nitrogen from the Mississippi River.  He served as chair of the National Technical Review Committee reviewing the restoration program for the Mississippi delta and is currently active in delta restoration.  He served as chair of the Science and Engineering Special Team on restoration of the Mississippi delta (a book on this effort will be published in 2013).  He serves on the Scientific Steering Committee of the Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone, an international coastal science effort.   He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for study in France and the Estuarine Research Federation Cronin Award for excellence in teaching in coastal sciences.  He has served as major professor for 68 MS and PhD students.

​

Mr. Keith Bowers, FASLA, RLA, PWS

​

For nearly three decades, Keith Bowers has been at the forefront of applied ecology, land conservation and sustainable design.  As the founder and president of Biohabitats (www.biohabitats.com), Keith has built a multidisciplinary organization focused on regenerative design – the blurring of boundaries between conservation planning, ecological restoration and sustainable design.  Using living-systems as the basis for all of its work, Biohabitats applies a whole-systems approach to all of its projects.  Keith has applied his expertise to more than 600 projects throughout North America. His work has spanned the scale from site-specific ecosystem restoration projects involving wetland, river, woodland and coastal habitat restoration to regional watershed management and conservation planning, to the development of comprehensive sustainability programs for communities and campuses throughout the country.   

Keith is president and founder of Biohabitats’ sister company: Ecological Restoration and Management, Inc., (www.er-m.com).  ER&M provides professional installation and management services for restoration projects throughout North America.

Keith currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Wildlands Network (http://www.twp.org), a national organization focused on reconnecting, rewilding and restoring  continuous habitat across North America.  He is the Theme Lead for Ecological Restoration under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Commission on Ecosystem Management.

Keith served on the Board of Directors for the Society for Ecological Restoration (www.ser.org), twice as its Chair.  He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and is a Professional Wetland Scientist.  He holds a B.S. in Landscape Architecture from West Virginia University and an honorary degree from the Conway School of Design.

​

​