­ Susan brings considerable experience in comprehensive planning, landscape ecology and participatory decision making to the PlaceMatters-David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship. Since 1993, Susan has applied GIS and other technologies to help communities better understand growth implications and envision alternative futures. ­As a member of the public service faculty of the Institute of Government and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia, Susan was the Principal Investigator for a three-year Coastal Incentive Grant Program project, Visualizing Land Cover and Land Use Changes on the Georgia Coast (www.nespal.org/gtl).  As a Senior Program Specialist Susan participated on ESRI's spatial modeling team from 1999 to 2001. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the Coastal Institute at the University of Rhode Island and an invited speaker at various universities and professional meetings. Currently she serves on the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for AgrowKnowledge: The National Center for Agriscience & Technology Education at Kirkwood Community College (Ohio). She has been peer reviewer for professional journals and conference submissions, and for three years served as an Associate Editor of Wetlands, the Journal of the Society of Wetland Scientists. Susan obtained a Master of Landscape Architecture with Distinction from The University of Georgia and an A.B. in Psychology with High Honors from Smith College. Presently, she is an Ecology doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include assessing the influence of various technologies on community and regional planning and decision making processes; citizen participation in environmental planning and policy development, and; effectiveness of incentive-based programs in achieving public policy initiatives for land conservation.