Last week at the annual Southface Winter Solstice Celebration, Southface staff, members and friends celebrated a successful year and honored key contributors to the organization’s mission, including outgoing co-founder and executive director Dennis Creech. As an added bonus, Maria Vargas, Senior Program Advisor from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Director of the Better Buildings Challenge (BBC) was in attendance along with BBC leadership from Boston and Atlanta.
The Southface Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes individuals who have contributed significant time and effort on behalf of Southface and its mission. Two volunteers were honored this year: Charles Whatley, former Southface board chair and leader of the search committee for Southface’s new president; and Henry Slack, Southface’s first treasurer and a member since 1978, who was named “Volunteer over the Years.”
Whatley was unable to attend, but search committee member John Lanier of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation commented on the committee’s endorsement of Andrea Pinabell as Southface’s new leader.
“Charles did a remarkable job of leading our search committee, and we emerged from the process confident that Andrea Pinabell is the right person to lead Southface,” Lanier commented. “The Board looks forward to working with her, and I can’t wait for this entire community to see just how passionate she is about Southface’s mission.”
The Southface Award of Excellence is presented for exceptional contributions to advancing the causes of green building and sustainability in the City of Atlanta and the Southeast. Three awards were presented: Linda Klein, former Southface chair and current chair of the American Bar Association, for more than 20 years of service on the Southface board; Dr. Sheldon Cohen, longtime supporter who inspired the Southface History Project; and John Sibley, outgoing Southface senior policy fellow, for his leadership on behalf of Southface and Georgia’s entire environmental community.
