Director honored with national leadership award
On June 16, the National Association of Regional Councils recognized Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission Executive Director, Brian O. Martin, AICP, with the Walter Scheiber Leadership Award.
The Walter Scheiber Leadership Award recognizes significant impacts a regional council executive director has made at the local, state, and national levels. Martin received the coveted national leadership award in recognition of his efforts to address equity as a regional priority.
“Brian O. Martin is a tireless advocate for the importance of planning for transportation, landuse and environmental matters at the Regional level,” said MVRPC Board Chairperson, Chris Mucher in the award nomination. “In recent years, Mr. Martin has also championed the need for disparities in opportunity, equity and social justice to be addressed through the same collaborative, regional approach.”
Under Martin’s leadership, MVRPC has taken bold steps to advance equity and to make a commitment to diversity a normal part of how the agency conducts all business. This began long before the events of 2020 which amplified interest in how systemic racism pervades all aspects of our communities.
During the virtual award presentation, Brian O. Martin stated, “Tough issues do not get resolved by themselves. When MVRPC completed the Equity Regional Profile with the OSU Kirwan Institute in 2017, our Region’s disparities in equity and access to opportunity were glaring.” Martin went on to say, “It was quite clear this is a regional matter because over time, people were moving from the central communities to newer, outer communities. Our maps show this migration and the lasting effects that restrict access to opportunity to such things like health, education, transportation, housing and employment.” Martin thanked his wife, their children and family, the MVRPC
Board of Directors, MVRPC’s community partners, and co-workers for their hard work, support and encouragement.
Miami Valley TREEcovery Campaign
The Miami Valley TREEcovery
Campaign, led by RETREET, is a multi-year disaster recovery effort to heal the landscape devastated by the Memorial Day 2019 tornadoes. MVRPC is leading the local administration for this project. RETREET is a flagship program of Keep America Beautiful.
Beginning this fall, volunteers from RETREET will plant free native trees for owners of residential properties that were impacted by the tornadoes. Please visit http://www.retreet. org/mvtct to learn more about how to request trees and how
to donate to the effort.
RETREET Director Grady McGahan visited the Miami Valley this week to meet with project partners and thank several companies for their generous contributions to make the tree planting events possible.