Governors' Council
The Governors’ Institute benefits greatly from the insight and advice of a number of former Governors who prioritized issues of growth and development both during and since their terms as governors. These former Governors are intimately involved in the process of creating workshops for sitting governors. Most importantly, one of the members of the Governors' Council meets with each sitting governor prior to a workshop and participates in the workshop itself, in order to provide an element of peer-to-peer exchange that we believe is critical to the success of our program.
Two former governors, each with a
very distinguished legacy of guiding growth and development in their
states, head the Governors' Council:
Parris N. Glendening
Governor Parris N. Glendening is President of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute. As governor of Maryland (1995-2003), he led the creation of a groundbreaking smart growth initiative that focused on using the entire $23 billion state budget as an incentive for promoting smart growth at the local and county level. In addition, he prioritized open space preservation. During his term, 400,000 acres of land were protected, about one-third of all land ever preserved in Maryland. In addition, Governor Glendening led the way in re-engineering the historical preservation tax credit, leading to over $200 million in private investment and making the tax credit one of the state’s most successful community revitalization tools. Before becoming Governor, Parris N. Glendening was a local elected official for more than 20 years. He began public service in 1973 as a city councilman in Hyattsville and was later elected to the Prince George's County Council in 1974. In 1982 he was elected County Executive of Prince George's County, a post he held for three consecutive terms.
Christine Todd Whitman
Governor
Christine Todd Whitman served as governor of New Jersey, as well as
Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As Governor of
New Jersey (1994-2001), Whitman called to preserve a million acres of
open space and 500,000 acres of farmland within a 10-year period. In
1998 the voters passed a referendum to do just that. While leading the
EPA she achieved the passage of landmark brownfields legislation,
entered the EPA into an historic agreement to clean up the Hudson
River, issued the first-ever State of the Environment Report, and for
the first time required cleaner burning diesel engines for non-road
vehicles such as tractors and bulldozers. Governor Whitman currently
serves as a co-chair of the National Smart Growth Council (NSGC).