Advisory Board Georgia

Virginia Neal Almand has served on The Trust for Public Land’s Georgia Advisory Board for over 20 years and participated on key committees such as Engagement and Board Development. She chaired the office’s first annual fundraiser, “Hot Dogs for Hard Times” and co-chaired the second Celebration of Land, “Pony Up for TPL.” She was a leader of TPL-Georgia’s BeltLine Bus Tours and has supported the Board Alumni Council activities.

Jackie Cushman is the current Chair of the Advisory Board.  Cushman’s background in corporate finance, including running the financial planning department for a $3 billion wireless company, provides her with a unique financial perspective based on diverse positions within operating companies. Cushman has worked in business valuation, and served as an interim General Manager of a wireless company where she managed both retail operations and agent distribution. As a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, and having served as the teacher of the economics review section for the CFA Review course for the Atlanta Society for Financial Analysts, Cushman understands both the theory and practice of finance and economics. She earned her MBA in Finance from Georgia State University.

Ms. Robin D. Dunson is Assistant General Counsel- Commercial at Cox Enterprises, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia.  Prior to serving in this role, Ms. Dunson served as Assistant General Counsel, Marketing, Sales and Product, at Cox Communications, Inc.  Before joining Cox, Ms. Dunson served as for 3 years as Counsel at SBC/Ameritech concentrating on marketing and residential and large business commercial contracts; worked for 5 years as Attorney at AT&T Corporation with a focus on marketing law, contracts, and regulatory litigation; and started her legal career as an Associate at the law firm of Jones, Day in their Corporate and Finance Group handling Mergers and Acquisitions, Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) of stock, and general corporate transactions.  

Chris Graham leads the Compliance, Safety and Investigations group in the Georgia-Pacific law department. In addition to his legal role, Chris also manages the corporate security capability. Prior to working at GP, Chris was the General Counsel for INVISTA and an in-house lawyer for Koch Industries in Wichita, Kansas. Before working for the Koch family of companies, Chris was a partner with Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia. He came to Hunton & Williams after serving as a Captain in the United States Army as a Judge Advocate at Fort Benning, Georgia.

John Hardman is the CEO of WildArk, an effort to protect as much of the world’s biodiversity as possible, while inspiring people to reconnect with nature through various digital and physical experiential learning offerings.  John also serves as the Managing Director of Internative Investment Group, a business advisory and investment firm located in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Jim Irwin is the President of New City, LLC and directs the company’s real estate development and consulting operations, as well as new business pursuits. Over the course of his career, Jim has been responsible for over $1 billion of new investment around the United States.  New City’s current work includes major mixed-use projects along the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail and in Nashville, Tennessee.

Amy Phuong is Vice President of Government Relations for the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena.  This position is an expansion of the Atlanta Hawks’ External Affairs efforts to unite the broader Atlanta community through the play of basketball while deepening the organization’s relationships with local and state leaders.  Prior to, Phuong spent nearly a decade in public service; most recently serving as Parks and Recreation Commissioner and the first Chief Service Officer for the City of Atlanta.  Phuong has also been a long-time leader and supporter of numerous civic and philanthropic organizations dedicated to improving Atlanta.  She has deep relationships with Atlanta’s arts, culture, civic and academic communities.

Jeff Seavey is a wealth advisor and managing director with GenSpring | SunTrust Private Wealth. Jeff has over 30 years of broad commercial, corporate, and personal financial services experience. As a Wealth Advisor, Jeff advises a select number of high net worth families on investment policy and asset allocation, tax, financial planning and estate strategies, private banking, asset protection, and business succession planning.

Rian Smith is Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at The Integral Group, a vertically-integrated real estate development firm.  Rian overseas all real estate related legal documents, and provides legal and transaction support to all of Integral’s real estate development divisions.