Mississippi mayor Joins CNU board

Connie M. Moran was elected mayor of her hometown, Ocean Springs, Miss., in June 2005.  Two months later, Hurricane Katrina changed almost everything.
“Her leadership was immediately tested and she was a real stand-out among all the elected officials we met, which includes a lot of really smart people,” says board vice-chair Victor Dover, who worked with her during and after the October 2005 Mississippi Renewal Forum.
Now Dover and Mayor Moran are colleagues again; she is the CNU board’s newest member.
“I was inspired by the New Urbanism,” Moran says, adding her interest in New Urbanism as a movement was sparked at the forum. “It has such vision for building communities that are healthy, for families and the environment. As an economic developer, those are the principles that I value.”
Moran, whose two-year board term began at CNU XVI in Austin, has 15 years of experience in state and local government. Previously she was president of Moran Consultants, providing marketing and business development services.
Moran’s earned admiration for her opposition to “Bridgezilla” – the bigger-wider-faster bridge over Biloxi Bay that the Mississippi Department of Transportation pushed as a replacement for the one destroyed by Katrina.
“Only because of her insistence does it accommodate pedestrians (and bicyclists) and public art. … It’s a very important thing,” Dover says. “She asked hard questions of the Mississippi DOT when others were basically taking what they were given.”
Moran holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in finance/economics and international commerce from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and won a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct graduate research in Germany.
 New executive committee members:  In other changes, Raymond Gindroz, cofounder and principal of Urban Design Associates, takes over from Hank Dittmar as board chair, while Dover takes over from Jacky Grimshaw as vice-chair. Todd Zimmerman, managing director of Zimmerman/Volk Associates, has been designated as board secretary. Stephanie Bothwell continues as the treasurer. CNU is fortunate to have Dittmar, chief executive of the Prince’s Foundation, and Grimshaw, vice president of the Center for Neighborhood Technologies, remaining on the board to serve an additional term.
 Also at the Austin Congress, three individuals who provided valuable leadership as board members for many years ended their terms and stepped down. They are: Local Government Commission Executive Director Judy Corbett, who joined the board in 1993, the year of CNU’s founding;  James Murley, director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University; and Cincinnatti City Council Member Roxanne Qualls.