Best Practices for Meeting Procedures, COAs and Staff Reports

Sarah Cody is the Historic Preservation Chief for Miami-Dade County, Florida. With a background in cultural landscapes, she takes a broad approach to better understand and interpret the County’s unique history. Sarah believes strongly in her duty as a public servant to undertake work that is meaningful to the residents of Miami-Dade. She fosters community-led preservation and believes that the power of our historic and cultural spaces can be leveraged to create more resilient and equitable communities. Recent work has focused on community engagement, equity and inclusion, and climate resiliency. Sarah also serves on the Board of Directors for NAPC.

James K. Reap is Professor and Coordinator of the Historic Preservation Program in the University of Georgia College of Environment and Design. He is currently a board member of the United States Committee of the Blue Shield and an executive committee member of the United Stated Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). He is a past board member of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Action. Professor Reap has served as chair of the preservation commissions in the City of Decatur and DeKalb County and as vice chair in Athens, Georgia. He is a founding member and former board member of the Georgia Alliance of Preservation Commissions and National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and has provided training and technical assistance to preservation commissions throughout the United States. His background in planning includes service as Georgia’s first regional preservation planner and as Deputy Executive Director of the Northeast Georgia Area Planning and Development Commission (now Northeast Georgia Regional Commission.)

Kate Singleton was most recently the Chief Preservation Planner for the City of Dallas. She has over 40 years’ experience in historic preservation, downtown revitalization and economic and community development. Kate is the former Executive Director for Preservation Austin. She has served as Executive Director of the West Fort Bend Management District, Planning Manager for Downtown Dallas, Inc. and State Coordinator of the Arizona Main Street program as well as Main Street Manager in Waxahachie and Grapevine. She has extensive experience in cultural resources management. Kate has offered professional consulting services in the areas of historic preservation, downtown revitalization, economic development, financial incentives, strategic planning, community development, municipal planning, zoning, urban design, and project implementation. She has written preservation plans, design standards for commercial and residential historic districts, downtown redevelopment plans and preservation ordinances. Kate has also developed financial incentives for cities including the highly successful City of Dallas Historic Tax Incentive Program. She also wrote amendments to the Dallas building code some of which were codified into the International Existing Building Code. Kate has also completed over $150 million in Federal Historic Tax Credit projects. Kate has conducted training for numerous historic preservation commissions and downtown associations around the state of Texas and has presented at several state preservation and downtown conferences in Texas, Arizona and Arkansas as well as the National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference and National Main Street Conference on subjects including advocacy, financial incentives, preservation design standards, downtown authenticity. Kate has her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of North Texas. She has served on the Dallas Landmark Commission, on the Tourism Commission for the City of Austin, Austin Creative Alliance Board, the boards of Texas Downtown Association, Preservation Texas and Preservation Action.