Luncheon: Sustainable Development with Upstate Forever

CREW Upstate: May Luncheon (Open to Members & Non-Members)

Sustainable Development

with Upstate Forever

We have experienced tremendous growth and development in the Upstate in the last few decades. Is this growth sustainable? Can we continue to grow while preserving the farmlands, forests, natural areas, and clean air that make our home so special?

Join us as two representatives of Upstate Forever, Sherry Barrett and Gaye Sprague, tell us about their vision and goals around sustainable development. They will share how they are working with our local policy makers and developers to ensure future generations can experience the healthy, vibrant, and green community we all love, and how we can all work together towards this vital goal.

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About our Speakers:

Gaye Garrison Sprague, P.E. has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in civil engineering from Clemson University and from 1985 to 2021 was the owner and principal of Sprague & Sprague Consulting Engineers. The firm provided traffic engineering and transportation planning services to public and private clients in the Carolinas and Georgia. As a volunteer, she has served on the South Carolina Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, as chair of the Board of the Greenville Transit Authority, and as chair of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee. She has been active in organizations for traffic, civil, and professional engineers and has taught under-graduate and graduate civil engineering courses at Clemson. Gaye served as one of two at-large representatives on Greenville City Council 2009-2017.

She has supported many community organizations as a volunteer and is currently serving on the Boards of Genesis Homes and Upstate Forever. A native of Anderson, South Carolina and a Greenville resident since 1983, Gaye is married to Joel Sprague. Their son Jay, his wife Mollie, and their children Colson, Reid, and Caroline also live in Greenville.   

Sherry Barrett, As Land Policy Manager at Upstate Forever, Sherry Barrett focuses primarily on land use planning and policy issues in rapidly growing Greenville and Spartanburg. Sherry earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from Virginia Tech. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Georgia and a Certificate in Advanced Geographic Information Systems from Greenville Technical College. 

Sherry first came to Upstate Forever as a member and volunteer in 2003 and joined the staff in 2010. Previously, Sherry worked as a landscape designer at Site Design, Inc., Greenville, SC, as program coordinator with Virginia Tech's Community Design Assistance Center, Blacksburg, VA, and landscape architecture intern with HIll Studio, Roanoke, VA.