Dr. Leslie Hossfeld serves as dean of Clemson University College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. She leads the college's work in joining together various programs - communication; nursing; parks, recreation and tourism management; political science; psychology; public health sciences; and sociology, anthropology and criminal justice - in a common pursuit of building people and communities in South Carolina and beyond.

Dean Hossfeld is trained in rural sociology from North Carolina State University with experience examining rural poverty and economic restructuring. She has made two presentations to the U.S. Congress and one to the North Carolina legislature on job loss and rural economic decline.

Dr. Hossfeld has served as co-chair of the American Sociological Association Task Force on Public Sociology, vice president of Sociologists for Women in Society, president of the Southern Sociological Society, and chair of the American Sociological Association Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology, the Mississippi Food Policy Council, and the Executive Council of the North Carolina Sociological Association, for which she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2019.

Currently, Dr. Hossfeld serves as co-chair on the USDA SERA-47 multi-state initiative, Strengthening the Southern Region Extension and Research System to Support Local and Regional Food Needs and Priorities in 13 States in the Southern Region.

Prior to joining Clemson, Dean Hossfeld was head of the Department of Sociology, Criminology and Social Work at Mississippi State University and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has developed economic recovery projects for rural North Carolina counties and food sovereignty projects in the Mississippi Delta using health as an economic development strategy.

Her current research focuses on multi-disciplinary strategies and collaborative partnerships around local food systems development and nutrition security. She works to bridge U.S. local food systems research to health disparities to develop policy coherence linking health and agriculture policy.

Dr. Hala Nassar, professor of landscape architecture at Clemson University, holds a BArch, MArch, and Ph.D. in history of landscape architecture from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, and a master's degree in landscape design from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Nassar is an Academy Fellow, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. She is also a principal at HewittNassar Studio, practicing in the United States and globally on projects that focus on sustainable design and planning, urban design, cultural landscape preservation, public art and place making, health care design and ecological restoration.

She has earned more than 30 national and international awards for professional practice, research, teaching and service, her most recent being a third place prize in the international design competition for the 10th International Garden Exposition for Creative Garden Design in China. She is the recipient of multiple awards from the American Society for Landscape Architects (ASLA) for her design and planning work in the U.S. and internationally, including a public art installation project in Sonoma, California, titled “Climate Change Garden.”

Her scholarship concentrates on cultural and historical landscape, collaboration between artists and landscape architects, influence of global stimuli on local and regional landscape transformation, globalization, and internalization and multiculturism in landscape architecture higher education. She has more than 50 peer-reviewed articles published and under review in top-ranked journals in landscape architecture including Landscape Journal, Landscape Review, Landscape Research Record, Urban Design International, Critiques of Built Works of Landscape Architecture, and Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education. She is also a regular contributor to professional publications including Landscape Architecture Magazine: The Journal of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Nassar’s international education efforts culminated in 2019 within the inauguration of World Design Studio, a global multi-university interdisciplinary design consortium that fosters multidisciplinary, international and collaborative funded research, consultation, community engagement, and cross-cultural enrichment of curriculum, pedagogy and learning outcomes. She also holds nationally elected positions including second vice president of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, and she was elected to the board of ASLA on Education. She holds the title of honorary professor at Hauzhong Agricultural University in China.

Dr. Nassar's long collaboration with the city of Seneca goes back to 2008, when she began engaging her students in service learning projects in Seneca and Oconee County. Working with the city planning department and presenting to Seneca City Council, she led student work on a plethora of projects including Norton Thompson Park, Seneca’s African American Culture and Heritage Site, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Seneca’s Cultural Corridor, Kellet Elementary School and the Gignilliat Community Center.

Dr. Bruce Ransom is a professor in Department of Political Science with expertise in community economic development and African American politics. He will contribute his skills in housing policy and community engagement.

Dr. Ken Robinson is an associate professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice and a community development specialist. His expertise is in rural economic development and addressing health disparities. He will contribute his skills in community sociology and asset-based community development.

Ms. Helen Rosemond-Saunders, a veteran educator, graduated from Blue Ridge High School in 1963 and South Carolina State College in 1967. She returned to Blue Ridge High School as home economics teacher until its closing in 1969. In August of 1969, she was employed as home economics teacher at Seneca Junior High School and transferred to Seneca High School in 1975, where she remained until her retirement in 2005. She is an advocate for the community and is involved in many organizations. She serves as secretary of the Blue Ridge Community Center Board. She is a member of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Westminster, SC. She is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to her children and daughter and caretaker for her 93-year-old mother.

Dr. Curtis D. White Sr. currently serves as coordinator of the Pathfinder Program and faculty development and diversity coordinator in the Division of Inclusion ad Equity at Clemson University. He spent 22 years as a professor of agricultural education in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences. Dr. White is a founding board member of the Blue Ridge Community Center and has been very instrumental in working with the Oconee School District in obtaining ownership of the former Blue Ridge High School property for use as the Blue Ridge Community Center. This process took approximately two years to come to fruition as well as obtaining the 501(c)3 status.

Dr. White received his B.S. degree in agricultural education from Clemson University and his M.S. in extension education and Ph.D. in agricultural education from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He was hired by the Agricultural Education Department at Clemson in 1989, where he taught until he retired in December 2010 but continued to teach until May 2011. He was heavily involved in the teaching, research and service components of the department.

Dr. White attends Ebenezer Baptist Church in Seneca, where he serves as a deacon and is heavily involved in the youth ministry. He works with a staff of six other individuals that created an active youth group which has been active for the past 26 years. He is a life member of the Oconee branch of the NAACP, where he has served as treasurer since 2007. He became a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. in November 1977 and is currently a life member. Dr. White still serve as the campus advisor to the undergraduate chapter of the fraternity, Chi Zeta Chapter, and a proud member of the graduate chapter, Kappa Gamma Gamma.

Ms. Cecelia W. McWhorter is founding board treasurer of the Blue Ridge Community Center. She graduated from junior college in Rock Hill with a degree in business education, and she retired in 1994 from Clemson University as a tape librarian in the Computer Center. She is a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Seneca.

Ms. Martha Wright is a founding board member of the Blue Ridge Community Center. She graduated from Blue Ridge High School in 1962 and graduated from business school in Nashville, Tenn., in 1964. She was employed by Bellsouth/AT&T in Nashville, Tenn., for 25 years and retired as business marketing instructor in 1989. She returned home to Walhalla in 1990 and was hired by Oconee County in 1992, working in 911 addressing, building codes and mapping, and serving as a GIS technician. After retiring in 2005, she worked as temp employee in voter registration for about 10 years, and she served on many city and county boards including the Red Cross disaster team and Keep Oconee Beautiful. She was elected to Walhalla City Council as the first black council member in 1995 and served one term. She is currently a member of the City of Walhalla Diversity and Inclusion Committee as well as church secretary and trustee at Double Springs Baptist Church in Walhalla.

Willie R. Jenkins Sr. is assistant treasurer and serves on the Board of Directors at Blue Ridge Community Center (BRCC). He is a 1961 graduate of Blue Ridge High School, and he received a bachelor's degree in biology and general science with a minor in chemistry from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., and a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Clemson University. He worked 32 years for Oconee and Pickens County school districts. He and his wife, Kathy, have four children: Paula, Cassandra, Arlisha and Willie Jr.; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Willie Washington is vice chair of the Blue Ridge Community Center. He worked at Duke Energy Company at the Oconee Nuclear Station for over 37.5 years in various positions before retiring in 2015 as a senior information technology business consultant. He served on various user groups to help improve the development and use of work management systems and software used across the nuclear industry, and worked on the integration of information technology hardware and software into business processes for work planning, scheduling, maintenance and management execution. He held the lead role for the oversight of designing and the development of business intelligence reports and applications used across the nuclear enterprise by users and managers.

He currently volunteers for several nonprofit organizations, including service as a founding board member of the Blue Ridge Community Center. He was awarded the Order Of The Silver Crescent from the governor of the state of South Carolina in 2019.

He holds associate degrees in electronic and electrical engineering technology from Midlands Technical College, a bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in management science from Limestone College, and a master's degree in human resource development from Clemson University.

He attends the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Westminster, S.C., where he serves as a senior adult Sunday school teacher, deacon, past president of the church Brotherhood Club, former Bible Study facilitator, and other roles. He is a life member of the Oconee branch of the NAACP, where he serves as vice president. Additionally, he volunteers as a juvenile arbitrator with the 10^th Judicial Circuit of Anderson to provide assistance to juvenile offenders who have little or no prior criminal history. This program is used as an alternative to having these offenders appear before a court room judge.