Cultural Heritage Resources Owner and Senior Associate, Rita D. Robinette, is an information architect specializing in helping organizations "Capitalize" on their nformaiton. She has significant experience developing economic, demographic, marketing and promotional materials and studies on communities, regions, and states. She has provided consulting services to Chambers of Commerce, Main Street Historic Districts, Educational Institutions, and Economic Development organizations. Rita is actively involved in Cultural Heritage Tourism and currently serves on her local community Cultural Heritage Tourism Council and developed a county Heritage Tourism Plan. She also has experience writing RFPs and grant applications for non-profits and government.

Other selected accomplishments include providing business solutions to major corporations, government, and non-profit organizations, including BellSouth, the Port of Charleston, Herman Miller Corp., and MCI Telecommunications; directing information systems and services and product development for a regional economic development agency which included co-designing and managing a resource information system profiling 23 counties and an award-winning regional web site with intranet/extranet capabilities serving the region; member of a multi-organizational regional transportation study providing market research data and GIS mapping services; wrote and produced an interactive segment on Total Quality Management (TQM); assimilating 250+ data sets to profile 95 counties; and assimilating information on available real estate located in 16 counties for the statewide multimedia presentation system at the Tennessee Economic Development Center.

Senior Associate, Jo Hickson, ASLA, is a land planner and landscape architect with a high level of experience working on greenways, parks, trails, and heritage area projects. She specializes in master planning, strategic planning and facilitation, grant writing, and fund raising. Her most recent fund raising efforts include writing successful grants to raise more than $3.5 million for planning and construction of Coastal Georgia Greenway (CGG) trails. She has identified a 150-mile continuous trail that will link South Carolina to Florida through coastal Georgia and proposed a $40 million construction budget ($10 million of which is for bridges).  Other related projects include organizing a steering committee with representatives from six counties and five non-profit organizations.  She has developed graphics and interpretive signage, project kiosks, a project video, and brochures.  She oversaw completion of a Market Study and Projected Economic Impact for the CGG that concludes that construction of the greenway will generate up to $15 million in regional business revenues per year. (Back to Top)

Selected Clients of Rita Robinette and Jo Hickson: Coastal GA Greenway, Southeast Watershed Forum, Blue Ridge Community College, Henderson County Education Foundation, Entrepreneurship New Ventures Institute, Henderson County Travel & Tourism, Bullington Center (Public Garden and Horticultural Education Center), The Mill Center for the Arts, Henderson County Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Hendersonville Inc., Polk County NC, Environmental and Conservation Organization, and Historic (Henderson County) Courthouse Corporation.