Coastal Resilience Panel Bios

Ben McFarlane is a Senior Regional Planner for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. Mr. McFarlane has been with the HRPDC for over ten years, working primarily on the Commission’s coastal resources management efforts. He is the lead planner for the Commission’s work on coastal resiliency, coastal zone management, and military-locality coordination and planning. He received a B.A. in Economics and a Master’s of Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a Certified Floodplain Manager.

Casey Shaw has worked with the Elizabeth River Project since 2014 as Grassroots Coordinator, specializing in community outreach initiatives, including the coordination of RIVERFest, the annual outdoor environmental festival. As a certified Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional, Casey also designs and manages shoreline buffer projects for the River Star Homes program utilizing salt-tolerant, coastal Virginia native plants.

Casey is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, where she double majored in Government and Environmental Policy. As a Norfolk native, Casey grew up fishing and actively participates in the VIMS Game Fish Tagging Program.

William A. (Skip) Stiles, Jr. is executive director of Wetlands Watch, a statewide nonprofit environmental group based in Norfolk, VA.  Prior to his current position, starting in 1998, Mr. Stiles was an independent consultant, providing editorial and public policy services to clients such as:  the White House Office of Science Policy, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, RAND Corporation, and the National Academy of Sciences. Before that, Mr. Stiles served in a variety of senior staff positions during 22 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, working at the intersection of science, environment, and public policy. 

Kyle Spencer has been the Deputy Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Norfolk the last two years and has spent more than a decade working to make Norfolk a more resilient city as a consultant and as a technology leader with the City for six years.  Kyle’s primary focus is implementing the City’s Resilience Strategy by managing complex water management, environmental, urban planning, and smart cities projects.  While with the City, Kyle has been collaborating with regional partners on resilience innovations to support research projects with universities, and developing business solutions in the resilience sector by turning Norfolk into a coastal community laboratory.  Kyle is a certified GIS Professional, and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Geographic Science from James Madison University.