Emory Morsberger of Lilburn will be honored by the Council for Quality Growth (CQG) as one of its two award recipients on November 15 at the Comcast Center at The Battery Atlanta. The second winner is John Shern of Atlanta. This will be the 13th annual Community Improvement District Recognition Reception.
Morsberger
The recognition acknowledges the work of CIDs in the Atlanta area, and presents two awards each year, one to a CID volunteer and one to a CID professional.
Morsberger will be 2022 CID Professional Excellence Award winner. He is executive director of the Gateway85 CID and president of the Tucker-Summit CID. Morsberger has a long career serving CIDs and other community revitalization efforts throughout the metro Atlanta region. He has founded three CIDs, including Gateway85 in 2005, where he served on its board before taking the helm as executive director in 2019. He also helped to create the Lilburn CID and the Tucker Summit CID, the latter of which he still serves as president of the Board. Morsberger led the redevelopment of downtown Lawrenceville, having earned him an induction to the Redevelopment Champion Hall of Fame at the 2021 Metro Atlanta Redevelopment Summit.
Al Edwards, 2022 chair of the CQG, says: “Having served as a former Georgia House representative, Morsberger also had a hand in the legislation passed for CID creation.” In addition to his current roles at the Gateway85 and Tucker Summit CIDs, Morsberger runs his own property management firm in Gwinnett and has recently spearheaded an effort among Atlanta-based Rotary clubs to provide relief and supplies to the war-torn Ukraine.
The 2022 recipient of the John Williams CID Leadership Award is John W. Shern, retired vice president of construction at The Home Depot. Shern currently serves as chairman of the Cumberland CID. Having been a part of its founding board in 1988, Shern is the longest serving board member of a CID in the state of Georgia. He was an integral part of the 1984 legislation that allowed for the creation of community improvement districts in Georgia, and his work has established the precedent for dozens of other CIDs across the state to follow.
Norcross Episcopal men plan “Civic Breakfast” every month
Men of Christ Episcopal Church in Norcross are starting a “Civic Breakfast,” to be held on the second Saturday morning of each month. The first of these breakfast meetings will be held November 12 at the church, according to Wes Quesenberry of the group.
Guest speaker at the first breakfast will be Jose Perez of Peachtree Corners, who is the Seventh Congressional District representative on the State of Georgia Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s colleges and universities. Mr. Perez, an economist and graduate of Florida Atlantic University, is retired president of Target Market Trends, an adviser to companies on strategy.
Mr. Perez was born in Cuba, but escaped communism when he was 12 years old. He has lived in Georgia since 1983.
Quesenberry says that the Civic Breakfast will be held in Webster Hall at the church, and will start with having coffee ready at 8 a.m., begin serving at 8:30 a.m. and end by 9:30. A traditional Southern breakfast will be served, including eggs, grits, bacon and biscuits.
A list of speakers in coming months from the overall Gwinnett community will be announced at the first breakfast. Men from the wider community are invited to take part in this civic program.
Here’s a clue that the holidays are close
A 34-foot Norway Spruce will be transported from the mountains of North Carolina to downtown Lawrenceville for Gwinnett County’s 35th annual Lighting of the Tree. The tree will be installed on the lawn of the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse on Wednesday, November 2. County staff will begin decorating the tree for the Lighting of the Tree ceremony, held on Thanksgiving Day. It will remain on display to the public throughout the holiday season.
New firm helping absorb oil spills locating in Norcross
Green Boom, a leading biodegradable, water-repellent, oil-only absorbents manufacturer, has relocated to the City of Norcross, adding four new jobs and $2 million in capital investment. As Green Boom moved into their 5,000-square-foot facility at 1010 Norcross Industrial Court, they also became an in-house manufacturer using custom-built equipment, which has decreased their production time by 400 percent.
Unloading the boom. Photo provided.
Green Boom co-Founder and CEO Sudhir Sharma says: “The logistical proximity to Interstate 85 and the ease of doing business with the City of Norcross, as well as the support from Partnership Gwinnett, makes this an obvious choice.”
After witnessing the devastating effect oil spills have on the environment, Sharma and Co-Founder Yulin Deng pursued a better and greener solution. For the past several decades, the oil spill industry has used polypropylene –– an oil-absorbing oil product –– that culminates in landfills. With an undergraduate and graduate background in biomaterials, Sharma researched and tested cost-comparative biodegradable materials, developing a natural absorbent cotton casing and hydrophobic filler that quickly absorbs oil while repelling water. In just two years, his idea reached fruition, disrupting the oil spill industry with the first-ever patent-pending eco-friendly oil spill prevention, response and remediation products in 2021.
As the industry’s leading manufacturer with no polypropylene, but 100 percent biomass hydrophobic oil-only absorbents, Green Boom uses sustainably sourced, renewable raw materials that help clean the environment while saving cleanup costs and time, including increasing renewable agricultural resources, reducing adverse environmental and health impacts and decreasing single-use plastic reliance.
Green Boom has earned certifications from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture, the Nigerian National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency and the German Technical Inspection Association. Sharma, a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Deng, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, have both published numerous peer-reviewed materials and won several awards for their research as well.
Norcross Mayor Craig Newton says: “We feel proud such an innovative eco-friendly company chose to relocate to the City of Norcross. As a certified Green Community, we appreciate our mutual dedication to imagining a brighter, greener world.”
Partnership Gwinnett Existing Industry Project Manager Andrew Hickey managed the project in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Metro Atlanta Chamber, Gwinnett County Government, City of Norcross and Electric Cities of Georgia.
PCOM holds two “White Coat” ceremonies for students
Two PCOM Georgia White Coat ceremonies took place October 21, at the Gas South Theatre. Close to 250 students crossed the stage to receive their white coats, a symbol of professionalism as they begin their journeys to becoming pharmacists and physicians. From left, Isabella Canut, Matheus Almeida, and Colby Cochran, all first year Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine students at PCOM Georgia, are seen outside of the Gas South Theater after receiving their white coats in a ceremony.
The School of Pharmacy classes of 2025 and 2026 participated in the traditional ceremony as faculty members, family and friends applauded the students. Shawn Spencer, dean and chief academic officer of the PCOM School of Pharmacy, said, “Pharmacy holds a special place in our society. We are truly known as the medication experts. We are stewards of safe and effective medication use, and we are among the nation’s most trusted professions year after year.”
The Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine class of 2026 were coated by their faculty members. Andrea Mann, dean and chief academic officer of the PCOM Georgia osteopathic medicine program, explained to the students and a theater full of their loved ones that the white coat is the “traditional symbol of a physician. It, along with our stethoscope and the iconic black bag, is our uniform. The white coat is a symbol of purity and hygiene. However,” she added, “the white coat is merely an article of clothing. It is the doctor inside the coat that really matters.”
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