Military Growth Task Force Staff

Mark Sutherland, Executive Director

Mark Sutherland has been the Executive Director of the Military Growth Task Force since October 2009. Prior to joining the task force, he served as the Program Director for Encroachment Control Planning with Marstel-Day, LLC. In that role, he provided a diverse portfolio of services to the Defense Department that centered on improving the relationships between military installations and their surrounding communities through the implementation of joint action plans. Additionally, he led the planning effort for the formation of the task force in 2007 and oversaw the development of the Regional Growth Management Plan in 2009.

Mr. Sutherland has extensive military and private sector experience in the fields of strategic planning, studies and analysis and real estate development. His business experience includes more than 20 years as a Commercial General Contractor and Real Estate Developer. Concurrent with his business career, Mr. Sutherland’s military career spanned 32 years of both active and reserve service in the U.S. Marine Corps. He retired as a Colonel in 2009. Mr. Sutherland holds a BS degree in Government from Florida State University and a MS degree in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College in Carlisle, PA. Mark has two grown children.

Carron Day, Senior Regional Planner

Carron Day has been the Senior Regional Planner of the Military Growth Task Force since August 2010. Possessing a strong foundation in economics and a masters degree in city and regional planning, she has 30 years of planning experience encompassing both private and public sectors, with most of it coming in Florida’s coastal and agricultural communities. As a hands-on planner, she has authored numerous comprehensive planning sections and zoning ordinances, led many residential and large-scale mixed use projects, completed strategic planning work for agricultural and other large landowners, impact studies for energy plants, roadway corridors, and high-voltage transmission line corridors. All of these projects involved extensive community outreach and public meetings. Carron began working closely with many of the task force's delegates months before their first meeting.

Loraine Carbone, Administrative Services

Loraine Carbone has been the Administrative Services Coordinator for the Military Growth Task Force since June 2009. Prior to joining the task force, she was a small business owner for Carbone Construction, Incorporated, a regional provider of sunrooms and other high-end, innovative home products, based in Sneads Ferry, NC. Loraine worked in municipal government for nine years as a Certified Town Clerk and as an Interim Town Manager for North Topsail Beach, NC. Prior to government service, Loraine worked as a Legal Assistant with Gaylor, Edwards & Vatcher in Jacksonville, NC. She studied English and Communications at Eastern Connecticut State University and Campbell University.

Loraine and her family moved to eastern North Carolina from Connecticut in 1994. Since her arrival, she has been active in her community having served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Topsail Island Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Kiwanis Club, and as an elder of the Sneads Ferry Presbyterian Church. Loraine is married with two grown children and four grandchildren.

George Miller, Food & Fuels Program Manager

George Miller has served as a consultant to NC Eastern Region’s Military Growth Task Force since August 2010 as the Program Manager for Food & Fuel initiatives. In that capacity, he has been responsible for coordinating activities between agricultural, military, government and industry stakeholders engaged in developing regionally produced biofuels and creating the groundwork for a regional food network. The ends of these pursuits have been to exploit the confluence of several strategic initiatives for the greater good of the Eastern Region. Among these initiatives are: the preservation of working lands through adding value to the regional agricultural product – and thereby sustaining the military’s ability to conduct low-level aviation training in the region; to stimulate interest in and lay the groundwork for a robust and viable biofuels industry; to assist the Marine Corps in meeting its renewable fuels mandates; to capitalize on the military’s emerging preference to “buy local,” and ultimately to create jobs by bringing defense contracts to our region.

Prior to joining the task force, he served in Afghanistan as the Director of Operations for Agility Logistics, a global logistics firm. During this challenging assignment, George spearheaded the company’s entry into the region, assembled and trained a local staff, established key company infrastructure in the country, established information and physical security, developed a subcontractor network, and laid the foundation for the reintegration of repatriated Afghan personnel into the work force. In addition to his success in Afghanistan, he developed project plans for logistics support operations in Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Iraq and several countries in Africa.

Mr. Miller served as a Marine Infantry Officer for 12 years, including combat duty during the Persian Gulf War. In addition to his logistics and military experience, he was a state-certified Building Contractor in Florida where he owned a custom home building company for 15 years. George has a BS in Political Science from the U.S. Naval Academy and is a Project Management Institute Certified Project Management Professional (PMP). George is married and has three grown children.