Sheltering Arms, Georgia’s longest-established and one of the largest nonprofit early childhood education providers, is pleased to announce the addition of four new members to its board of directors: Walter Appleby, Brian Holmes, Jackie Hopkins and Lizz Patrick.

“We are pleased to welcome these new leaders to our board,” said President and CEO Blythe Keeler Robinson. “They are highly regarded in their respective industries and will bring a wealth of expertise and passion for community to the table. We’re very happy to have them as we continue educating Atlanta’s youngest children and strengthening families.”

• Walter Appleby is vice president of Compliance and Ethics at Georgia-Pacific with over 23 years of industry experience. His primary responsibilities include overseeing the compliance and ethics program for Building Products, which includes Georgia-Pacific’s Code of Conduct, and key commercial areas like antitrust, anticorruption, careful communications, cybersecurity and respectful workplace. Walter also manages the strategic deployment of education and training across the Building Products businesses, capabilities and manufacturing locations.

• Brian Holmes is a partner at Dentons. He focuses his practice in the area of commercial real estate transactions. He represents institutional lenders in a broad range of secured and unsecured lending transactions to real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other real estate companies. Brian has extensive experience representing lead lenders and agents in large syndicated credit facilities. His practice also includes working with lenders providing construction financing for mixed-use, multi-family, hospitality and other types of real estate developments. Brian also regularly advises clients on the acquisition and disposition of commercial real estate properties, including apartments, office buildings, industrial buildings and retail shopping centers.

• Jackie Hopkins is general manager of Edelman. She oversees the Southeast region leading client strategy, talent, and business operations in Atlanta. She drives year-over-year growth

strategy, building important local and national client base, and leverages expertise in integrated marketing, brand communications, and creative strategy to develop talent, serve leading, marquee clients and expand portfolio of work. She also advances Edelman's presence across digital marketing, communications marketing and advisory services.

• Lizz Patrick is chief client officer and founder of Patrick Law Group. During her 31-year career, she prepared and negotiated thousands of construction, logistics, procurement and other commercial contracts. Ms. Patrick is well known for her deep knowledge and experience in construction and development, and is recognized for her experience with drafting and negotiating design, construction, and procurement contracts for a wide variety of national and international projects.

Returning board members include:

• Leona Rapelye, UPS Capital Corporation - Chair

• Martha Taylor Greenway, Greenway Strategy Group LLC - Vice Chair

• John C. Pelick, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta - Treasurer

• Martha Abbott-Shim, Georgia State University Professor Emerita - Secretary

• Jeff Kammerer, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (retired) - Immediate Past Chair

• Leah Austin, Russell Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

• Kathy Bremer, BoardWalk Consulting

• Helen Cease, Truist

• Dan Goerlich, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

• Kevin Hamada, UPS

• Talbert Hill, Preschool Solutions, Inc.

• Michelle Horstemeyer, PulteGroup, Inc.

• Safia Icgoren, Urban Sprout Farms

• Lori Kaczynski, Graphic Packaging International, Inc.

• Nicole Layne, The Home Depot

• Andrew McConnell, Rented.com

• Ursula McNeill, IBM

• John Morabito, RBC Wealth Management

• Grant Rivera, Marietta City Schools

• Dr. Yasmin Tyler-Hill, Morehouse School of Medicine

• Kay Vermeulen, Carter’s

• Patrick Warren, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Sheltering Arms also wishes to thank its outgoing board members for their years of service, support and leadership to the organization: Chad Aron; Pandera Systems LLC; Ashley Brightwell, Alston & Bird LLP; Steve Floyd, August House Publishing; Jill MacRae, J MacRae Consulting Group; and Pegui Mariduena, Star Mar Consulting LLC.