Rick Wood

Biography: Rick has a diverse background in city planning, community involvement, real estate development, plan implementation and land acquisition for public spaces. His diverse work experience unites the knowledge of how to create a vision for a community with the awareness of creating a vision that can be implemented. Rick has worked closely with both the public and private sectors developing and implementing plans. Working for The Trust for Public Land (TPL) for over 17 years, he has cast vision, designed parks and trails, raised capital, and managed construction. In 2008, TPL kicked off the conservation of a 100-acre threatened ridge in North Chattanooga - Stringer’s Ridge. TPL went on to design mountain bike and hiking trails on the ridge to become a beloved part of Chattanooga’s park system. Rick was also able to negotiate and close over 35 land acquisition deals for greenway development, assemble over 4000 acres along the Cumberland Trail near Cumberland Gap National Park. As of April 2017, Rick became a Partner at Chestnut Development, a commercial real estate development company focused in the southeast on office, medical office and retail properties. Rick has a Master of City Planning from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia (1993) and Bachelor of Science in Sociology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1990).