Bio

Charles A. “Chuck” Flink is the Howard C. and Margaret G. Bissell Director of the Peter A. Pappas Real Estate Development Program at NC State University. He has served in this capacity since March 2020. Chuck is widely regarded as one of America’s leading greenway planners, having completed comprehensive greenway, trail and open space plans for more than 250 communities within 35 States. He has also completed consulting work in Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, Venezuela and St. Croix, USVI.

Chuck authored The Greenway Imperative: Connecting Communities and Landscapes for a Sustainable Future (University Press of Florida, March 2020). He also co-authored Greenways. A Guide to Planning, Design and Development, which received a 1994 Merit Award in Communications from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and is cited by the American Planning Association as “the best single reference” on greenway development. Chuck co-authored Trails for the Twenty First Century. Two of these books have been translated into Chinese and are used as textbooks at Peking University in Beijing and Shenzhen.

Chuck has been featured in prominent national and international publications including National Geographic, LA China, Landscape Architecture China, Business Journal, Private Clubs, Landscape Architecture, Walking, American Planning, Good Housekeeping, South- ern Living and American City County. In 1995, he received an Environmental Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration for the Swift Creek Recycled Greenway, the nation’s first greenway built from recycled trash. In 2001, he received a Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for his work on the Grand Canyon Greenway project.

Chuck has lectured on the creation of greenways at more than 200 national and international conferences. He holds a BEDLA and MLA from North Carolina State University’s College of Design, where he is Professor of Practice. He is Past President of the NC State Alumni Association, former member of the College of Design Leaders Council, and past chair of the University Board of Visitors (advisory to the Chancellor). He served three consecutive terms as Chairman of the Board for American Trails, Washington, DC. He served five terms as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the East Coast Greenway Alliance. He served as a Director for the 911 National Memorial Trail Alliance Board (2020-2025) and is currently a member of the North Carolina Architectural Foundation Board of Directors.

Chuck is a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows, 2006 Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Design at North Carolina State University, 2019 recipient of the Watauga Medal, the University’s highest non-academic honor, and 2023 recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects Albert LaGasse Medal, recognizing his notable contributions to the management and conservancy of natural resources and/or public landscapes during his 40-year career.