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Wyre "Herb" Platt, Ph.D.
Infrastructure Development and
Social Impact Analyst

10626 SW 12th Terrace @ Edgecliff
La Colina, Micanopy, Florida, U.S.A.

Telephone: +1 352 466-4184
Mobile: +1 352538-1943
Fax: +1 352 466-5080
E-mail: wyreplatt@bellsouth.net

• Private Sector Consultant with more than three decades of global multitasking experience in project management and project coordination for the public health sector, media production industries and civil and environmental engineering services.  Specialization in health impact assessments with particular emphases on water-borne diseases and parasitic infections and epidemiological surveillance.
  
  
• Location Scout and Manager for the film, television, and print media industries.
  
  
• Free-lance writer for magazines, theatrical venues, and technical publications for the last forty years. Recently registered and copyrighted an acclaimed treatment and screenplay. Frequent contributor to regionally-distributed magazines.

Education and Training

• Ph.D. 1995 Geography UNC at Chapel Hill
• MA 1974 Geography UCLA
• MA 1972 Latin American Studies UCLA
• BA 1969 Foreign Affairs & Economics  Assumption College
• 1968 Certificate in Castilian Spanish Literature University of Madrid

Professional Affiliations:

• American Public Health Association (APHA)
• Film Commission of Real Florida (FCRF)
• International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA)
• National Peace Corps Association (NPCA)
• Institute for Solar Living (ISL)
• Natural Hazards and Applications Information Center (NHAIC)

Languages

Professional Experience

SYNOPSIS OF FIELD CONSULTANT EXPERIENCE 1988 – Present

Sociocultural and Socioeconomic Components to Environmental Assessments

Homeport Environmental Impact Assessments, U.S. Navy, Pascagoula MS USA
Lakhra Environmental Assessment, Sind Province, Pakistan
Baltimore Gas & Electric Company Power Plant Expansion, USA
Guddu Thermal Power Expansion Project, Pakistan
Potomac Electric Power Company Ash Screening Study, USA
Sunkist Agricultural Labour Force Profiles, Ventura, CA USA
Seminole Electric Cooperative, Inc. Linear Facility Impact Study, Florida USA
USAID Bangladesh PL-480 Title II Project
ENRON Regional Impact Studies, Florida USA
Crescent Petroleum Hydrocracker Refinery, Pakistan
Frederic Harris, Ltd. Fuel Transport Routes in India
Jamaica Public Service Company Hunts Bay Power Plant Construction

Social & Economic Analyses

Cottage Industries in Rural Bangladesh, USAID
Rural Communities in the State of Bahia, Northeast Brazil, PAHO
Coffee Plantations in the Guatemalan Pacific Slope Region, UCLA/LTC, Madison, WI.
Agricultural Communities in the San Carlos Region, Costa Rica, USAID
Parasitismo: Illegal Land Occupance in Costa Rica, UCLA/IICA, Costa Rica

Cultural Resources Inventories

PEPCO. Proposed power plant on historic communities along Patuxent River, MD
Jacksonville Electric Authority. Pelotes Island Preserve, FL

Behavioral Studies of Freshwater Contact and Parasitic Infections

Onchocerciasis in the Guatemalan Pacific Slope Region, UCLA School of Public Health
Schistosomiasis and Agricultural Systems in Bahia, Brazil, US Peace Corps/Univ. Federal da Bahia

Health Care Utilization Studies

Migrant Labour Health Care Utilization, Newton Grove, NC, UNC/Chapel Hill
Elderly Primary Care Utilization in Rural Communities, North-Central Florida, UNC

Land-Use Planning

Land Development Regulations Reference Handbooks
Voluntary Annexations
Comprehensive Plan Reviews
Comprehensive Plan Amendments
Historic Preservation Guidelines
Expert Witness

Miscellaneous

• Substantial travel experience in Central America, Brazil, Western Europe, South Asia, and North America. Studied Spanish literature at University of Madrid, 1968.

• Exceptional talent for small-team coordination, field interviews and archival research.

• Developed an emergency preparedness plan for volcanic eruptions in Guatemala, 1971.

• Trained in schistosomiasis lab techniques at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 1975.

• Presented invited paper entitled, Human Schistosomiasis and Agricultural Systems in Brazil to Association of American Geographers Committee on Medical Geography and Health Care, 1975.

• Assisted in organizing a snook fishing cooperative in Ilheus, Bahia, Brazil, 1977.

• Co-founded International Health Forum at the University of North Carolina, 1982.

• Volunteer, North Carolina Memorial Hospital Emergency Ward, 1984. Worked on a master triage plan for a mass emergency event.

• Livestock and poultry small-scale management experience (hogs, chickens, geese and turkeys)

• Organized special session on Migration and Health for 1986 Meeting of Association of American Geographers.

• American History Teacher, P. K.Yonge High School, 1987.

• Proficient in basic parasitology lab techniques (diagnosis, quantification).

• Field photography, map and aerial photo interpretation, survey design and analysis, and basic GIS and cartography.

Publications

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Platt, H. M. 1972. Illegal land occupancy in Costa Rica: The Case of Parasitismo.
Unpublished Master’s Thesis in the Latin American Studies Center. UCLA Latin American Studies Center. 83pp.

Platt, H. M. 1974. Man and human onchocerciasis in the Guatemalan Pacific Slope Region. Unpublished Master’s Thesis in the Department of Geography. UCLA Department of Geography. 93pp.

Getz, L.L., P.C. Prather, and H.M. Platt. 1975. Schistosomiasis in South America. I. Current status in Brazil. The Biologist 57(4):143-165.

Getz, L.L., H.M. Platt, and P.C. Prather. 1977. Schistosomiasis in South America. III. An evaluation of its potential spread in Brazil. The Biologist 59(2):33-49.

Platt, H. M. 1979. The general hospital: An avenue for socio-epidemiological research in human schistosomiasis and other helminthiases in large urban areas of northeast Brazil. Social Science and Medicine 13(4):71-72.

Platt, H. M. 1984. The cultural ecology of religious pilgrimage in northeast Brazil: A research methodology. Pages 14-23 in Proceedings 25th International Geographical Union Symposium Geosante, Aug. 21-26, 1984, Montpellier, France.

Newman, J.R., L.C. Duever, and H.M. Platt. 1988. Resource Inventory of Pelotes Island. KBN Engineering and Applied Sciences, Inc., Gainesville, Florida. Report to Jacksonville Electric Authority.

Platt, H. M. 1986. Instructor’s manual for 3/E human geography: Culture, society, and space. (Authors: Harm J. de Blij and Peter O. Muller.) John Wiley & Sons, New York.  132 p.

Platt, H. M. 1990. Developers, Consultants Better Dig Archaeology. Consulting in Florida. Florida Environments, 4(4): p. 16.

Platt, H. M . and F.C. Thomas. 1991. Social Soundness Analysis: Programmatic Environmental Assessment of the USAID/Bangladesh Integrated Food for Development Program. KBN Engineering and Applied Sciences, Inc., and Tropical Research and Development, Inc. Gainesville, Florida.

Platt, H. M. 1992. Forthcoming EPA Location Standards for Hazardous Waste Facilities: Implications for the State of Florida RCRA Part B Program and Community Quality of Life Preservation. Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law Section Reporter, January/February, p. 13‑14.

Platt, H.M. 1995. Up and Down Wire Road: A Geographical Perspective on the Rural Challenges to Health Care Utilization Among the Elderly in Neighboring North Florida Communities. Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina.

Duever, L.C., H.M. Platt, G.L. Ellis, R. Denson and P.C. Gibbs. 1997. A Plan for the Restoration, Preservation and Interpretation of The Old Bellamy Road. A Portion of the St. Augustine to Pensacola Road at River Rise State Preserve. 276p plus appendices. Final Report.

Platt, H.M. 2004. Resurrecting the Heart of Florida. Ocala Magazine. Cityscape: Perspective, p.36-38.

Platt, H.M. 2005. Ocala- Horse Capital of the World. Roughing It Smoothly. A Quarterly Journal For Tiffin Motorhome Owners. Volume 2 Number 3, p 21-23.

Platt, H.M. & Harper, Paige. (forthcoming, 2006). Geopolitical Evolution of North America. Geopolitical Evolution Mapping Services.