Ph.D. student mitigating SC floods with statewide tree-planting

A Columbia International University doctoral student is once again championing the planting of over three million trees across all 46 South Carolina counties.

Tom Mullikin, the chairman of the S.C. Floodwater Commission (SCFC), is leading the way as  the SCFC plans its second-annual planting of pine tree seeds and saplings, shooting for a new single-day record as part of the Commission’s flood-mitigation strategy.

Mullikin, who is enrolled in CIU’s Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership program, was tapped by Gov. Henry McMaster to lead the SCFC in 2018. On Earth Day 2021, Mullikin and the SCFC set the first record for the planting of over three million trees in a single day, but aims to top that on Arbor Day April 29, 2022.

Learn more about Mullikin’s work in an article published in The New Irmo News, “S.C. Floodwater Commission announces second-annual statewide tree-planting effort.”

Meanwhile, Mullikin is also providing dive training instruction to CIU professors and others who will assist him in construction of an artificial reef along South Carolina's coast. Read about in Midlandsbiz.  

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