Joseph D. Clark, Dr.

Dr. Joseph D. Clark is Branch Chief of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Southern Appalachian Research Branch (SARB), located at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Clark holds an Adjunct Professor appointment in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries. SARB conducts hypothesis-driven environmental research focusing on Department of Interior issues in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere. Dr. Clark is a wildlife biologist and specializes in carnivore ecology, population dynamics, and habitat modeling. Dr. Clark served for 9 years as a Research Biologist (bear and furbearers) and then as Assistant Chief with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. As such, Dr. Clark has a unique perspective of wildlife resource management from both the practical as well as academic side. Dr. Clark has studied population dynamics and habitat use of black bears, Florida panthers, elk, and river otters across the Southeast.

Joseph P. Congleton

GSMCA Board member for 45 years and former President of the Association for 25 years. Graduate of McCallie School, Centre College and the University of Virgina Law School. Congleton was a Natural Resources and Corporate lawyer with Hunton and Williams, and was a founder of The Eastern Mineral Law Foundation, the eastern US leading Natural Resources legal research not for profit entity.. Congleton has spent many days hiking, and fishing and wild flowering in the GSMNP. As President of the Great Smoky Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Tennessee State Chairman of TU in the 1970s , Congleton led many TU activities in the state and in the Park, including stream restoration and fish management initiatives such as ending hatchery stocked fish in Park waters and the utilization of either NC or TN state licensure. Congleton was one of three signatories to the initial listing petition for the Snail Darter under the federal Endangered Species Act , and was actively involved in the litigation to stop TVA plans to flood the Little Tennessee River to create Tellico Lake. He was the only citizen/angler speaker invited to address the first Wild Trout Symposium in Yellowstone National Park in 1974. Congleton has served on the Board of the Tennessee Nature Conservancy since the mid 1970s and currently serves as an Emeritus Trustee.

David D. Dickey

Emeritus 

David is a longtime freelance writer for outdoor and travel magazines. He is a past president of Southeast Outdoor Press Association, and former reporter and feature writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel. He is a life member, former board member and publications chairman, of the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association.

David has been a board member of the Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Association since 1957, and vice president since 1996. He is also Park history chairman.

He assisted Carlos C. Campbell in putting together the book Birth of a National Park in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Tyler Congleton

Assistant Treasurer

As Managing Partner of Blackberry Farm Real Estate, LLC since 2010, Tyler oversees residential development and sales at Blackberry Farm & Blackberry Mountain, the acclaimed resorts in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Under Tyler’s leadership, Blackberry has intentionally developed limited areas of its large land holdings for private ownership, enabling thousands of acres to be placed in permanent conservation easement. Tyler holds a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill. In addition to serving on the Board of GSMCA, he serves or has served on Boards of Directors for the Knoxville Museum of Art, Sequoyah Elementary Foundation, Trout Unlimited and others. Tyler’s appreciation for GSMNP was planted at his family’s former cabin at Elkmont, where he experienced the far-reaching positive impacts GSMNP has on the lives of its visitors.

David A. Etnier, Dr.

Emeritus

David joined the Zoology Department at UT 1n 1965 after completing a BS in Fish and Wildlife Management and PhD in Zoology at the University of Minnesota. He continues to serve at UT as an Emeritus Professor, mostly spending his time doing research and writing papers on various aspects of aquatic biology, especially concerning the systematics of fishes and caddisflies of eastern North America. During his career he and his many students have been involved with numerous Park projects, including the fishes of the Park, large stream fish surveys for the Park, Brook Trout reintroductions in the Park, and the ATBI for the Park as a specialist in the insect order Trichoptera (the caddisflies). He and his wife Liz and their three grown children and four grandchildren continue to spend summers on their island on Lake Saganaga, just north of the wilderness, on the MN/ON border. While David mostly does research in the Park, wife Liz, author of a recently published day-hikers guide to all the trails in the Park, really uses it. David has also served as a trustee on the Tennessee Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

Gerry Dinkins

Gerry was born and raised in Knox County, Tennessee and attended the University of Tennessee where he received degrees in in Wildlife and Fisheries Science (1980) and Ecology (1984). In 1981, he discovered the Smoky Madtom and federally endangered Yellowfin Madtom in Citico Creek within the Cherokee National Forest. The Smoky Madtom was believed extinct and thought to have been restricted to Abrams Creek within the GSMNP. His research on freshwater fishes led him to an interest in freshwater mussels and snails, and he is now the curator of natural history and malacology at the University of Tennessee’s McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture. Gerry has conducted scientific research across the U.S., and is passionate about protecting the aquatic biodiversity in the southern Appalachians. He frequently works with National Park Service researchers and managers in the GSMNP, Obed Wild and Scenic River, and Big South Fork National Recreation area and is called upon for his knowledge and expertise with freshwater mollusks.

Edgar Faust

Assistant Secretary

Edgar Faust is a managing partner of Emory River Land Company, a privately held timber company. He holds a B.S. Degree from the University of Tennessee. Currently he is on the University of Tennessee Advisory Board of both Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, and Forest Research and Education Center. He has also been a trustee for the Nature Conservancy for twelve years. Edgar became a director of GSMCA 23 years ago and has been the assistant secretary for the last 18 years. He became involved after being asked to become a member and was very interested in joining since he had spent a great amount of time in the Park since early childhood.

Hugh Faust

Hugh Faust is a biologist for Dinkins Biological Consulting. He has worked in 18 states and four continents providing expertise on surveys for big cats, ungulates, insects, trees, birds, mussels, and fish. Hugh also manages Emory River Land Company, a privately held timber company, in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee.

When Hugh is not rambling around the rivers and mountains of Tennessee, you can find him exploring the jungles of eastern Honduras.

E. Bruce Foster, Jr.

Bruce Foster, is a lifelong resident of Knoxville, and lifelong user of and visitor to the trails, woods, streams and campgrounds of the Smokies. He is an attorney, practicing in Knoxville; and presently the vice president of the GSMCA and member of its executive committee.

Bruce was invited to membership on the board of the GSMCA on June 14, 1978, and has served continuously since. He gladly accepted the opportunity to serve the Park through this Association, and to become acquainted with such legendary figures as Carlos Campbell, Jim Tanner, Jack Sharp, Mike Pelton, and Jake Johnston, all of whom were active in the Association at the time.

Dr. Ralph Harvey

President

Dr. Ralph Harvey works as a consultant in veterinary medicine and industry. He is Chair of the Veterinary Advisory Board for the BioTraceIT Corporation, with a focus on the objective assessment of pain. He retired from the faculty of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in 2018, where he taught anesthesia, pain management, and related topics for 33 years. He has received the Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association, the UTCVM Brandy Memorial Award, and the UTCVM 2011 Distinguished Alumni Non-Practice-Career Award. In addition to service on the Board of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association, Dr. Harvey enjoys working as a member of the Boards of Directors for the Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley, and the Knoxville Veterinary Medicine Association.

Paul Hassell

Though you might see his signature in the corner of a photograph of a black bear cub in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Paul Hassell isn’t strictly a photographer. Paul is in the light business.

An entrepreneur since the age of fifteen, a lover of solitude, and a loyal friend, Paul defies convention at every turn. You won’t walk away from a conversation with him thinking how little you know about the nature of visible light. You’ll walk away with the sense that Paul is doing what he was created to do. This at-home-ness in himself and his craft becomes a kind of permission for others to find their vocations and live them.

In his words: “I want to live a life that’s open and honest. If I’m consistent, then my photography will speak this same language.”

Paul found what makes him tick and organized his life around that calling. He designed his own major at The University of TN: Freelance Photography and Writing for the Natural Environment. That’s a mouthful. He’s a member of North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) and Southern Appalachian Nature Photographers (SANP), but the credentials matter less to him than sharing the profound experience. He points the way to a bigger truth and deeper reality.

Paul grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee and married his best friend Nora in 2011. They moved several miles up the river to the comfortable town of Kodak. Their home along the French Broad River has become their base camp.

Paul has been published in National Parks Magazine, Time-Life, Nature’s Best, National Wildlife, and National Geographic books.

Sara Hedstrom Pinnell, PLA, ASLA

Sara Hedstrom Pinnell is Founder and President of Knoxville-based firm Hedstrom Landscape Architecture. After graduating from Temple University, she began her career in Philadelphia and then practiced in Boston before making Knoxville her home. She opened Hedstrom in 2007 and has developed a diverse professional practice serving a broad base of commercial, municipal, and residential clients.

Sara’s love of nature and work with natural systems led to her involvement with the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association in 2014. As an active community participant, Sara has also served on the City of Knoxville Public Arts Committee and as a board member for the Knoxville Utilities Board, Knoxville YWCA, Beck Cultural Exchange Center, and East Tennessee Community Design Center, among others.

Paul James

Originally from England, Paul has lived in the US since 1996. He has previously worked for Cooperative for Assistance & Relief Everywhere (CARE) in Atlanta and New York, served as the Executive Director of Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville for 12 years, and is currently the Director of Publishing and Development for the Knoxville History Project. He has a particular fascination for the history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and has given talks and written articles on early Knoxville explorers and naturalists of the Smokies, including Harry Ijams, Jim Thompson, Paul Adams, Brockway Crouch, and others. He has written articles for the Tennessee Conservationist, Smokies Life, and West Knoxville Lifestyle magazines. Paul also serves on the University of Tennessee Library Society Advisory Board and Blount Mansion.

Tim Line

Tim Line was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. His love for the mountains and the national park began at an early age when he was introduced to the Smokies by his father, who took him on many day hikes and overnight camping trips.  After graduating with a marketing degree from the University of Tennessee in 1975, he completed a long term goal of a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. The following year he decided he wanted to stay in the mountains a while longer and work a season for Stokely Hospitality Inc. as a crew member at LeConte Lodge, before settling down to a “real job”.  Forty-one years later he retired from the lodge after deciding that LeConte was, after all, his “real job.”

During his first year at the lodge he met his future wife Lisa. The lifestyle suited them both, so they decided to make a career of it. After managing the lodge for many years, he managed an additional backcountry lodge concession, Charit Creek Lodge, in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.  He eventually became a limited partner in the operation.

Tim is still involved as a limited partner, and is currently very much enjoying retirement, visiting the grandkids, gardening, and catching up on projects around his property that were neglected for many years. He and Lisa live in Wears Valley in Sevier County.

Michael R. Pelton, Dr.

Michael Pelton is Professor Emeritus, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee. Mike’s first hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park was in 1948; he spent much of his youth hiking and camping in the Park. As a UT undergrad (1958-1962), he worked for Department of Botany on studies in the Park and at ORNL. After receiving his MS and PhD in Wildlife Science at UGa (1968), he returned to UT as a faculty member. Mike and his grad students completed over 50 research projects on 10 species of mammals in the Park; 32 projects were on black bears. For over 25 years, Mike taught classes for the Great Smoky Mountains Field School. He has been a member of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association since 1978 and has served as chairman of the Campbell and Tanner Fellowship Committee. Mike has 4 grown sons scattered from Wyoming to Ireland. While Mike and his wife, Tamra Willis, live on their farm in Virginia, they continue to make regular trips to the Smokies to lead hikes and give presentations.

James roberson

Vice President

James Roberson is a commercial real estate consultant with NAI Knoxville assisting clients when they need to relocate, acquire investment properties or sell or lease commercial properties. James graduated from Clemson University with a BS degree in Wildlife Biology and a minor in Forest Resource Management. Following his graduation, James worked in Greenville, SC with Timberland Management & Sales as a forester and surveyor. Then, he worked in Cashiers, NC as a natural resource manager with the NC Land Trust.  James joined Great Smokey Mountains Conversation Association as a board member in 2010. James lives in Knoxville with his wife Catherine and his two children, William and Anna.

L. Caesar Stair, IV

Caesar is from Knoxville, and so has always loved the Park. He became a director of GSMCA in 2006. This year he was elected to serve on the Nominating Committee. His father is on the board and has been from some time, which is how Caesar became involved with this organization. He is also an attorney with the law firm of Bernstein, Stair & McAdams LLP.

Mary Kay Sullivan, Dr.

Mary Kay Sullivan is Professor Emerita of Management at Maryville College. She received the B.A. from the University of Arkansas, an M.A. from Bryn Mawr College, and the M.B.A and PhD from the University of Tennessee. Her teaching and research interests are finance, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. Among her publications is A Study Guide to Finance published by Prentice Hall. She is an avid Smoky Mountains hiker and birder who is also interested in geology and botany, with a special interest in native plants of Tennessee. She carries in her backpack a well-worn 1969 copy of Great Smoky Mountain Wildflowers by (Carlos) Campbell, Hutson and Sharp. She and her husband, Bill, have hiked Mt. Le Conte many times, sometimes encountering other GSMCA board members along the way. She has served on the board of the Nature Conservancy of Tennessee and has been the treasurer of the Foothills Land Conservancy.

Ken Wise

Secretary 

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh and completing an MBA at the University of Tennessee, Ken joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee Library where he is professor and founder of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project.  Ken has written extensively on the history of the Smokies and is author of Hiking Trails in the Great Smoky Mountains.  In 2016, he was recognized by the Great Smoky Mountains Association as being among the One Hundred Most Influential People in the History of the Smokies.

L. Caesar Stair, III

 Bio Coming Soon!