Bios

Christopher D. Barton, Ph.D. is a Professor of Forest Hydrology and Watershed Management in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Kentucky. He is currently working in the areas of ecosystem restoration, reforestation and remediation primarily in streams, wetlands and mined lands. In addition, improved methods for preventing water quality degradation from land-use activities are being examined. Dr. Barton is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Phytoremediation and the International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment. Dr. Barton is also the founder of Green Forests Work, a program to improve the environment and economy of Appalachian mined landscapes. Through this program, nearly 3 million trees have been planted on mined lands in Appalachia and Australia and over 20,000 volunteers have participated. Dr. Barton was the recipient of several State and National awards including: Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection’s 2018 Environmental Excellence Award for Resource Caretaker; the American Society of Mining and Reclamation’s 2015 Researcher of the Year Award; and the 2014 United States Environmental Protection Agencies - Scientific and Technological Achievement Award. For more information visit: www.greenforestswork.org and www.facebook.com/Greenforestswork. barton@uky.edu

Betty J. Belanus holds an MA and PhD in Folklore from Indiana University. She has worked as a curator and education specialist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage since 1987. Her writing credits include a number of educational kits and resources for educators and students and the novel Seasonal. She is currently working on a proposed program for the 2020 Smithsonian Folklife Festival (plus web features, additional public programs, and publications) on the topic of American ginseng and the many people involved in its gathering, growing, trading, conservation and research. BelanusB@si.edu

Chris Bolgiano is a retired university librarian, a 100+ acre forest owner, and the author of several prize-winning books about forests and forestry. bolgiace@jmu.edu

Anna Maria Branduzzi is in her second year of the Forestry and Natural Resources Master’s program at the University of Kentucky. Originally from Pittsburgh, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. From 2014 to 2019 she worked for the U.S. Forest Service, on the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, doing native plant work, habitat improvement, mined land restoration, administrative work, and various partnership projects. Anna.Branduzzi@uky.edu

Chris Burney’s work looks at developing agroforestry production systems for West Virginia. A former farmer and grower, after apprenticing under nurserymen, Chris received his M.S. from the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry. He bases these designs for perennial production systems in soil science and utilizes USDA NRCS ecological site descriptions in advocating for restoration agriculture. While his work is based in the physical sciences, Chris brings a broad perspective and critical analysis of creating better land management through engagement with humanities and social science scholarship in the disciplines of political ecology, science and technology studies, and folklore. cwb0017@mix.wvu.edu

Tommy Cabe is Forest Resource Specialist, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians tommcabe@nc-cherokee.com

Ruby Daniels’ family history and educational background are deeply integrated into all aspects of her work at Sprouting Farms. Her educational background covers a range of topics including a degree in Theatre Design, and a masters degree in Therapeutic Herbalism. She is also a certified massage therapist and Reiki practitioner. At the farm, she focuses on growing Afrolachian heritage plants which her family has been growing and cooking for over a hundred years. - creasyjane@gmail.com

Kate Farley is a Ph.D. candidate in sociocultural anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She holds an undergraduate degree in environmental science from Harvard University and a master's degree in environmental management from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Her dissertation research is based in southern Appalachia and focuses on the marketing of ginseng and other woodland botanicals as "wild" commodities and the effect of this "wild" designation on the long-term sustainability of these species. She splits her time between St. Louis, MO and the Asheville, NC area. kbfarley@wustl.edu

Jennifer Franklin is a Professor in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee. She studies the effects of the environmental stresses on tree growth and function, and teaches tree biology and forest restoration. She completed her PhD at the University of Alberta in 2002, studying tree physiology on reclaimed oil sands, and has continued to work in the mine reclamation research. She has been a member of the ARRI science team since 2005.

Tom Hammett teaches courses in non-timber forest products, global natural resources, and world forestry and forest products. He heads Virginia Tech's program focused on non-timber forest products (NTFPs). HIs outreach and research is focused on niche markets, small forest-based enterprises and forest products certification. Dr. Hammett currently has projects focused on the utilization and marketing of NTFPs in the Appalachian region, as well as in Nepal, South and Central America, and Africa. - himal@vt.edu

Rosanne Healy is a mycologist at the University of Florida where she has been involved in the teaching program, collections management for the fungal herbarium, and research on cup fungi (including morels, truffles, saddle fungi, etc.) since 2015. She received her M.S. in Botany from Iowa State University in 2002, her PhD in Plant Science from the University of Minnesota (2013) and was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University (2013-2015). Her research focuses on fungal relationships and ecology. She is interested in how fungi have “moved” around the world in the past and the traits that have fostered their ability to adapt to climate change and new habitats rosanne.healy@gmail.com.

Rebecca Gayle Howell's most recent book is American Purgatory, selected by Don Share for Great Britain's 2016 Sexton Prize and named a must-read collection by Poetry London, The Millions, and the Courier-Journal. She is also the author of Render / An Apocalypse, which received wide acclaim, most notably by David L. Ulin for the Los Angeles Times who called it "remarkable." Howell's debut was as the translator of Amal al-Jubouri's Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation, shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award and selected by Library Journal as a best book of 2011. Among her other honors are fellowships from United States Artists, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Carson McCullers Center, as well as a Pushcart Prize. From 2017-2019 she served as the James Still Writer-in-Residence at Hindman Settlement School, where she founded Fireside Industries, an imprint of University Press of Kentucky charged with advancing Appalachian literature. Howell lives in Lexington where she is on faculty at the University of Kentucky's Lewis Honors College. Since 2014, she has served as Poetry Editor for Oxford American. rebeccagaylehowell@gmail.com

Folklorist Mary Hufford who grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Allegheny foothills, has worked over the past three decades in government, academic, and local community settings. As folklife specialist at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress (1982‐2002) she led regional team fieldwork projects in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the southern West Virginia coalfields. From 2002‐2012, she served on the graduate faculty of folklore and folklife at the University of Pennsylvania, directing the Center for Folklore and Ethnography from 2002 to 2008. As adjunct faculty with the Master’s Programs in Cultural Sustainability and Environmental Studies, she offers a summer seminar in Environmental Justice. A Guggenheim Fellow, she has published dozens of articles and reviews in both public and academic venues, including Orion Magazine, Gastronomica, the Journal of American Folklore, Southern Quarterly, Cahiers de Litterature Orale, Cornbread Nation, Social Identities, Western Folklore, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and the Proceedings of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. She is Associate Director of LiKEN. hufford@likenknowledge.org

Susan Leopold is an ethnobotanist and passionate defender of biodiversity. She is the Executive Director of United Plant Savers/ Center for Medicinal Plant Conservation [www.unitedplantsavers.org] and Director of the Sacred Seeds Project. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Botanical Dimensions, the Center for Sustainable Economy, and an advisory board member of American Botanical Council, Sustainable Herb Project and the AHPA Herb Research Foundation. She is an active member of the IUCN Medicinal Plant Specialist Group. She is a proud member of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia and the author of the children’s book Isabella’s Peppermint Flowers, teaching about Virginia’s botanical history. Susan organized and co-edited of the Ginseng and Forest Botanicals Symposium, held in Morgantown, WVA in 2017, and her passion as an ethnobotanist lies in documenting and encouraging reciprocal relationship between people and plants. susan@unitedplantsavers.org

George Ella Lyon has published award-winning books for readers of all ages, and her poem, “Where I’m From,” has been used as a model by teachers around the world. Recent titles include She Let Herself Go (poems) and the following picture books: “Which Side Are You On?” The Story of a Song, and All the Water in the World (both CCBC Choices), The Pirate of Kindergarten (Schneider Award) and You and Me and Home Sweet Home (Jane Addams Honor). Originally from the mountains of Kentucky, Lyon works as a freelance writer and teacher based in Lexington, where she lives with her husband, writer and musician Steve Lyon. They have two grown sons.

Luke Manget is currently an Assistant Professor of History at Dalton State College in Dalton, GA, having taught history at both the high school and college level for 14 years. He holds an MA from Western Carolina (2012) and a PhD from the University of Georgia (2017), where he studied environmental history, Appalachian History and Southern History under John Inscoe. His research on the history of root digging and herb gathering in Appalachia has been published in Environmental History, the Appalachian Journal, and Ohio Valley History. He is currently working on a book manuscript based on his dissertation, “Root Digging and Herb Gathering: The Rise and Decline of the Botanical Drug Trade in Southern Appalachia.” tmanget@daltonstate.edu

Rex Mann received a Bachelor of Science degree from North Carolina State University in 1967. He worked 42 years for the U.S. Forest Service, with duty stations in Montana, Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky. All of his assignments involved managing timber and wildlife resources, but the last twenty years of his career , he was heavily involved in managing large, wildland fires, primarily in the West. Rex founded the Kentucky Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation in 2001, and devotes his retirement to the restoration of this tree. Email: rexbmann@gmail.com

Kathryn Newfont (Professor of History, Univ. of KY and President of the Appalachian Studies Association) kathryn.newfont@uky.edu

Neil Pederson focuses on the dynamics and long-term development of forests, from tree to subcontinental scales, as they interact with climate and as trees interact amongst themselves.He also works on the natural history, charismatic megaflora, old-growth forests, and traits of trees and has a focus and expertise in mesic regions dominated by broadleaf species with diffuse porous wood structure. His larger research group is active in North America, Asia, and Europe, and 5-8 biomes (depending on how you split biomes). Engage him on Twitter or my blog, The Broadleaf Papers. neilpederson@fas.harvard.edu, or phone him at The Harvard Forest.

Karen Rignall is Assistant Professor in the Community and Economic Development Department in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the University of Kentucky. She specializes in: agri-food systems in the Middle East and North Africa, rural livelihoods and economic development, anthropology of rural life, land tenure and land rights movements, labor migration. Her international experience includes long-term field research in the sourtheastern oases of Morocco. She has community development experience in Morocco, Egypt, and West Africa. She has lived and worked in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. karen.rignall@uky.edu

Kenton Sena earned a B.A. in Biology from Asbury University, and an M.S. in Forestry and a Ph.D. in Integrated Plant and Soil Sciences from the University of Kentucky. He is currently a lecturer in the Lewis Honors College, University of Kentucky, where he teaches the honors foundations seminar (HON 101: Knowledge and Society), as well as courses in ecology and the environment. His research interests include forest ecology, especially restoration ecology on surface mined sites, environmental water quality, and environment in literature. kenton.sena@uky.edu

Lindsay Shade is originally from rural Arkansas, Lindsay is a member of the Department of Community and Leadership Development at the University of Kentucky. Her activist research has focused on extraction in West Virginia and Ecuador-- looking at how companies, lawyers, and regulatory agencies use opacity and law to sustain their hold on land. Recently, she has worked with a diverse collective in Central Appalachia to convene the Appalachian Land Study. We hope to build critical consciousness about the role of land in our lives and the possibilities to fight for justice.

Dr. Brian Strahm is an Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech. His research focuses on soils and biogeochemistry, with a specific interest in understanding the connections between environmental and land use change and the delivery of ecosystem services. brian.strahm@vt.edu

Betsy Taylor is a cultural anthropologist and Executive Director of the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN). Over the past 25 years, she has worked for community-driven development in Appalachia and South Asia -- seeking to integrate issues of health, agriculture, forestry, culture and environmental stewardship. In popular and scholarly platforms, she writes about environmental and social justice movements, democratic planning & participatory research, women's issues, the commons, democratic reclamation of academe / professions. She co-authored, with Herbert Reid, the book, Recovering the Commons: Democracy, Place, and Global Justice (University of Illinois Press, 2010). At the University of Kentucky, she served as Co‐Director of Environmental Studies, Research Director for the Appalachian Center and on the faculty of the Social Theory program. She was a research faculty member in the Appalachian Studies program at Virginia Tech. Many of her writings can be found on her website. director@likenknowledge.org

Luke Taylor-Ide combines academic interest in applied education with a parallel field-oriented approach to social change, having had extended, multi-year assignments in Afghanistan, India, and rural America. In Afghanistan he led in completing a rigorous community-based health survey, then shepherding its findings into new national health policy enabling women. In India he focused on studying the traditional socio-economic relationships of indigenous tribal groups, and addressing the impacts of modernization on sustainable living. As Regional Academic Director of Appalachian programs at Future. Edu, his present interests focus on the intersection of local agriculture economies, community-based preventive healthcare, and entrepreneurship. <luke@future.edu>

Jim Thompson is a Professor of Soil Science in the Division of Plant & Soil Sciences at West Virginia University. The focus of his teaching, research, and service is soil geography, with emphasis on making better soil maps and understanding how differences in soils affect land use management decisions. He currently teaches or co-teaches courses on soil judging, soil survey and land use, soil genesis and classification, pedology, forest soils, and applied wetlands ecology and management. Jim also serves as coach of the successful WVU Soils Team. Ongoing research efforts by Jim and his colleagues at WVU include developing techniques for enhancing soil maps via harmonization and disaggregation, and mapping forest restoration potential using ecological sites. Jim was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He received a B.S. in Agronomy from Penn State University in 1990, an M.A. in Geography from The Ohio State University in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Soil Science with a minor in Water Resources from the University of Minnesota in 1996. Prior to joining the faculty at WVU in 2004 he held faculty appointments at the University of Kentucky and North Carolina State University. <James.Thompson@mail.wvu.edu>