Leadership Structure

The Appalachian Trail is managed under a unique partnership between the public and private sectors that includes, among others, the National Park Service (NPS), the USDA Forest Service (USFS), an array of state agencies, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and 30 local Trail-maintaining clubs. The ATC's role in this partnership is critical.

More than 45 year-round employees, under the supervision of the executive director, are responsible for implementing the policies established by the ATC’s governing board of directors and handling the day-to-day activities of the organization. Four senior managers are responsible for program-area or support departments, including Conservation, Marketing and Communications, Development, and Administration & Finance.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s governing body is composed of 15 elected officers and directors who serve two-year terms, meeting four times a year at rotating locations along the Trail. ATC's executive director is also a member of this board. The board’s role ranges from oversight of finances and administration to setting policies related to ATC’s core mission; conservation policies are considered based on recommendations from the Stewardship Council. No Board positions are compensated beyond travel expenses.

Officers

Chair: J. Robert (Bob) Almand of Suwanee, Georgia. During a long career with Bank of America, Almand was a project manager specializing in change management following business restructuring. As a member of the board of managers since 1999, he has been heavily involved in strategic planning and implementation efforts. He has chaired the board's Publications Committee for four years. A past president of the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, he is president of the club-affiliated Len Foote Hike Inn, an avid hiker, and an active Trail maintainer with both the local club and regional Trail crews.

Vice Chair: Destry Jarvis of Hamilton, Virginia. Currently a conservation and recreation consultant, both with his own firm and with Booz Allen Hamilton, this 1995 biennial-meeting keynote speaker is involved in research, contracting, and policy development with a variety of federal agencies and national nonprofit conservation organizations. Jarvis has nonprofit management experience with the National Recreation & Park Association, Student Conservation Association, Conservation Fund, and National Parks Conservation Association. His government service from 1993 to 2001 included stints as senior advisor to the assistant secretary of the interior for fish, wildlife, and parks and assistant director of the National Park Service, responsible for external affairs. He has served on a variety of nonprofit boards.

Secretary: William L. (Bill) Plouffe of Freeport, Maine. During his 20 years of environmental-law practice, Plouffe has represented clients before federal and state natural-resource agencies and been instrumental in drafting and passing many of the state environmental laws in effect in Maine today. He specializes in land-use issues for municipalities, is active in civic affairs, and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. He serves as vice president of the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, has served on the board of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and is a long-standing member of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. His hiking credentials include membership in the New Hampshire and New England 4,000-Footer clubs.

Treasurer: Kennard R. (Ken) Honick of Sarasota, Florida. As a CPA and tax partner in an accounting firm, Honick has considerable experience with financial management and estate planning. He has advised ATC on planned giving, chaired the Board's Finance Committee for two years and the Membership and Development Committee for four years, and served as treasurer for six of his eight years on the board of mangers. He has been a strong advocate of ATC's strategic reorganization. He has section-hiked the A.T. once and is making progress on a second end-to-end hike.

Directors

Kara Ball of Reston, Virginia, is the special assistant to the president of the National Wildlife Federation who previously was executive director of the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship alongside the A.T. in northern Virginia and director of sustainable countryside programs at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

Goodloe E. (Geb) Byron, Jr., of Middletown, Maryland. Founder and president of Potomac Investment Services, Byron has extensive experience in investment banking, asset management, and capital generation for both private and not-for-profit ventures. He served on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail Advisory Committee in the 1980s and has served as an at-large member of the board of managers since late 2003. He has long-standing family ties to the A.T.: As members of Congress, both his parents were strong supporters of federal appropriations for A.T. land acquisition, and the bridge carrying the Trail across the Potomac river is named for his late father. He is a hiker, runner, and climber.

James E. Ditzel of Brunswick, Maine.  As vice president for sourcing at L.L. Bean, Inc., Ditzel currently manages 130 people in seven countries who secure inventory for the retail outfitter.  Athough this is his first experience serving on a non-profit board, Ditzel said he has a life long passion for the outdoors.  In 1994 he traveled to Antarctica; he has hiked all but three of New England's 4,000 footers and brings to the ATC, his extensive business experience.   

Jen Hunter of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. As vice president for leadership in the customer success department at Tomoye Corporation, Hunter works with a variety of corporations and government agencies in both the United States and Canada to strengthen organizational effectiveness and communication. She is a trained facilitator and works toward organizational change designed to deliver business results. She has a strong commitment to conservation and land preservation.

Charles Maynard, of Jonesborough, Tennessee, is the founder and first executive director of the Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and now director of camp and retreat ministries for the United Methodist Church in a region that runs from central Virginia to northern Georgia. He has hiked most of the A.T. in that region, published a children’s book on the Smokies, and also works as a professional storyteller.

Kevin (Hawk) Metheny of Gorham, New Hampshire. As backcountry management specialist for the Appalachian Mountain Club, Metheny, a member of the Board of Managers since 2003, brings professional trail- and resource-management training and expertise to the Board. He was instrumental in developing AMC's group-outreach program as part of the efforts to improve overnight-site management in the White Mountains. He is experienced in trail maintenance and on-trail education and is an instructor of Leave No Trace master courses. Metheny has thru-hiked the A.T., the John Muir Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail and section-hiked the Long Trail.

Roger L. Moore of Raleigh, North Carolina. An associate professor in the department of parks, recreation and tourism management at North Carolina State University, Moore's major research and scholarly interests lie in the areas of outdoor recreation and natural resources management. Specialized interests of this 1973 thru-hiker focus on outdoor recreation behavior, trails and greenways, partnerships, and volunteerism. He has been successful in seeking grants from a variety of agencies and private sources to support his university research and in publishing the results of those studies in respected journals. He has served on a variety of boards and advisory panels for outdoor recreation oriented organizations.

Robert G. (Bob) Stanton of Alexandria, Virginia. From 1997 to 2001, he served as the first African-American director of the National Park Service, with jurisdiction over 83 million acres of public lands, a work force of 20,000 employees, and a $2.3-billion budget, escorting the only president to visit the A.T., in April 1998. His directorship capped a career of more than 30 years with NPS, during which he also served eight years as director of the national capital region and made his first visit to ATC headquarters in Harpers Ferry. His work last year as a senior fellow on the recreation, parks, and tourism sciences faculty at Texas A&M University focused on increasing the involvement of youth and under-represented minority communities in conservation, historic preservation, and recreational activities.  Stanton is widely recognized for his ability to build effective relationships with diverse organizations. He is active in professional and civic affairs, serving on a variety of nonprofit boards.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Pierce Thompson of Ridgefield, Connecticut, is active in state and local politics and government. A Michigan native who earned an advertising degree from the University of Illinois, she formerly worked in sales and marketing for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan.

Hannah B. Quimby  of Portland, Maine. Quimby is a director of the Quimby Family Foundation and a territory manager /corporate trainer for Burt's Bees Inc., of Durham North Carolina, the natural personal-care products company founded by her mother, now a significant force in land preservation in Maine. A graduate of Prescott College in Arizona, with a degree in Human Development, she now services more than 250 accounts for Burt’s Bees in New England. Quimby is also a 1999 Appalachian Trail thru-hiker with the Trail name “Songbird.”

Clark Wright, Jr. of New Bern, North Carolina, has been an attorney in private practice except for three years in the environmental division of the state attorney general’s office, who led the successful effort for a special Appalachian Trail license plate in that state that has generated over $100,000 so far for Trail work.

Appalachian Trail Conservancy Senior Staff

David Startzell, Executive Director: A native of Washington, D.C., Mr. Startzell was named to his position of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in November 1986.

He has been a manager on the ATC staff since January 1978, when he was hired as director of Trail-management services. He became director of resource protection in December 1979 and was appointed associate director in February 1981, with a wide range of responsibilities in congressional liaison, public affairs, fund-raising, and building management.

Mr. Startzell also is involved with various trails and conservation-group coalitions, most recently serving as chair of the task force that produced Trails for All Americans, a report on national trails planning that was the centerpiece of the National Trails Agenda Project of the National Park Service and American Trails, with support from the America Hiking Society. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt presented him with the department's highest "civilian" honor, the Conservation Service Award, in 1995.

Mr. Startzell was graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. He earned a master's degree in planning from the University of Tennessee in 1976. While in graduate school in Knoxville, he worked as a planning consultant at the university's Technical Assistance Center, assistant to the state chapter of the American Institute of Planners legislative-affairs committee, and a planning consultant to the mayor's office. For the year prior to coming to ATC, Mr. Startzell was an assistant in the planning department of the city of Oxnard, California. He also serves on the boards of the American Hiking Society and the Partnership for the National Trails System.

Steve Paradis, Chief Operating Officer: Steve’s involvement with the A.T. dates back to a southbound thru-hike he completed over the winter of 92-93. Since then, he has volunteered as a corridor monitor and is currently the monitor coordinator for the Dartmouth Outing Club. He served on the ATC Board of Managers, Finance Committee, and Stewardship Council. He served briefly as an officer on the ALDHA board.

Coming to ATC from industry, Steve has held positions in R&D and product development in the paper industry as well as in production and global manufacturing operations with Hewlett-Packard. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T. and holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Stacey J. Marshall, Director of Finance and Administration: Stacey is a 1995 graduate of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, with a BSBA degree in Accounting. Her career in the non-profit industry began in 1997 at the American Farmland Trust in Washington, D.C. She went on to work for other respected nonprofit organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund and Project Hope, gaining invaluable experience before accepting the position of Controller at Appalachian Trail Conservancy in 2004. She was promoted to Director of Finance and Administration in 2008.

Royce Gibson, Director of Development: Royce is a 1990 graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. with a BA in Political Science. His career in the non-profit industry began at the American Institute for Cancer Research. He went on to gain extensive non-profit experience at Zero Population Growth, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Public Interest Data  (a service bureau for 50 leading social and environmental non-profits) before becoming Membership manager at ATC in 2005 and finally ATC's Director of Development in 2007.
Royce also served two terms as an At-Large member of the DC Democratic State Committee.