The purpose of the stewardship council is to oversee policy development and programs related to stewardship of the Appalachian Trail and surrounding lands.  The council advises ATC’s conservation program on overall strategic direction and recommends policy to the board of directors for consideration. The council serves as the interface among the regional partnership committees, Trail clubs, ATC staff, agency partners, and the board of directors.

ATC Stewardship Council 2009-2011

Hawk Metheny, of Hartford, Vermont, has served on the ATC Board since 2003 and has chaired the Stewardship Council since 2005. As backcountry management specialist for the Appalachian Mountain Club, he brings professional trail and resource-management training and expertise to the Board. He was instrumental in developing AMC's group-outreach program to improve overnight-site management along the A.T. in the White Mountains. He is experienced in trail maintenance and on-trail education and is the coordinator of AMC’s Leave No Trace program and an instructor of Leave No Trace master courses. He is involved in land conservation along the A.T. and has been trained by The Climate Project for presentations on climate change. Metheny has thru-hiked the A.T., the John Muir Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail, and section-hiked the Long Trail.

Pete Antos-Ketcham, of Starksboro, Vermont, is employed as director of stewardship and facilities manager for the Green Mountain Club. Antos-Ketcham has extensive experience in visitor education and trail and overnight-site management along the Appalachian Trail and Long Trail in Vermont and New Hampshire. He is a Leave No Trace Master and is the principal author of ATC's comprehensive Backcountry Sanitation Manual.

Brent Bailey, of Morgantown, West Virginia, is director of the Appalachia Program for The Mountain Institute, where he oversees education, environment, and community-development projects designed to sustain mountain environments and cultures. He has more than 20 years of experience in forestry, natural-resource management, environmental education and local community development. Prior to joining TMI in 2004, Bailey was a senior technical director for Conservation International, managing biodiversity projects in Latin America and West Africa.

Lenny Bernstein, of Asheville, North Carolina, is a principal author of the United Nation's 4th Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Global Climate Change. Prior to his appointment to the stewardship council, he served as an advisor to the council and on its climate change and energy subcommittee. He is an active member and past president of the Carolina Mountain Club. He represents CMC on the Southern regional partnership committee and is the RPC representative on the council. Bernstein has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and teaches courses on climate change and energy at the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s College for Seniors, a noncredit, life-long learning program. He has been a Trail maintainer for 20 years and is a life member of ATC.

Elizabeth Crisfield, of State College, Pennsylvania, is a graduate fellow at Pennsylvania State University. Her doctoral dissertation is entitled “Climate Change and Appalachian Forest Composition and Fire Regimes.” She has taught physics at both the college and high school level and, from 2000–2005, held positions with the Everglades National Park, first as a hydrologist and then as a water rights negotiator. Crisfield coproduced The Appalachian Trail MEGA-Transect report for ATC and has been a volunteer presenter for The Climate Project. She holds a B.S. in physics from James Madison University and an M.S. in agronomy from the University of Georgia.

Brian Fitzgerald, of South Duxbury, Vermont, was first elected to ATC's board in 1991 and chaired it from 2001–2007. Before becoming chair, he headed the Trail and land management committee and served as New England regional vice chair. He led the organization during the strategic-planning effort and implementation of the 2003 strategic plan. He was awarded honorary membership to ATC in 2005. Fitzgerald is an ecologist with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.

Bruce Grant, of Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, served on the ATC board from 2003 to 2005. He is the New England regional partnership committee representative on the stewardship council. A member of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club since 1991, he currently serves on its board of directors and on the Trail crew, finance, and campsite committees. He maintains the Cloud Pond shelter and side trail and assists with the MATC Web database. Grant is self employed and owns CMTI, a computer business providing consulting, networking, and maintenance services to clients in central Maine, including Baxter State Park and the town of Dover-Foxcroft. He has served on the town’s budget committee for more than 12 years and has been involved with local citizen initiatives to promote the preservation of large, contiguous, forested tracts in Maine.

Gene Grayson, of Somers, Connecticut, is vice chair of the Appalachian Mountain Club's Connecticut Chapter and treasurer of the Trails Committee, which maintains the A.T. in Connecticut. He is an active hike leader and participates on work parties on the A.T. as well as on blue-blazed trails in state forests and parks. Grayson also leads hikes and work parties for inner-city youth and mentally challenged young adults and coaches soccer for mentally and physically challenged children.

Kris Hoellen, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is director of the Conservation Fund's Conservation Leadership Network, founded to bring corporate and community leaders together to forge conservation solutions that benefit both business and the environment. She is responsible for the Fund’s courses, events, and partnership building programs, and serves as a lead instructor for courses on balancing nature and commerce and on using green infrastructure for strategic conservation planning. She has a bachelor's degree from Emory University and a master's degree in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University.

Chris Kaldahl, of Arlington, Virginia, is a National Board-certified science teacher currently teaching high school physics. He has led professional development workshops to improve math and science education by training teachers to implement various educational technologies in the classroom. He is a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and has worked as a Trail maintainer. He previously worked as a backcountry caretaker for the Appalachian Mountain Club, where he also conducted an inventory of illegal campsites along the Trail in the White Mountain National Forest. Kaldahl wrote the first edition of AMC’s “Thru-Hikers Guide to the Whites” to educate A.T. hikers on camping rules and regulations in the forest. A 1994 A.T. thru-hiker, he earned a bachelors degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech and a masters degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi.

Jonah Keane, of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, has worked for the Student Conservation Association since 2004 and is currently the director of SCA Massachusetts. Prior to that, he served with the Peace Corps in Bolivia, first as an environmental educator and then as a volunteer coordinator. He later became a Peace Corps recruiter in Syracuse, New York. Keane holds a bachelors degree in environmental sciences from the University of Vermont and a masters in forest ecosystem science from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Ned Kuhns, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, chair of the Virginia regional partnership committee, represents the Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club on the RPC and is the RPC representative on the stewardship council. A member of TATC since 1991, he has served as president, vice president, hikemaster, and counselor. He is an active A.T. maintainer and a section leader for the Mau-Har side trail. He has organized and moderated ATC’s Southern partnership meetings, served as a hike leader at various biennial conferences and is chair of the 2011 ATC biennial conference. An ATC life member, he thru-hiked the Trail in 2003. Kuhns is a retired U.S. Navy Supply Corps officer and completed a second career in private industry. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and received an MBA from Stanford University. 

Ben Lawhon, of Lyons, Colorado, a natural resources management graduate of the University of Tennessee, joined the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics in 2001, where he serves as the education director. His responsibilities include curriculum development, managing national education and training programs, working on international initiatives, and coordinating general outreach efforts. From 1997–2001 he was an associate regional representative in ATC's Asheville office, where he was responsible for open-areas management, volunteer training, and oversight of regional ridgerunner/caretaker programs and Trail crews. He also researched and developed strategies for sanitation at overnight sites. Lawhon has worked as an American Canoe Association whitewater-kayak and swift-water rescue instructor and is an avid outdoor enthusiast.

Jeff Marion, of Blacksburg, Virginia, is a recreation ecologist conducting research to identify, monitor, manage, and rehabilitate recreational impacts on natural areas. He has extensive experience in public land-management planning and policy, with expertise in trail and campsite design. A founding member of the board of directors of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, Marion serves on its educational review committee. He is also a board member of the American Hiking Society.

Don Owen, of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, became the executive director of the Land Trust of Virginia in June 2008, following his retirement from the National Park Service. During his NPS career, he worked as a realty specialist for the Appalachian Trail land-acquisition program, spent eight years on special assignment to ATC as resource management coordinator, and served as environmental protection specialist with the NPS-Appalachian Trail Park Office for twelve years before retiring in 2008. Owen is a Trail maintainer with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club.

Barbara Wiemann, of Northampton, Pennsylvania, joined ATC in 1972. She is a life member and an A.T. thru-hiker. A member of the ATC board from 2003–2005, she has served on the stewardship council since 2007 and is the Mid-Atlantic regional partnership committee representative on the council. She serves as RPC secretary and is the Allentown Hiking Club’s alternate representative on the committee. An active member of AHC for more than 35 years, Wiemann has held several positions in the club, including president and secretary. She has been a member of the Keystone Trails Association for more than 35 years, serving as an officer, statewide trail-guide editor, and as newsletter editor since 2000.